Compton house organ for sale on ebay

[David Pinnegar]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180758394842

[diapason]

I'm going to see this later today.

N

[David Pinnegar]

I'm going to see this later today.

N

:-)

Oh dear . . . This is the beginning of a dangerously contagious disease!

Best wishes

David P

[diapason]

I've been to see it today.  It needs A LOT of work, but has the potential to be a lovely instrument again.  I'm bidding for it - pray for me!
N

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

Hope you get it - Comptons were masters of building extension organs - it should be very nice with new or overhauled action.

Every Blessing

Tony

[diapason]

Thanks.  It's relatively complete, but the wiring looks very messy and lots of pipes don't speak.  It will need a full overhaul, replacement of the connections between the console and the soundboard as well as a new case.  The blower is also very noisy, but, hopefully it will be ok with a service.  I've spoken again to the vendor and am going to put in a decent bid nearer the end of the sale.  I'll keep the forum posted if I get it.
N

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

It looks interesting and hope you get it. After the end of the auction perhaps you mightgive more details of its sepcification and how it has achieved a usable spec within a house friendly size and then mods should move the thread to "house organ" section of the forum

Best wishes and fingers xxed

David P

[diapason]

Thanks - I'll keep the forum posted.

N

[diapason]

Well, I was outbid in the last seconds.  It went for over £1600 - I'd left a bid of £1560 when I had to go out  :'(  So, back to the drawing board.  This is the first pipe organ small enought to fit my flat which I've seen for sale for many years.  If anyone knows of another, I'd be pleased to hear about it.  Otherwise, I'm looking for a better toaster. 

Off to cry into my tea  :-\

N

[David Pinnegar]

Dear Nigel

Your news, other than my unpopular posts, has clearly stunned everyone. It would be great if you are in touch with the seller to ask if the buyer might possibly join the forum and tell us more about the instrument. Stops, ranks and how successful it is as an instrument.

Best wishes

David P

[diapason]

Thank you for your email and kind thoughts.  I have already emailed the seller asking hime to let me know if the buyer fails to complete the sale.  I have also had a very welcome email from a forum member, telling me about another potential organ for sale.

I can give you some information about the Compton from research which I have done which may be interesting.  The organ is on NPOR, number D03276. It was originally built for St Swithun's Church, Purley, where it was located on a gallery.  It was remobved from the church around 1979, and NPOR have no records of it subsequently.  In fact, it was bought by a Mr Ford who was organist of a church near Selsdon, and installed in his house in Surrey.  Mr Ford's son (the present seller) remembers helping his father lower parts down from the gallery.  When Mr Ford retired, around 1981, the organ was taken to his new home in the edge of Dartmoor, where it was installed in what had been a front porch, with the pipeword (all enclosed) speaking through the former doorway into the living room where the detached console was located. 

The organ is a Compton Miniatura with two ranks - Open Diapason and Rohr Flute.  The tone was very gentle and sweet.  The console was in art deco style and is the same as Compton used for his early Electrone models.  The organ  has not been played since Mr Ford's death, and it needs some remedial work.  In particular, many pipes are not speaking - I suspect that the solenoids are sticking.  The blower is almost inaccessible and is very noisy.  It may need a replacement motor.  There are tuning notes - from Rushworth & Dreaper - going back to 1951.

My plan was to convey the largest pipes off to the back of the swell box to reduce the height (my ceilings are very low).  I would have reconditioned the console, replacing a missing knee board, and overhauled the electrics, reusing as much of the original material as possible.   The specification is simple, but the pipes are very well voiced, and it would have made an ideal practice organ.  I hope that the buyer treats it sympathetically.  I will ask him to join the board if I can find out who he is.

Nigel

[Patrick Cox]

Well - I guess it's time to fess-up.  I am the buyer of this organ and I went down to Devon last week to collect it and it is now back at my home in Charlwood (next to Gatwick).  My commiserations to Nigel "Diapason" who so wanted this organ but I too have been looking for a long time for a pipe organ that would fit in my home.  The organ was moved to Devon about thirty years ago and sadly the owner died shortly afterwards so the organ has not been played for about thirty years.  An organist friend who lives in Somerset went to look at the organ for me when it came up for sale on Ebay and reported that many of the notes were not sounding but that was not surprising as it hadn't been used for so long.  Nothing too serious - just a matter of cleaning a few key contacts.  Here is the lsiting on Ebay so you can see what it looked like squeezed into its porch location - not ideal.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180758394842?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Having taken the organ apart it is now clear that the porch had been damp for many years as some of the metal parts resting on the floor (rectifier, junction box) were badly corroded and the wooden base plate on which some of the framework rested was rotten (fortunatley I won't be needing this).  Fortunately everything else was resting on wooden bearers and so the damp has not penetrated beyond these.  Some of the connectors which were in the porch look in very poor condition.  The tuner's books which go up to 1980 show a history of problems with notes not sounding and the final comment from the tuner says he is concerned about corrosion on the contact rail and suggests some remedial work.  It looks like the church declined and disposed of the organ instead.  Previous comments in the tuners book suggests that a window near the organ was letting in damp.

You can view the spec of this organ here - http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=D03276.  All the pipes are enclosed except the bottom octave of the Rohr Flute rank which form the large display pipes.  Although they look like open 8ft diapasons they are in fact stopped.   The bottom octave of the 8ft diapason is in the swell box and is haskelled.

I have done some research on the internet on Compton Miniatura organs and found about 25 listed on the NPOR.  Coincidentally there is one just round the corner from here in Langley Green, Crawley which I went to have a look at a couple of weeks ago - a very nice example and the organist says it gives no problems at all.   Judging from this example and a number of pictures I have seen on the internet all these organs have the 12 no.   8ft long (physical length) pipes arranged 5 along each side, and one on each corner of the front with the console in between.  Clearly the organ I have purchased had a different layout - it seems 11 pipes were arranged along the front with one returning down one side.  Maybe this was dictated by constraints where the organ was originally installed in St Swithun's.  I intend getting along to St Swithun's in the next couple of weeks to see what I can find out about its history.

This instrument clearly needs a lot of TLC and it seems that I have unintentionally landed myself with a restoration job.  I intend to set up a website where I can document my progress and also to keep a video diary.   Hopefully the website will also become a resource on Compton Miniatura organs generally as my research yields more results.  However I am full of good intentions but often lack the time to implement all of them so don't hold your breadth for the website, especially as my wife has a long list of jobs I should be doing around the house and she is not best pleased that I have taken on this project.  In the meantime I will give updates on progress on these pages. 

Any advice gratefully received - David P - I am sure you will be a wealth of information.  (Hope to see you at Crawley & Horsham District Organists Associations AGM at the end of the month)

Patrick Cox         

[diapason]

I'm very pleased to hear that the Compton has gone to a good home where it will be restored and appreciated. As a result of my not buying this organ, I was put in touch via a member of this forum with the seller of another organ which I have bought and installed in my flat.  Still some work to do - cleaning a few contacts before the tuner comes and building an end panel to stop the internals from being the first thing you see on walking in the door.  Patrick, you may find it helpful to contact Roger Taylor of Burrington, near Bristol.  he maintains Downside Abbey and is very knowledgeable about Compton.  Good luck with your restoration - I look forward to reading more.

Nigel

[David Pinnegar]

Any advice gratefully received - David P - I am sure you will be a wealth of information.  (Hope to see you at Crawley & Horsham District Organists Associations AGM at the end of the month)

Dear Patrick

Firstly WELCOME to the forum!

Yes - very happy to come over and make observations or help.

CHDOA - will see what's happening - I'm being pulled in multiple directions at the moment - but even if I can't manage it, please can you see if you can organise a visit to Cranleigh before it's converted to equal temperament . . . and a visit to Vale Royal Methodist in TW would be interesting before that instrument goes to Malta. It's an extremely exciting instrument.

Best wishes

David P

[David Drinkell]

Welcome, Patrick.  It would be wonderful if you contacted the National Pipe Organ Register and updated them on the organ's history.  Compton Miniaturas are very nice little instruments - I hope you get hours of pleasure from it.

[Lucien Nunes]

Hi Patrick

I'll add my welcome too, and also my thanks that you bought the Compton and have happy plans for it. If you are going to have corrosion issues you can do worse than a Compton action, hopefully it will all respond to a bit of TLC. Looking forward to seeing your progress pics!

I will admit that I too was interested, indeed got as far as placing a bid on it, specifically because it is a 2-rank Miniatura. In 1948 Compton introduced the model 348 Electrone which was a 'pipeless' simulation of a Miniatura 2, the only attempt they made to recreate electrically a particular model of organ pipe-by-pipe. I have one of the few surviving fully functional 348s and was fascinated by the idea of being able to play the two side by side for comparison! If you are curious about how your organ would look in electrostatic form, you can see a 348 on my website:
http://www.electrokinetica.org/d8/3/5.php
Good luck with your Miniatura website too, there are enough instruments out there for it to be well appreciated!

Lucien

[ComptonNewbie]

Were Miniaturas assigned serial numbers in the same range as larger organs?  Larger ones have a 'jam label' on bottom C pipes giving the job number, and often have the same serial written on the console (often on the setter board, pedal contact rail and combination relay box).  They started at A1 in September 1928. and carried on consecutively in chronologically with the date of ordering.

Despite making some many instruments, few records seem to have survived.  Those from before 1941 were lost in the blitz, and later ones disappeared during takeovers towards the end of the companies existance.

I look forward to seeing the website of your project.
Regards,

Simon.

[AnOrganCornucopia]

Try the British Institute of Organ Studies - as you may know, Compton's pipe organ business was taken over by Rushworth & Dreaper while the rest went to Makin. Rushworth went bust about 2003 after a sad, long decline (considering the truly excellent quality of their 1920s work) and whilst many of the firm's records were lost, some were rescued by BIOS. These may include some of Compton's records.

[David Pinnegar]

I will admit that I too was interested, indeed got as far as placing a bid on it, specifically because it is a 2-rank Miniatura. In 1948 Compton introduced the model 348 Electrone which was a 'pipeless' simulation of a Miniatura 2, the only attempt they made to recreate electrically a particular model of organ pipe-by-pipe. I have one of the few surviving fully functional 348s and was fascinated by the idea of being able to play the two side by side for comparison! If you are curious about how your organ would look in electrostatic form, you can see a 348 on my website:
http://www.electrokinetica.org/d8/3/5.php

Hi!

The page you refer to above is extremely interesting, especially the details of the Compton electrostatic generators and in particular their replication of every pipe in their 2 rank extension instrument. With the replication of the exact waveform, Hauptwerk is not particularly new . . . !

A friend writes:
   

I have a friend who has bought a Compton 357cs??? He wants the console keys and stopkeys to provide a second console for his pipeorgan but the rotating generators and other gubbins are still in the console and work. Do we know of anyone who may be interested in acquiring these parts?

Best wishes

David P

[diapason]

I was having lunch today with the friend who came with me to Chagford when I looked at this organ a year or so ago.  We were wondering how Patrick was getting on with the work.  Any chance of an update?

Nigel