Organ for auction

Organ for auction
Does anyone know the organ which is up for auction on e-bay? It say it is a JM Glorie 1940s 52 key with a few books of music. No. is 220010234354 and bids from £3950. regards, Bob

Hi Bob, I've never heard of this organ builder is he well known, it looks like Jan Van Eyck pipe layout and it has many books from Van Eyck, Its a very nice looking street organ and it looks in good condition. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fairground-Street-Organ-1940s_W0QQitemZ220010234354QQihZ012QQcategoryZ13996QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Best wishes, Eddy.

Hi Bob and Eddy, This is the second time this instrument has been up for sale on eBay, the first being a few years ago by its previous owner Brian Chesters from St. Annes near Blackpool (it failed to sell via the auction, but did find a new home privately). Brian has an antique shop and has sold various pieces of mechanical musical items in the past via internet auctions, though he didn't know any history at all about this one or the maker. I don't beleive there are any other organs out there attributed to this builder, and from the few number of pipes and lack of any original music books it is possible that this was originally playing from a smaller musical scale. It only appears to have one rank of flutes and one violin on the melody, so I guess no registers at all, and certainly no percussion. Hence calling it a 52-key is probably a bit misleading as it won't be using all these keys. A good 'starter' organ for future expansion I guess though! All the best, Nick

Hi there All I went to see this organ a while ago for a customer. It doesn't have any registers, and there is no percussion. The amount of pipework is very limited. I am afraid I can't remember the exact disposition. There is no reservoir, the air comes from a smalish blower within the case, and splits with a four way plastic plumbing manifold to the chests and keyframe. It is not very old, as the amount of modern plywood tells you, plus the pipes have tell tale marks of a planing machine. It is fairly quiet, but has quite a nice sound. Cheers Peter Griffiths

Glorie has rebuilt a few organs, if I'm correct, and advertised in Het Pierement for some time in the '80s with stuff he had for sale. Don't know if he is still active, though. The dating given on e-bay seems quite incorrect to me.

GLORIE JEAN-MARIE OUDE PUTSEBAAN 27 3140 KEERBERGEN BELGIEN Telefoon +32 (0) 15/512250 Fax +32 (0) 93/664850 I would say: Ask the man himself! Hiddo

Good point Hiddo - if anyone knows this organ inside out it will be Glorie himself! That information certainly questions the 1940 manufacture date suggested, and would explain why the organ is in "excellent condition". Given the music books included it was probably built in the 1980s. I see the instrument failed to attract any bids in the eBay auction so is still looking for a new home.

Hi all, I am sure this is the same organ I have pictures of, it is now owned by Gerald and Hazel Asherton and it had its first outing at SW Organ Festival at Dingles this year. It is nicely displayed in a box trailer. Here are pictures of it at the Southern Counties organ festival at Middle Wallop this year:

I'm no expert on organ construction, but maybe the pipes themselves are from an older organ maybe? they seem well built and a lot bigger than the pipes of modern manufacture organs. Ian

I aggre, looking into some older band organs I can see what Ian Postlethwaite is talking about. I think I heard this organ via youtube, sounds beautiful.

I think you are correct Ian, I was at the Southern counties organ show, the organ sounded very nice and I think the owner said the pipes are from an old organ and built into a new case. The had just built the trailer for it.

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