When I saw the organ on the auction-house website, I knew I had to see it. I’m one of those folks who’ve taken piano lessons ad-nauseum and still can’t play. So, when I see anything pertaining to piano, I’m eager to take a look.
At an auction a few years ago, a flat rubber roll up keyboard – a portable piano, the auctioneer announced – was up for sale in its original box. It didn’t make any sense to me how anything so flimsy could make a sound. So, I passed on it (even though I could have gotten it for about 5 bucks).
The keyboard on the website was nothing like the one at that auction. This auction house described its instrument as a traveling organ (it’s also called a folding organ and field organ). It was made of wood and looked to weigh a ton. When I arrived at the auction house, I found it sitting atop another piece of furniture on a dock adjoining the main building.
The top of the organ was opened to show the keyboard and the name of the maker, Estey Organ Co., Brattleboro, VT. There were two wooden pedals attached to the instrument with reinforced straps. On the side closest to me was a thick black leather strap (one on both sides). At some point, someone had attached a warning on a small sticker: Do Not Touch. I suspect it had been left by the original owner.
The organ closed like a chest and was as small as a child’s coffin.
The Estey company was founded by Jacob Estey a few years he bought a share of and later took over a melodeon maker in the 1850s. His company first made melodeons and then added Cottage Organs to its repertoire. By the mid-1860s, Cottage Organs had supplanted melodeons in popularity, so the company focused on the organs.
Over the next century, Estey became the major producer of organs in the United States and abroad. He used some of his money for philanthropic purposes, including making a donation in 1873 for a seminary building at Shaw University, a college for African American students in Raleigh, NC. The building was named after him.
When the company’s factory shut down in 1960, it had made well over a million organs (Estey also made pianos). There was a down period during the Great Depression when the company went bankrupt but was re-organized.
During World War II, the company was also making traveling organs and other specialty instruments. The traveling/folding organ, according to its brochure, “was a treasure for missionaries and traveling singers.” Traveling preachers, priests and evangelists also used these organs, which folded up into their own carrying case. During both world wars, the company made them for U.S. Army chaplains in the field. Here’s a closed military one; they were painted green during World War II.
Whoever carried the organ had to be as sturdy as the instrument itself. It was made of oak and heavy, weighing 60 pounds, 90 pounds boxed, according to the brochure. The keyboard was 30 inches from the floor, Closed, the case was 32 inches long, 14 inches wide and 12 inches high. I also saw some black ones on the web; the company was said to have made similar organs until the 1950s.
Here is a YouTube video of how the organ sounds.
I was not around when the organ sold, but I did find one that sold at auction in 2008 for $400. More recently, someone had bid about $230 for one on eBay. Another site noted that the organs are pretty common, and do not attract large auction bids or sales.
