- Steinway & Sons’ square piano # 550 (exhibition entry #1541) wins the Gold Medal of the American Institute Fair at the New York’s Crystal Palace, awarded by the judge Charles C. Bailey Seymour (a music critic of New York Times) and jurors W.H. Sage, Theodore Hagen (friend of the composer Robert Schumann in Germany and editor of The Musical Gazette in New York), and young pianist William Mason.
- The official statement of the American Institute Fair reads: “#1541 is the best. The exhibitor of this instrument has two other instruments of interest in the Fair. The present one (# 1541) & the two others in a less degree is characterized by purity of tone, elasticity of action and equality of scale. Gold Medal.” Steinway & Sons victory at the Crystal Palace Fair is a lot more prestigious than the first prize they have recently received in Washington, D.C., and it immediately boosts domestic and international sales of Steinway & Sons pianos.