Harmonium, I think

Subject: Harmonium, I think
From: Thompson
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 11:42 AM

I have a large mahogany object with piano keys and carpet-covered pedals. It used to play, with a sort of organ-like sound, once upon a time - you kind of cycled along with the carpet-covered pedals - big flat things - while playing. But its lungs - oilcloth, I think - long since gave up. It's a beautiful thing, but I'd love to sell it to someone who'd actually use it. I've been variously told that it's a harmonium or an American organ.

Any idea what it could be, and how I could go about selling it? I'm in Ireland, by the way.

It's mahogany, I think, about three feet high and two-and-a-half deep and four feet wide (haven't measured it, that's a rough guide). The keys look like yellowed ivory, don't know about the black keys. Once there was faded red silk above the keys, but the moths must have got it.

There's no maker's name, but it has a sweet, churchy smell. It belonged to neighbours of my parents', who were decent Protestant people living in an eighteenth-century wattle-and-daub thatched cottage, now long gone.

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 11:47 AM

http://www.musiclink.co.uk/reedorgans/

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: IanC
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 11:48 AM

Yep, it's a harmonium.

Free reed instrument like a mouth organ. Often used in chapels (protestant) and in homes where people would get together and sing hymns.

Good working ones used to be given away free to a good owner round here less than 10 years ago. Ones with the bellows gone were often scrapped. Don't know whether they're worth anything in Eire.

:-)
Ian

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 11:49 AM

ebay

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: just john
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 11:55 AM

Our family used to call 'em pump organs. We had a couple when I was a kid.

If the innards are shot but the furniture part still looks good, you might find somebody (yeah, like on eBay) interested in installing an electronic keyboard instrument into it. OR you could convert it into something else entirely.

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: Thompson
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 12:04 PM

No, the innards aren't shot, it just needs someone with more dedication than myself ready to make a new set of bags with oilcloth, glue and needle-and-thread.

I wouldn't really like to think of an electronic organ being fitted into a perfectly innocent instrument with a nice sound of its own, though thank you for thinking of the idea, jj.

Hmm, suppose I'll have to wait for religious mania to spread across the Atlantic and it'll be worth millions.

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: open mike
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 01:40 PM

uk fix it shop for reed organs http://www.musiclink.co.uk/reedorgans/
often used in India too--
http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/harmonium.html

i have seen a Finnish band use one....a larger model like pump
organ size.

this place is in texas http://www.buckinghammusic.com/harmonium/harmonium.html

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 01:52 PM

hi.. email the guy at http://www.musiclink.co.uk/reedorgans/

[e-mail]

[cant find his phone no on site any more..]


he was very helpful identifying a portable chapel organ i was considering getting repaired and telling technical difference betweeen harmonium and 'american' style reed organs.


also on this site, you can advertise your organ for sale..

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: Thompson
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 02:57 PM

Thanks punk et al, will do. Though most of the ads seem to say "take my organ - please!"

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 06:31 PM

When I was a kid, I had one with the belows broken, so I hooked it to a vacuum cleaner and it worked quite well. You could do a more sophisticated installation with the wind source in another room, carried to the harmonium by PVC pipe.
As has been said above, they're very common and seldom valuable. Don't know that I've ever heard music from one that could be termed "beautiful."
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: Ned Ludd
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 06:56 PM

If it's American chances are it's a reed organ - reed organs 'suck'( sorry) and harmoniums 'blow' if I remember rightly. A harmonium would be craftsman made and a reed organ would be production line with ' machined' carving all over it. Harmoniums are worth much more but are usually heavier and harder to transport.

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 02:51 AM

"American" organs are far more common that true harmoniums, and worth very little unless in very fine condition. Vast numbers were exported; mine was made in Ontario and sold (when new) in Sheffield. All the "furniture" has fallen off over the years (it used to have a music holder and some sort of superstructure), but one of the pedals still has its cast-iron "mouse proof" shoe. I think I paid £30 for it, but that was a bit over the odds at the time.

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: GUEST,Ned at work
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 03:25 AM

Prices have gone up a bit. a nice one could fetch a couple of hundred on a good day.

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 03:29 AM

Be sure you get the mouse-proof pedals.

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 06:49 AM

I seem to remember that Mick Tems (of Calennig, and aka 'catter Dr Price) used to cart one to gigs. Must have been hard work.

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 04:03 PM

Where in Ireland are you, Thompson? I have what I believe is a True Harmonium, a tiny portable one which folds down into a wooden box and was used at sea in a ship's chapel. I got it in London in the early 70s, it has three octaves of ivory mini-keys (F to F), still plays perfectly in tune and sounds rather concertina-like, and is quite pretty. Came across a bigger brother of it in a junk shop (four octaves, same small keys) which also has a row of stops; but it's in terrible disrepair. I mean to resurrect it some day. The wood of both is similar and looks like dark mahogany.

Anyone have any idea from this description whether it's a harmonium or not? It has the usual two alternating treadle pedals but I don't know whether they (in the immortal words of Bart Simpson) suck or blow.

Bonnie (in Cork)

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: GUEST,Lindsay
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 07:42 PM

mine was made in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in about 1890, works perfectly, with "mouse proof" foot pedals, good job really with a very active young cat who likes to bring them in and let them loose....!

Subject: RE: Harmonium, I think
From: GUEST,Ned at work
Date: 03 Feb 05 - 03:34 AM

Hi Bonnie, have you got details off a label? If you can get it to Yorkshire I'll have a look at it for you.My specialty is strings but I worked with an organ builder and picked up a lot of stuff!
Ned Ludd. Hope you're keepin' well.