Barrel Organ
1790 - 1795 (Made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Barrel organs were fitted with organ pipes and bellows, and wound with a crank-handle, which rotated a wooden cylinder or 'barrel' and pumped air as well as controlling its supply to the individual pipes. This process enabled different tunes to be played, and this example originally had four barrels, playing 10 tunes each. Barrel organs provided dance music and even hymns for services in domestic chapels. Longman & Broderip, who made this example, traded under that name from 1776 until 1795, when they finally went bankrupt.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 7 parts.
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| Materials and techniques | Joined, planed and varnished mahogany with painted front panel. |
| Brief description | Mahogany case, with a painted front panel, Longman & Broderip, London, English, 1790-1795. |
| Physical description | "Mahogany with a nineteenth century painting [most likely of Terpsichore, the Muse of singing and dancing, holding her customary garland of flowers] in the position formerly occupied by a front panel of dummy pipes. Two barrels in existence; but inside the lid a list of four barrels with ten tunes each. [These are listed on the inside of the lid]. Specification: stopped diapason and principal." Raymond Russell Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogue of Musical Instruments. Volume I. Keyboard Instruments (London, 1968), p. 70. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Credit line | Given to the Museum by Henry Barret Lennard |
| Object history | This instrument was given by Henry Barrett Lennard in 1899. |
| Summary | Barrel organs were fitted with organ pipes and bellows, and wound with a crank-handle, which rotated a wooden cylinder or 'barrel' and pumped air as well as controlling its supply to the individual pipes. This process enabled different tunes to be played, and this example originally had four barrels, playing 10 tunes each. Barrel organs provided dance music and even hymns for services in domestic chapels. Longman & Broderip, who made this example, traded under that name from 1776 until 1795, when they finally went bankrupt. |
| Bibliographic reference | Raymond Russell: Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogue of Musical Instruments. Volume I. Keyboard Instruments. (London, 1968), p. 70. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 2155-1899 |
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| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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