
- #Dominion organ and piano co serial numbers update
- #Dominion organ and piano co serial numbers manual
He had several years experience helping build up George Prince's Melodeon Works into the largest such concern in the country, in an era when the melodeon was the empress of the parlor. He is recognized as a mechanical genius, and is due all accolades. This, however, seems different.Įmmons Hamlin is responsible, basically, for the early success of the company. That's advertising (salesmanship in print). This raised an interesting question: How come really well-known composers (and those less well known for that matter) composed music for this brand but not others? Maybe there is actually some substance to the claims they made in their advertising literature anyone who makes anything will obviously say that it is the best, or the cheapest, or the softest or the most durable or less filling/tastes great. This reached a crescendo in 2003, when Michael Hendron and I teamed up (sort of) to present a program of music written especially for Mason & Hamlin organs, featuring works of Franz Liszt, Lefebure-Wely, Arthur Bird, and others using suitable instruments from my collection (the 33m Liszt, and the 431 Sankey) The concert took place at the first of the biennial Reed Organ Society gatherings which was held in Tuscumbia and Florence AL in March that year.
#Dominion organ and piano co serial numbers manual
In 2001, I found a very rare style 86K made of mahogany in NY, and a style 33M one manual Liszt Organ in PA. That was an eye-opener! Then a few years later my first two manual and pedal organ, a style 41Q, an earlier one soon joined it, essentially the same, but with a different ID a style 800. In 1999, a pipe top style 523 Liszt Organ M&H joined the stable. In 1996 I bought another M&H, a Sankey model (style 431) from about 1895. I found there was an organized group, the Reed Organ Society, which I joined, and soon started writing articles for their publication. Knowing very little, but having good instincts from my Historic Preservation training (and my 7 years of music lessons which gave me a good ear) I was captivated by the mechanical genius behind that Hamlin organ, and once it was playable, I was completely in love with the refined, expressive sounds and its capacity to take me back to another time. It was the first "pump organ" that I really restored and tuned to my satisfaction (before that, I tinkered with a basket case that was too far gone to ever come to anything) That Boston-made instrument was quite different from the previous sad organ (C.J.Whitney, Detroit). I have been researching the M&H firm for almost 10 years, but first became a fan almost 30 years ago when I found my first (then very decrepit) Mason & Hamlin organ a style 406 from 1879.
#Dominion organ and piano co serial numbers update
of Canada, which had been bought by a British group.Please scroll to the bottom for an important update to the M&H history. German branch of the Bell Organ & Piano Co. Organs dated 1867 with this name have been seen.Ģ7 Andreasstr. Saginaw, MI, see Chicago Cottage Organ Co.ġ129 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA, 1860. Organ production was discontinued in 1928 and the plant was sold to John S. Made a variety of models including the Bellolian, a player reed organ, and held the patent on the Serophone, a device which gave the reeds a wood-pipe character. An English syndicate bought the company in 1888 and changed the name to Bell Organ & Piano Co., and in 1907 changed it again to Bell Piano & Organ Co. In 1881 with 200 employees the capacity was 1200, and in 19 organs per year.

was used at least as early as 1871 when a new three story factory was opened on Market Square. in 1867 under the name of Bell, Wood & Co. William assumed management in 1865 merged with McLeod, Wood & Co. In 1867 produced 80 instruments per year. by William and Robert Bell, in the upper story of a building on Upper Wyndham St., producing one Diploma melodeon per week. Guelph, Ontario started in 1864 as Bell Bros. Succeeded by Samuel Bell then by Sarah Bell at 14 Stonegate, York in 1894, still working in 1906. An inventor and experimenter, he made harmoniums with reeds of wood, ivory and german silver. in 1881 and operated it until 1886.Įstablished 1847 in Petergate, York, England in 1849 in 57 Gillygate, 24 Gillygate in 1861, 22 Feasegate in 1863, later at 28 Swinegate, then 14 Stonegate, all in York. in 1875, and in 1877 was associated with the Excelsior Organ Co.


Daniel Bell became manager of the Canada Organ Co. Neumeyer Hall, Hart St., Bloomsbury, London.
