What is the highest amount of money that you will be willing to fork out for a piano? Just Wednesday, the first ever Chinese style Steinway piano, Charm of Dragon-Steinway & Sons, was sold for a total of 6.9 million yuan, which is approximately SGD$1.3 million. The sales took place at the Guardian 2012 Autumn Auction in Beijing International Hotel.
So what exactly is so special about this piano that permits it to have such a heavy price tag? Well, this particular piano was actually designed and made to commemorate the Year of the Dragon this year. In fact, the design is a collaboration between the world’s top piano maker Steinway & Sons along with Tian Jiaqing, who is an ancient Chinese furniture expert. How then did the two manage to come to an agreement on the design? Steinway took the lead with regards to the design on the inside of the piano. As for the outside of the piano, the design reflects Chinese cultural elements. It is decorated with an ancient dragon symbol, which represents both China and Steinway due to the C and the S letters. Aside from that, there is also has a fan-shaped stand and a music stool designed based on an ancient Chinese style, along with elements of lacquer art, seal cutting and calligraphy.
According to John Patton, the President of Steinway Piano Shanghai, he stated that the buyer obtained a good investment from the sales of the piano. He also mentioned that the company is pleased with the auction result. The opening bid started at only 5 million yuan and gradually grew till it hit 6.9 million yuan. Steinway & Sons has an extremely long history of 159 years in the music industry. The company makes pianos in both Germany and the United States. They have also been operating in China for approximately 13 years already. So far, they have seen a growth of about sixteen percent every year during this period. With such good numbers and growth annually, they are now looking into plans to expand their operations in China. For the full story, you can check it out over here.
Here at Awesome Piano Singapore, we are aware that purchasing a piano is a long term commitment. We also realise that there are students who aren’t sure of this commitment too. Hence, we have put into place a Piano Rental scheme for students who are not yet ready to commit into purchasing a piano.