Organ matters - Organs matter!

Organs in danger => Organs on eBay or for urgent sale => Topic started by: David Pinnegar on March 14, 2012, 01:12:03 AM

Title: Organ in Kingston in church about to be demolished on ebay
Post by: David Pinnegar on March 14, 2012, 01:12:03 AM
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FULL-SIZE-1870-GOTHIC-CHURCH-ORGAN-possible-ex-property-Emperor-Napoleon-III-/290681757648

Title: Re: Organ in Kingston in church about to be demolished on ebay
Post by: revtonynewnham on March 14, 2012, 10:29:14 AM
Hi

Using NPOR it took me all of 1 minute to track this one down - http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N13781  a c.1870 Lewis.  The style of the case front makes me wonder if the origin was Bishop - but I could well be wrong.

Every Blessing

Tony
Title: Re: Organ in Kingston in church about to be demolished on ebay
Post by: David Drinkell on March 14, 2012, 01:13:04 PM
The specification doesn't look like Lewis at all.  If it weren't for the note from Eric Shepherd on NPOR, I would say it was a mistaken attribution.  Maybe he just moved an older instrument - or are there old, 'primitive' Lewises around, just as there are old, 'primitive' Hunters?
Title: Re: Organ in Kingston in church about to be demolished on ebay
Post by: AnOrganCornucopia on March 14, 2012, 09:08:29 PM
AFAIK Lewis did not become an organ-builder (he trained as an architect) until he had heard - and been much impressed by - the fairly new Doncaster Schulze. I am under the - possibly mistaken - impression that all his organs were Schulzian in style, in terms of scalings, high French pipe mouths, total absence of slotting etc. Inevitably, his smaller organs' Great choruses (in particular) don't have the great grandeur of the bigger ones, but the organ at KBC just doesn't look at all Lewis, stoplist or visually.

I can't say I've ever encountered a primitive Hunter - though I have had the privilege of hearing some of the later ones. St John's Windsor and St James Spanish Place are simply magnificent - why Hunter isn't, on the basis of organs like those, considered a front-ranking Edwardian builder I cannot think. They're really quite comparable with contemporary N&B and Harrison organs.
Title: Re: Organ in Kingston in church about to be demolished on ebay
Post by: pcnd5584 on March 14, 2012, 10:56:54 PM
Quote from: revtonynewnham on March 14, 2012, 10:29:14 AM
Hi

Using NPOR it took me all of 1 minute to track this one down - http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N13781  a c.1870 Lewis.  The style of the case front makes me wonder if the origin was Bishop - but I could well be wrong.

Every Blessing

Tony

Indeed - although it took me approximately fourteen seconds.

For the record, I have e-mailed the sellers (via my own e-Bay account) and informed them of the pointlessness of their subterfuge - simply to warn them that they may well, after all, have to deal with some time-wasters....
Title: Re: Organ in Kingston in church about to be demolished on ebay
Post by: rh1306 on March 14, 2012, 11:27:15 PM
Hi,
I used to tune and maintain this instrument for Rest Cartwright & Son in the early 1960s and it was a terrible old thing then.
Richard
Title: Re: Organ in Kingston in church about to be demolished on ebay
Post by: rh1306 on March 15, 2012, 11:56:30 PM
http://blog.philmoorebooks.com/post/16315551432/god-loves-kingston-too
Title: Re: Organ in Kingston in church about to be demolished on ebay
Post by: David Pinnegar on March 16, 2012, 09:38:20 AM
Quote from: rh1306 on March 14, 2012, 11:27:15 PM
I used to tune and maintain this instrument for Rest Cartwright & Son in the early 1960s and it was a terrible old thing then

That's refreshing! Quite clearly one might conclude that the lack of an inspirational instrument has led successively in the decline of support for its building . . .

???

Best wishes

David P
Title: Re: Organ in Kingston in church about to be demolished on ebay
Post by: AnOrganCornucopia on April 04, 2012, 02:09:08 AM
Actually, regarding my comment about primitive Hunters, a couple of weeks ago I spent a little while being bored to tears by one in Wimbledon Parish Church - granted, it is not helped by quite the deadest acoustic I have ever encountered, but its sound is opaque and totally devoid of brightness, yet it's not that powerful (except for the later Pedal Trombone, which I suspect must have been secondhand, as it sounds like it was voiced for a much larger building) and it's also not possessed of much orchestral colour. To be fair, the playing I heard left a lot to be desired, so it might be due in part to the way it was being handled, but it failed to enthrall me even slightly.