My collection of reed instruments is growing apace. We are the proud owners of an old Alexandre harmonium..aka pump organ...courtesy of a bit of an Ebay moment, ok so two notes don't work but hey what do you want for £1.
Of course I've now got my eye on bigger and better harmonia and I've browsed the web merrily wondering how hard it is to fix the notes that don't want to work.
Found a good few websites so there are people looking after these things, despite the terrible prices they seem to fetch on Ebay. http://www.reedorgans.co.uk/
The harmonium works like a sort of horizontal accordion. You have to pump a foot pedal which inflates a bellows arrangement which in turn allows the notes to sound. Rather a good noise comes out of ours. The bellows are in tact, but it could do with a little TLC as the previous owner has knocked it about a bit.
And for my next Ebay trick I purchased an old Singer sewing machine, one of the pedal type (see the link between harmoniums and sewing machines, type in pedal and then check the distance and voila a completely insane purchase) and I have hauled it back to my house full of underappreciated things that really shold be worth more money but aren't.
The sewing machine is great, complete with its oak table, original instructions, all the various attachments for quilting, variable hems and other things I don't think I've ever tried. There is even a spare drive belt (old leather strap thing). It looks to be from the 1920's/30's and seems to have been much better looked after than the one my grandma had.
I am currently resisting the temptation to acquire big fluffy chickens called Buff Orpingtons. I've been looking at the possiblity of installing chickens for a while. We do have the room, but we don't yet have a fully fenced off area in the garden.
Having spent today lunching with a large crowd of Buff Orpingtons (and blue ones and jubilee ones) at Harperley Hall POW Camp I am quite struck on them. They are huge, and very amusing. I'm not sure they could fly if they wanted to. Knowing us they'd end up in the house, but not for lunch.
3 comments:
Of course you want chickens (personally I think the harmonium is a jolly good idea too so perhaps I'm not the best person to pass comment LOL). I can give you a head start with a couple of noisy cockerels if you have any neighbours you want to annoy!
Great collection ! Take care; harmoniums and reed-organs are like a viruse ! Come see my blog; I love these instruments too :)
Bob.
http://harmonium.le-blog.info
hi, i am trying to find a harmonium very similar to yours for a short film i am working on about the artist James Ensor. Here he is, complete with harmonium: http://web.mac.com/robertthirtle1/iWeb/Ensor/Ensor_files/slideshow.html?slideIndex=14
I don't suppose you would consider lending it? Please contact me if you are interested to know more: juliancrouch@mac.com.
All the best, Julian
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