1891 Mason & Hamlin 902 Organ

[Earl]

A few weeks ago I went down and picked up this organ after some good friends of mine asked me if I was interested in it. I had tried to buy one of these things out in California 6-8 years ago and had it bought, but then the woman backed out and sold it to another guy. That organ was a 901 and I doubt it survived the guy that bought it. He completely took the thing apart and had no idea about how to restore such a thing and the last picture i got of it was coffee cans full of screws, reeds all over the place, and things taken apart with no regard as to how to get any of it back together. Nice guy, but had no idea about what he was up against with something on this order. I'm by no means an expert on this stuff, but I have been through a number of reed organs and do know that the Mason & Hamlin he got hold of is probably lost to history. I did suggest a few people out west that he should contact about selling it to, but I doubt that happened. So, I was actually pretty excited about this organ when Stuart asked me if I was interested in it. We all know how that goes. I've owned a couple of single manual Liszt organs. One I sort of got restored (mostly just recovered the bellows) and then another guy really wanted it to finish up. And the other one was falling apart in a church basement and I dragged it home and sold most of it off on ebay. So now, I have this one and then last weekend I also got another single manual Liszt organ that must be earlier than the other two I had as it does not say Liszt on the fallboard. That one also does not have the pedal point feature. I think it's a model 501, but I'd have to look at it again to make sure. WOW was that one full of mice. It's out in the shed behind my garage and needs to sit there until spring because reeks of mice. I cleaned out as much of it as I could and will let it air out until spring. It's hard to say it it's salvageable at this point, but it's not going to hurt it to be there until next year. It sat in the guys garage that I got it from for 6-7 years already, and at least it won't have anymore mice in it where it's at now. I'm going to put some baking soda on it today to help absorb some of that odor.

Anyway, here are some pictures of this 902 organ and I'll start taking it apart in the next week or so and re-cover the bellows for it this winter. I'm pretty sure this one will have the leather and cardboard exhauster set up in it. And that set-up seems to move more air than when they are just covered with rubberized cloth like they did later. Maybe I'm nuts on that one, but that type of bellows does seem to be more efficient. It needs to be refinished and that will have to wait until next year and I'm sure it will take me quite awhile to go through this thing. It had a few mice in it over the years (no surprise there) but nothing like that other organ, and they didn't get too carried away in it which is really fortunate.

Also, feel free to give me some advice on this project either here on the forum or privately as I know sometimes it's easier that way. I'm not sure what sort of leather these days works the best for the exhausters as I know opinions change on some of that stuff as well. It seems like I used sheepskin in the past, but it's been awhile. That was on an Estey Grand Salon organ. If you ever want a miserable organ to restore, I would recommend one of those that's sat in a barn for a number of years. That's another story though.

This 902 really has some nice looking wood in it. Mason & Hamlin did always do a nice job with their organ cases I think. At least the one's I've seen. But they certainly did have their own ideas about things compared to what other organ builders were up to at the same time. I've often had the feeling that they never thought the bellows would need servicing, but most of the other stuff does come apart pretty nicely especially when you consider how complicated some of their organs are. And if you want pictures of something specific on this thing do let me know and I'll do my best to get them taken. Outside of a couple of stop faces and the knee thing for the pedal point, I don't think much else is missing. I'll know better as I get it all apart of course.

And I know this is my first post, although I've been reading through this forum for a few years now. I honestly haven't been doing much with reed organs for the past few years. Mostly been refinishing radio and phonograph cabinets.... Not that anyone else gets more than one thing on their plate at a time. Haha! Earl.

[SubBase]

Hi,
I owned a 1891 902 also, dated December that year. This link is to the album of restoration photos, in case anything on yours was not put back together right. I have more pics that never were uploaded too.
http://s82.photobucket.com/user/Somb...?sort=3&page=1
These are very involved, and even though the guts look like the 1M version, they are different. Like the Seraphone swell box is 1/4" shorter than the 1M so they can't be exchanged. The swell also opens toward the inside instead of the back to direct the sound more logically.
They are devilishly intricate but beautifully laid out.Mine took 450 hours to restore.
I got an 1884 style 901 this year, and have it about 25% done. lol.


The 901 had to have a lot of structural repairs.


These are so awesome they are worth whatever attention you can give them, I have a playlist of 901/902 videos on my Youtube channel MasonHamlinOrgans.
Casey

[Earl]

Casey, you're 901 is a very nice looking organ, but I can see you have a lot of case work to deal with. I did read through your threads on the work you did on that 902 a few weeks ago when I first got this one home. I did pick up that singe manual organ in case I did need some parts for this one, but I'm not going to do anything drastic with that one until I find out for sure if it's beyond restoration. It's too bad on these more expensive instruments that Mason & Hamlin didn't stick to using ivory on the keytops as the celluloid they used doesn't always hold up well. Clough & Warren organs often have the same trouble as well. Mason & Hamlin's seem to have warped keys on them too, but it might be on account of the length of them as well. That 901 case is really nice looking though, and you'll have to keep that one once you get it back together. You can never have enough clamps it seems like. My Dad was friends with a guy that worked in a furniture factory back before 1910 and when I was a kid in the 70's I asked him how they got all that stuff glued up at the factory. He said at the place he worked at down in Kansas City, they used "clamping boxes" and they just glued up the panels and laid everything in the box and tightened everything up it held everything square weather or not how tight the joinery actually was. I doubt piano and organ companies (at least the better one's) used that system much, but it certainly would make sense for the ends of the case like I see you are glueing up.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I'll keep this post up as I move along. It's always nice to have people help out with some of this stuff after they have gone down the road themselves. Player pianos are complicated in a different way than organs are. And Orchestrelles are just beyond comprehension. I've had 4-5 of those and never restored one, but did have a W that really played nicely. I have to say that the Orchestrelle is about the only thing I've sold that I kind of regret at times. You have that large Vocalion which is kind of the same thing, but a good roll on an Orchestrelle is really something. I had a chance to get a Vocalion like the one in your avatar 10-12 years ago. But it had been in water up to the keyboard and I really had no place to even store it. We all have seen stuff like that, and it's a shame. On the other hand, it was probably going to the dump before it got hauled to that guys barn for storage.

It's hard to believe some of the cabinet work the Victorian age produced. I have a woodworking book that was published about 1930 and it has a sentence in it that says something like "You may find the furniture that your parents and grandparents lived with to be garish, hideous or overly decorated. But if some family member (out of sentiment) brings a piece of expensive furniture from the 70's or 80's for you to work on or replicate some piece of, you'll stand in amazement wondering how those people could have thought of that as production work".

[SubBase]

Are you Charlie Robison's friend who got the one up in Maine this summer? The pics you posted looks like that one.
Casey

[Earl]

Yes, Charlie kind of told me a little bit about where it originally came from. But I'm not sure how much he was actually told about it. Charlie and Stuart did say it came from a large house up in Maine, but I'm not sure how long ago it was bought from out there though. One of these days when I'm down that way I'll have to see if I can meet the guy that they got it from.

I spent about 5 hours taking it apart yesterday, and those Mason & Hamlin guys were sure good at what they did, I'll give them that. I'm sure glad that we can take digital pictures of something like this as it comes apart as it's a lot easier than 25 years or more ago when you had to make drawings of everything to keep it straight. I had one screw head break in two on the reed pan, so I'll have to deal with that today. I can understand why you are so impressed with these organs as it really is extremely well built. The case is constructed a lot like a piano and I'm glad that the ends of that come off so you can get to the linkages on both ends of the action. I figured they would, but you don't always know until the search for screws come along! It will be an easy cabinet to refinish, and that's nice as well. I've done a few of those huge Packard organs with all the carving, mirrors, et. and those are a challenge. The hot oil finish they used on these walnut organs is kind of hard to remove, but that's the worst of it. If they put shellac under it to seal the wood, that helps a lot when trying to wash the old finish off. It's had a couple of bad repairs done on the fallboard and I'll have to soak apart and re-glue. But the rest of it's pretty straight forward. You are really good and thorough with your restorations Casey. 400 hours is probably a conservative amount of time on one of these things from what I'm seeing. Haha! Too many people don't do anything with their hands these days and they cannot understand how long it takes to do a nice job restoring things. It is much more complicated than the single manual Liszt organs but I expected that. And having some clown in there ahead of times to really mess things up is VERY frustrating. This one at least hasn't had that happen to it. Mice, but those things seem to be everywhere. I have a brother that traps and he has said that the last three years around here have been really good for the mouse population for whatever reason. It makes it hard to catch other things (like coyotes) because they have a ready food supply. So make sure you have traps set for mice now that it's getting cold out.

This one also had the side pumping hardware all removed a long, long time ago. Whoever had this organ out east must have put a blower on it when they got electricity in the house. Other than the slots and escutcheons for the lever and indicator on the treble side of the case, the rest of that mechanism is long gone. And somebody patched the hole on the back of the reservoir and the rear panel where it was connected. That looks like it was done in the last 30 years or so. Someone did a nice job on that but I'll take the pine out they patched the back panel with and replace it with walnut.

[SubBase]

Hi,
Well, you're not going to correspond with the previous owner, because he's dead. I went up to Kennebunk this summer and saw the remaining couple of organs out of the estate. There was a 2MP Estey E that has been moved to Italy. I met the woman (significant other) he left stuff to, and also his sister.
Really interesting about the manual pumping setup, take some pics of what is left, I guess the straps ran underneath somehow, because the couldn't run through like on some big Esteys. The corno chest would be in the way.

[Earl]

I can take pictures of whatever is left of the pumping set up. There's almost no evidence left other than the slots on the side of the case at this point. It must have gone down under the reservoir like you mentioned though.

I meant the guy down by Kansas City that Charlie and Stuart got this thing from. I didn't know that it was from an estate sale earlier this year, and was kind of under the impressing that it had been down by Kansas City for 5-10 years. That's interesting that it came from a collection of other reed organs, et. Shipping a large Estey to Italy would get expensive these days. I got an Orchestrelle shipped here from Scotland in 2005 and that was around $1,200 in those days. It would be a lot more than that now I'm afraid.

An auction with a bunch of organs and player pianos is a good thing to stay away from. The one's I've been to in the last few years usually do really poorly and then I end up wanting to drag 5 pickup loads of stuff home that I don't have room for..... I went to the auction in Deansboro, New York 20 odd years ago and this stuff was still selling fairly well in those days. Lots of melodeons on that sale and most of them went for under $125. There was some large organs there including a 2 or 3 manual Mason & Hamlin with a pedal board. It seems like that one sold for $800 but I can't remember for sure. At the time (compared to everything else) I thought that was a pretty good price for it. There was a large Estey (I think a T) and a few Vocalion organs as well on that auction. Here in Iowa a few years ago a guy that had a lot of player pianos and pump organs died and the bulk of those things didn't even get a bid. There was a player Kimball organ that sold for around $200. Rolls for those are really hard to find though. We left before they got to a lot of it, but I know the executor to the estate and talked to him about it a few weeks later. It's kind of sad, but I guess it's just the way things are. Out on the east coast there must be semi loads of this stuff for the hauling. Good thing I'm mostly a phonograph guy. Ha! They are a lot smaller.

[myorgan]

Yes, Charlie kind of told me a little bit about where it originally came from. But I'm not sure how much he was actually told about it. Charlie and Stuart did say it came from a large house up in Maine, but I'm not sure how long ago it was bought from out there though.

I went up to Kennebunk this summer and saw the remaining couple of organs out of the estate. There was a 2MP Estey E that has been moved to Italy. I met the woman (significant other) he left stuff to, and also his sister.

And to think I missed both of you while you were here. I wish I had known about those organs, but I guess it's probably better I didn't–my wife would kill me!

Congratulations to both of you.

Michael

[SubBase]

Here's the FB announcement of the sale from the folks that conducted it. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.p...01860323169580
If you go to their business page there are links to the video of it being played. save it for your records/provenance. The guy was a teacher at a private prep school of some note.
Casey

[myorgan]

Thank you, Casey. I never even knew they existed. I guess I'm too busy working. Since it was announced on FB, that explains why my wife would never have told me.:'(

Michael

[Earl]

Casey,
Well thank you very much. i really appreciate showing me that link and see where the stuff came from. George Woods certainly made some interesting organs. They don't turn up very often in this part of the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX_xCEy3qeA is a short video of the inside of that thing with some of the stuff out of the way. I had the Electrola going and didn't realize my camera would pick it up as loud as it did. I've gotten most of the mouse nests out of there and I know Stuart pulled some of it out when he had it in his storage unit for a week or so. It has had the bellows recovered, but the guy used rubberized cloth on the exhausters instead of doing it the way it was done originally. And he glued everything down with white glue so I'll have to sort that all out. At least nothing was really messed up in the process, and it looks like he pulled the entire action out of the case instead of taking it apart as there was no evidence of the linkages being messed with, but in a few places wrong screws were used and that sort of thing. He could not have been happy with that thing after he got done with it. For one thing, the glue joint where the bellows meet the bottom of the reed pan is not tight on the treble end. You can get a knife between it there. The flap valves are original and curling (but may have been ok when he went through it) And he did not do anything to seal the bottom of the exhausters other than use some red cloth for a hinge on the inside. Oh well, I'll have to get after that white glue with paint remover and get it all soaked off the thing. I've certainly seem MUCH worse work done on pump organs and player pianos, but it's always much better when they have been left alone.

[Earl]

Michael,
Well thank you. I know what you mean about having enough stuff. I just figured out the "facebook marketplace" thing a few weeks ago. Holy cow for the pump organs that are all over the place for sale. Good thing that didn't exist 15 years ago when a 12 hour drive didn't phase me! I'm a UPS driver and I get the "What did she (or he) order now?" remark almost every day. Haha! Earl.

- - - Updated - - -

Just in case you thought I wasn't going to have to re-glue the cabinet Haha!

Mason & Hamlin was kind of being odd by not running the burled face veneer all the way to the ends of the panels. It sure allowed a lot of that veneer to pop loose and buckle at the edges of the boards. They did go to the trouble to put scrap veneer on the backside though to keep the panels from warping, which was nice. It's interesting also to see that they used newspaper to keep the glue that soaked through to keep the panels from sticking to each other. Having the whole cabinet apart does make glueing those loose edges back down a lot easier though.

[Earl]

The weather got kind of decent today, and I'm running out of time this year to do much of anything outside so I did get the finish washed off the case. It was very oxidized in most places except the back of the fallboard and a couple of other places so it came off pretty easily. Sometimes those oil finishes are really hard to get loose and want to come off like dried cooking oil (which is probably about what they amount to) but it was only really stubborn in a few places. The Mason & Hamlin people really used some nice veneers up on the case. It's too bad they didn't do those panels a little differently, but they will be fine. But it's very nicely constructed and it should go back together pretty nicely. I have some varnish that's not quite as old as this thing, but it was canned in 1912 so it's at least close to what they would have used. It rubs out and polishes really nicely and even though I kind of doubt it really had a "piano" finish on it originally, it will look good with one. It certainly had a filled grain finish, so I'll have to fill the grain after I get a few more loose veneer issues sorted out. Mason & Hamlin really didn't put a very thick finish on this thing, but those linseed oil or what they called china wood oil finishes wear really well. A lot better than most of the other options they had and because it was almost a wiping finish, that's why you almost never see runs on the walnut furniture in those years. Linseed oil and oak don't work very well and when oak became the rage in the mid 1890's the brushed varnish finishes got popular. I could go the lacquer route too I suppose, but I'm not in the big of a hurry and I can varnish the case while I'm working on the rest of it.

[SubBase]

Just make sure you get some color on it, a pale finish would be inauthentic, but these top end ones did not have the red mahogany-look finish, they should be a dark brown walnut color. (Van Dyke brown) I'm going to dye mine with walnut hull stain; I picked up the walnuts last week.
Casey

[Earl]

Casey,
I've never tried the walnut hull thing. I usually use NGR dyes as they are clear and work well with refinishing stuff. The only thing that I worry about with water stains and dyes is they won't bite in when there are traces of finish left on the cabinet. And I have no idea how color-fast the walnut juice would be, but I know they used stuff like that up until the coal tar dyes got really popular. And I'm with you on walnut. It ALWAYS needs to be stained. The grain needs to be filled as well, and I bought some pigment to do that with.

I've probably refinished 50-60 pianos and not that many pump organs, but I would guess at least 25 of them. Lots of radios and phonographs as well. Radio cabinets are pretty easy though, about like refinishing a box in most cases... I must have 40 old books on wood finishing and in one of them a guy mentions working in an organ factory in the 1880's in passing and says they used a hot oil finish on the walnut cases. I wish they had been a little more specific about some of that information, but it was probably considered general knowledge to the trade back then. But then he says that oak became the rage and that kind of a finish isn't suited for oak. And the oak organs do seem to have more of a shellac based finish on them, at least the one's I've gotten after. Rosewood does also, but the varnishes they had back then wouldn't dry on rosewood, and if they did, they would eventually turn sticky or pop loose because of the oil in the wood. Shellac for whatever reason is ok on rosewood, so they got a french polish. I did that once on a melodeon and boy was that a lot of work.

Have you ever done "golden oak" with asphaltum varnish and gold japan size, thinned with turpentine? This is the motor-board for a Victor V I'm refinishing right now as well. It's not the best example of the color because the cabinet was around something that darkened the oak a fair amount and it wouldn't bleach out. But, one thing that's really nice about this stain is it REALLY shows the flake off on quarter sawn oak. The asphaltum varnish is kind of slow to dry before you can topcoat it, but it really does show the grain off well.