Organ in South wales on Ebay

[diapason]

Just spotted this:  the ad says that the organ will be scrapped if not sold quickly.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130740565273&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123#ht_500wt_1070

N

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

Listing says

Hello and welcome to my auction, this organ works perfectly and was built by p.g.phipps organ builders of oxford on the left side of the organ are /swell then/ horn 8 / octave flute 4 /principal 4 / salcional 8 / flute 8 / horn diapason 8 / swell to great / swell to pedals / great to pedals / on the right are /great / fifteenth 2 / wald flute 4 / principal 4 / clarabella 8 / dulciana 8 / open diapason 8 / tremulant / bourdon 16. as you can see by the photos this is a very larg organ if you cant remove the organ within a week or so then please dont bid. i will be dismantling the church within the next couple of weeks so if not sold it will be scrapped. if you want any moor information than contact me on  07886200360 thanks for looking

Hopefully this post might be rescued from the Gravestone and Plaques section . . . ?

Best wishes

David P

[David Drinkell]

This looks like quite a large job for Phipps, although my knowledge of his work is not extensive.  I believe he had very High Church views and used to participate in Servers' Guild junkets and so on.  This got him a number of jobs on the Anglo Catholic scene in Oxford, including the four manual at St. Barnabas.  Received opinion is that his work wasn't very good, especially (Bernard Edmonds used to say) when he got entangled with pneumatic action.  So this looks like an interesting organ, but whether it's any good may be a different matter.

[Janner]

I have seen this organ and have more details and pictures. If anyone is seriously interested and cares to send me a PM with an e-mail address, I will send them on. It was playable about a year ago.

At one point there were hopes that it might do for our project, but unfortunately unforeseen factors intervened and the goal posts moved, so it was no longer suitable.

[David Drinkell]

Is it on NPOR?  if not, it would be good to record it before it's gone and forgotten.

[Janner]

Its existence is recorded but not much by way of details, and the record is partly out of date anyway. (If you are doing a search, type "Miskin" in the search box, not "Mountain Ash"):

http://npor.rcm.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=P00461

I will make enquiries about whether the good folk at NPOR would like the complete details.

[David Drinkell]

They would definitely appreciate the stop-list - even as it apepars on eBay.  I note a mis-spelling "Moutain Ash", which would mess up a computer search.

Willis used to have a rep in Mountain Ash - the firm was always well-regarded in Wales.

[Janner]

.......

Willis used to have a rep in Mountain Ash - the firm was always well-regarded in Wales.

Now that's interesting. Above the Great stops on the right hand side of this console there is a small plastic plate with Willis' name on it, suggesting that they had some involvement with it at some time.

Actually the organ would have quite a pleasing appearance in the right situation, although it has no side panels.

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

The Willis plate might refer to the then tuner/maintainer.  That sort of thing was pretty common.  It could also indicate that they did some more significant work on the organ at some point.

Every Blessing

Tony

[NEorganist]

Someone PLEASE save this lovely looking organ, we simply cannot allow it to be scrapped! I saved an organ from a church near my home town, and had I not been storing that until I find a new home for it, I would have gladly gone and saved this one too! We can't let another piece of history go to the scrap man..... 

Andrew 

[KB7DQH]

Unlike many instruments facing a similar fate this seems an ideal candidate for relocation 8)

Including the usual relocation logistics and expense, the acquisition cost on this, a fully-functional example, would be comparable to that of (and likely advantageously competitive with) the purchase of a non-pipe keyboard tone generating appliance ;)   

What is most unfortunate is the time line in this case is an extremely short one, a receiving "organization"
would necessarily need to be prepared to act immediately to secure the instrument...

Eric
KB7DQH

[Janner]

To be fair to the seller, he first advertised this one over a year ago but had no takers. He is not a "Rip it out as quickly as possible merchant" either and I know for a fact that he was keen to see it go to a church.

I suppose he has now reached a point where his building project has to carry on and this is a last ditch attempt to see if anyone out there will take it. It's just very unfortunate that there are more and more redundant organs appearing every week, and only a tiny handful of places able to take them. It's a depressing problem, the root or roots of which have been discussed elsewhere on this forum.

As far as this particular instrument goes, I can only repeat that I have rather better information and pictures than shown in the advert, and would be more than happy to pass them on if it will help anyone who is interested. A PM with an e-mail address is all that is required.

[Contrabombarde]

Interesting to see that the seller doesn't have great Ebay feedback - and a previous negative was the cancellation of the sale of an organ, for £100, two years ago.

[Alan Taylor]

WARD : Penrhiwceiber
Application Ref: 12/0472/13
Outline permission
Proposal:
Application Type:
Date Registered:
Demolition of St John The Baptist Church, followed by outline application with all matters
reserved, for the construction of 3 no. split level detached residential dwellings.
[MJ] 25/04/2012
Location: ST JOHN THE BAPTIST CHURCH, CLARENCE STREET, MOUNTAIN ASH
CONTACT NAME AND ADDRESS
e: 305102
n: 198167
[edited - see http://www.rctcbc.gov.uk/en/relateddocuments/publications/planning/weeklylists/weeklylist23-27apr2012.pdf]

[makemoreandmore]

I took photos of this organ a year or so ago, before the proprty  changed hands.

As I recall, the church was closed several years ago, but the organ was left intact. Prior to the building being resold, I gained access, but was unable to find anyone who wanted the organ.

The photos are at www.thatminidotcom.picturepush.com in the file 'Phipps Mountain Ash'

[diapason]

The Ebay sale has been ended - no indication of what's happened.

[makemoreandmore]

I phoned the seller this morning and he told me the organ has been bought by someone in Italy, so at least we can hope it will have a good home.

[Janner]

That's good news.