1 Inscriptions

Painted in a lunette below the dummy pipes: ‘BRODERIP & WILKINSON / N^o 13 / HAY-MARKET LONDON / PATENT’; painted above stop knobs: ‘ Diapason Principal Fifteenth’; tune list in ink on paper fixed to inside of lid flap with 3 red seals, each with the impression of a bird and olive branch; printed paper advertisement covering each barrel.

Top of page

2 Brief description

An English domestic barrel organ of c. 1805.

3 Case

Height: c. 1368 including stand & lid
Width: 595 including mouldings
Depth: 418 including mouldings
Upper section, containing pipes, mechanism, barrel & wind supply, c. 700 high including lid & moulding
Stand with cupboard for 2 extra barrels, c. 670 high
Case: mahogany and mahogany veneered on a coniferous ground. In the left-hand side of the upper section a door gives access to the playing barrel and in the left-hand side of the stand another gives access to the barrel storage.
Backboard: coniferous, 565 wide
Lid: mahogany, in two sections, front section opens to reveal tune list
Brassware: 2 door catches with brass drop handles; 3 draw-stop knobs of gilded brass, not original; 3 butt hinges on lid flap 

4a Mechanism

Compass: g, d¹, e¹, f#¹ g¹, a¹, b¹, c² c#² d², e², f#² g², a², b²

15 composite steel and mahogany ‘keys’, in a mahogany frame, are guided by two slotted brass registers and operate tapered stickers hinged with leather; the lower ends of the stickers operate the pallets via brass pins. The draw stops operate the sliders via mahogany rods and brass squares. The turning handle drives a brass worm shaft with twin cranks and mahogany trace rods operating the feeders. The worm drive engages with the cogwheel of the barrel. There is a small wooden pawl to prevent anti-clockwise turning of the handle. A sliding bolt raises and lowers the keys when tunes are being selected.

4b Wind supply, windchest and action

Feeders: twin cuckoo feeders each 150 wide
Reservoir: 432 long, 173 wide, diagonal, single set of ribs; the wind pressure is regulated by two iron wire springs, 265 long, diameter 4, acting on the top of the reservoir
Pallet box and soundboard: mostly oak, 432 wide, 160 deep, 28 high
Upperboard: 150 wide, 21 thick, veneered to accommodate grooving to wooden pipes
Barrels: coniferous with hardwood cores and cogwheels, 386 long, 123 diameter; cogwheel diameter 91, with 40 cogs: brass pins 1.5 wide. Three of the original five barrels survive (Nos. 2, 3 and 5), each pinned for 10 tunes

5 Scalings and pipework

Draw stop arrangement

Pipes: Stopped diapason: coniferous with mahogany caps and octagonal feet, 125 long except g; solid stoppers; the cut up is one quarter of the mouth width.

Principal & Fifteenth: pipe metal approximately 30% tin; the cut up is one quarter of the mouth width and the languids are nicked.

Pipe Scales

6 Decoration

The elegant mahogany case on 4 fluted and tapered legs has an oval panel of gilded dummy pipes, originally backed with green silk, surrounded by carved foliage on a punched ground and flanked by pilasters decorated with reeded flutes and stringing. The makers’ inscription is on a painted lunette incorporating the royal arms.

7 History of earlier states and restorations

Restored by John Budgen, 1969. The repair work was minor; apart from general mechanical overhaul and cleaning, and the straightening up of the pinning, one new pipe was provided (since the largest metal pipe was missing) and new bodies for two others, replacing some crude zinc work. A new turning handle was fitted, and new brass stop knobs, instead of inappropriate replacements. Apart from these items the organ appears to be entirely original.

8 Commentary

The dates ascertained for the partnership of Broderip & Wilkinson, who made or sold every description of musical goods at 13, Hay Market, are 1798–1808 (William Waterhouse, The New Langwill Index (London: Tony Bingham, 1993) p.46).

The barrel organ is for the most part typical of the secular or domestic instruments of the day. Often there would be four stops, and sometimes one or more percussion stops in addition. The complement of five barrels was not exceptional, though others had only three, and one still possesses ten; it was also customary to have one barrel set with hymn tunes.

The present organ has two slightly unusual features in its mechanical design. Instead of having a small faceboard for access to springs and pallets along its front, the soundboard is so arranged that the whole of the top lifts off and brings with it the springs and pallets. The other item which differs from the customary pattern is the stop action, which instead of having a set of balanced levers to transmit the movement from the horizontals to the slides, has rigid verticals fixed to the rods drawing the slides directly. These characteristics are of small consequence but are unusual.

The stand has storage space for two barrels, which allowing for one to be stored in place in the organ, helps to account for the loss of the other two. These would usually have boxes with retaining fillets and sliding lids. Three of the barrels are pinned with Scottish and country dance tunes, which, because of the need to keep to only 2 or 3 key signatures, makes for a good deal of similarity. Unfortunately the hymn tune barrel is one of the two which have not survived. The tunes were current, and some were new in 1804. As was normal, the tune list is written by hand and there are some variants to the more common names of tunes (information from Oliver Davies).

9 Provenance

Gift of Sir George Donaldson, 1894.

10 References

Sir George Donaldson, Catalogue of the Musical Instruments and Objects Forming The Donaldson Museum (London: Waterlow & Sons, 1894), pl.XXVIII

Canon Francis Galpin ‘A Forgotten Treasure House of Old Musical Instruments’, The Bazaar, June 1928, p.882

Keith Spence, ‘Instruments our ancestors played’, Country Life Annual, 1966, p.38

Helmut Zeraschi, Drehorgeln (Leipzig: Köhler & Amelang, 1976), p.247 & pl.50

Mary Remnant, Musical Instruments of the West (London: B T Batsford, 1978), p.180

Elizabeth Wells, The Royal College of Music Museum of Instruments: Guide to the Collection (London: Royal College of Music, 1984), p.8

Mary Remnant, Musical Instruments (London: B T Batsford, 1989), p.179

Tune List

N^o 1 Barrel
1 Henry’s Cottage Maid
2 The Streamlet
3 Mid from the Sun [?Hid from the Sun]
4 Crazy Jane
5 To Bacchus dear Bacchus
6 The German Hymns [The German Hymn]
7 The Sailor’s Journal
8 The Adieu
9 March in Blue Beard
10 Downfall of Paris 

N^o 2 Barrel
1 The Cameroman Rant [The Cameronian Rant]
2 Russian Waltzes [Russian Waltz]
3 Miss Ross’ Reel
4 Jenny’s Baubee [Jenny’s Bawbee]
5 Bugle Horn
6 Hampshire Fencibles
7 Dull Care’s Hornpipe [Del Caro’s Hornpipe]
8 Money Musk [Monymusk]
9 Go to the Devil & shake yourself
10 Moll in the Wad 

N^o 3 Barrel
1 Vive la Storace
2 A trip to the Northland
3 Tink a Tink
4 Lady Campbell’s Reel [?Lady Charlotte Campbell’s Reel]
5 National Troops Reel
6 Fife Hunt
7 Duke of Perth’s Reel
8 Drops of Brandy
9 Morgan Ratler [The Morgan Rattler]
10 Jenny Sutton 

N^o 4 Barrel
1 Portugal
2 Old 100^th Psalm
3 Uxbridge
4 Devizes
5 Cambridge New
6 Susan Wilts [?]
7 Derby
8 Peckham
9 Mansfield
10 Eagle S^t. New 

N^o 5 Barrel
1 Devil among the Tailors
2 Jenny dang the Weavers [Jenny dang the Weaver]
3 Bugle Horn
4 Lord Nelson’s Waltzes [Lord Nelson’s Waltz]
5 Lord M^cDonald’s Reel
6 Blue and Buffs [Blue and Buff]
7 Irish Washerwoman
8 Cumberland Reel
9 College Hornpipe
10 Lock Crouch Side [Loch Erroch Side]

Advertisement