Posted 8 years ago
AnythingOb…
(1778 items)
Here's an item with more questions behind it than anyone could ever possibly hope to answer. Still fascinating to ponder, anyway...? :-)
This is basically a clear wooden (pine) plank (8-3/4" wide, 7/8" thick, and 6' total length) bearing the words "Organ 34" inked (probably, not paint anyways) in elegant script lettering. It is highly likely to have once been part of the inner 'support structure' of a church pipe organ, also very likely to date from anytime in the mid to late 1800's if not even earlier.
I got it a few years ago (along with several trucksful of other much more contemporary miscellaneous pipe organ parts) from a storage locker, reportedly previously belonging to a deceased gentleman from the Milwaukee, WI area (I think?) who had spent his life working on pipe organs.
It is typical for pipe organ builders (especially in the 1800's, but still to this day) to sequentially 'number' their instruments during construction -- also not unusual for any random pieces which might bear any 'interesting' markings/etc to be retained (souvenirs, kinda) when an older instrument is being replaced by a newer one. (and pipe organs tend to have a 50-100yr 'life cycle' at least, if left to their own)
Thus, my conjecture that this was one such part (a diagonal brace on a frame holding something heavy up in the air?) which could very well be the last surviving bit of "somebody's company's 34th job", back in 18-hundred-something. Who wrote it, who built it, what it was, and where, will likely never be known again -- there were actually numerous pipe organ building firms active in the northeast USA during the 1800's, but without any further evidence which would definitively link this part to any one of them, it will probably remain impossible to ever know.
Unsolvable mysteries. The best.
Hi AnythingObscure.
Thought you might enjoy this:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/saving-a-worlds-fair-pipe-organ/
I agree boysfarm -- (mostly?) unsolvable mysteries are indeed usually the most entertaining ones! :-) Thank you Belltown for thinking of me with the link -- that story (and the one about band organs, 'the i-pod's 4klb grampa') are actually what led me to discover, then join, CW. :-) Both stories are particularly well done!
Yep a item with more questions then answers but a fun find.
I was married at Martha Mary Chapel in Henry Ford Greenfield Village that has one of the larger pipe organs still in use (or was anyhow) It sent a chill up my spine likely because I was getting married but also from the sound that you can feel, little side note in that chapel the groom waits at the bottom of two stair cases with a little red light when lit you go up the stairs one to the chapel the other to the back door LOL they sure don't built organs or chapels like that anymore.
Shown here:
http://www.wigtonpipeorgans.com/Opus/opus24.aspx
We have Hammoud Castle (don't know if I spelled it right??)up in Magnolia Mass.
largest pipe organ?? Went there years ago to hear Handels Messiar!!!He invented the guide system for torpedos WWII and many other inventions. Quite the place!!! He could make it rain in his atuim!!! Castle was have modern half 16th century!!!
Check it out.
Stuff
Hammond Castle!! Sad to read organ no longer works!!! We were there in the late 1990's. Check out the site!!