The Heine Piano Company was established in San Francisco, California in about 1889. Heine started out being a large retailer of popular American piano brands, but quickly began selling pianos under their own name. Some of their instruments were actually manufactured under special contract by the Krell Piano Company. The firm built upright and baby grand pianos until about 1905 when they introduced player pianos into their product line. Heine pianos are rare on the East Coast, indicating that they were not widely distributed outside the western United States. The Heine Piano Company was out of business before the Great Depression.