Positive Organ
ca. 1700 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This organ was probably built in about 1700, with parts added at later dates. It came from the church of São Salvador, in Santa Cruz, Madeira, and was probably made locally. It has a range of forty-five notes, C/E - c3 and much of its workings are original. The stop nobs on the left of the keyboad are dummy and those on the right were later modified, so that the organ could be controlled by only one knob. The case is decorated with fragments of Gothic carving, which could date from about 1500.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Carved and moulded pine case, planed keys of fruitwood |
| Brief description | Positive organ, Portuguese (Madeira), painted pinewood case, about 1700, decorated with Flemish carving dating from about 1500. |
| Physical description | Positive Organ, painted light green, with large, machine-carved moulding at the top, and a case decorated with fretwork and scrolls of gothic carving. The pipes at the front of the case are arranged symmetrically and their function is decorative. There are three knobs on each side of the keyboard, the ones on the left being dummy. The keys are made of stained fruitwood. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Given to the Museum by Dr. M. Grabham of Madeira |
| Object history | This instrument was given to the Museum by Dr. M. Grabham of Madeira in 1886. |
| Production | This organ comes from a church in Madeira, and was probably made by local craftsmen. The carved scrolls on the case could be Flemish and could date from about 1500. |
| Summary | This organ was probably built in about 1700, with parts added at later dates. It came from the church of São Salvador, in Santa Cruz, Madeira, and was probably made locally. It has a range of forty-five notes, C/E - c3 and much of its workings are original. The stop nobs on the left of the keyboad are dummy and those on the right were later modified, so that the organ could be controlled by only one knob. The case is decorated with fragments of Gothic carving, which could date from about 1500. |
| Bibliographic reference | Howard Schott: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part I: Keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p. 68 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 26-1886 |
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| Record created | October 27, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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