The instrument is neither signed nor dated.
In ink on parchment on the soundboard: ‘Johann Sch [?] 26 [?] 1818’. 

2 Brief description

An anonymous positive organ, probably South German, built in, or adapted to, an ebonised cabinet. 

3 Case

Height: 770 including feeders & weights, 650 without
Case: coniferous, ebonised with applied ornament in ebonised fruitwood (?pear). The case appears to be a 19^th-century reproduction or adaptation of a 17^th-century ebonised cabinet. Possibly an earlier cabinet was rebuilt and extended to accommodate earlier organ parts; a pediment was added to mask the bellows and longer pipes.
Pediment: 667 high, 757 maximum width
Case width at keyboard: outside: 805 including moulding; inside: 691
Case depth: 730 including mouldings
Ironware: 4 hinges; 2 door bolts

4a Keyboard

Compass: C/E short octave to g, a (without g#), 41 notes
Keywell span: 691; distance between keyblocks: 568
Keyboard width at natural fronts: 560; average 3-octave span: 470
Keylevers: guided by vertical pins
Naturals: bone covers in 1 piece; head length: 28; entire length: 80; scribed lines: 2; natural fronts: paper with punched gothic ornament
Sharp blocks: ebony; length at base: 52.7

4b Wind supply, windchest and action

Feeders: 2, wedge-shaped, top boards 780 long, 270 wide; 8 pairs of ribs. They carry iron weights slotted for leather blowing straps which pass over a roller supported by the pediment and a vertical post at the back. They are connected to the chest by a wind trunk of internal cross section 90 by 27.
Soundboard and windchest: originally constructed for 4 slides, only 2 now being in use: these are operated by handles projecting from the treble side of the case. The table and upperboard are leathered and the upperboard is extensively grooved to distribute the pipework.
Keylevers hinged at the tail bear on intermediate levers hinged at the front of the case. These levers are splayed and cranked to bear on the pallet pins of the chest at the back of the case.

5 Scalings and pipework

2 draw-stops

The present pipework consists of 2 stops, both of 2ft pitch, which may be regarded as a principal and a flute. The principal is of neat workmanship and metal with a high tin content, and is continuous except for 2 top notes which have been replaced. The ‘flute’ is a hybrid and begins with 9 open wood pipes, their mouths cut up rather high, probably as a result of a 19^th-century alteration; the stop is completed, after a curious break in the scale, by heavily-leaded metal pipes of inferior workmanship.

Pipe scales

Principal (back stop)

6 Decoration

The external surfaces are decorated with raised strapwork; the drawer fronts and internal surfaces of the doors are embellished with architectural motifs derived from classical porticos with doric columns, all ebonised.

7 History of earlier states and restorations

The repair label and some additional paper with printed German text dated 1814 seem to indicate a restoration in 1818 in Germany. The pediment, roller and post probably date from a late 19^th-century modification.

The restoration by Bishop and Son, 1969, entailed the reinstatement of the short octave; the work was otherwise of a conservative nature, securing worm-eaten woodwork and cleaning and freeing moving parts. 

8 Commentary

The keyboard, soundboard and metal ‘flute’ pipes may date from the 17^th century and the principal from the 18^th century. The organ occupies much less than half of the capacity of the cabinet and the key action is taken under the drawers by means of a set of hinged and splayed levers to a miniature soundboard at the back. The pipes speak at present from behind a fabric panel and the longest of them protrude above the case. The curious break to unison pitch is also found on RCM 116, suggesting that the same restorer may have worked on both.

Parts of the case and the feeder top boards may date from the 3^rd quarter of the 17^th century but much of the case appears to have been constructed in the 19^th century as a pastiche.

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.XXXII

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

John Budgen, The Cabinet Organ [RCM 115]–notes on its construction and contents (unpublished report written for the Museum, 1969, © RCM)