Book Harmonium
Technical description: Softwood case in form of four leather-bound folio size books, the cover and spines stamped with gold floral designs, and labeled on the spines: Traite des Pais Bas Tom I (II, III, IV); volume one hinges upward, revealing an engraving of the Supper at Emmaus glued beneath the lid; inside, a keyboard (oak levers, ebony naturals, ivory accidentals; compass F-c2) is at the front of the compartment, separated by a partition from a leather-covered (painted pink) reservoir behind, the reservoir (compressed by two springs and bearing a safety valve on top) mounted above a single fold feeder operated by a handle extending through the lower left rear side of the case; the boxwood handle terminates in the form of a seated lion holding a shield on which is carved an adz; a wind chest at the case bottom below the keyboard bears 32 flat-sided oak "bottles," the necks pointing down and serving as windways; on the left side of each "bottle" a single free reed riveted to a metal frame glued over an opening on the side, the bottles numbered consecutively in ink, no. 20 also stamped IX; wire stickers below the keys pierce a rack and enter the windchest to depress valves; the key dip is limited by a green fabric padded batten below the key fronts, but the keys also have leather bushed front pin holes, indicating that the cutdown keys originated in another instrument; the truncated key tails are individually parchment hinged to a back rail, and are numbered consecutively on the tail ends, and many bear non-consecutive Roman numerals stamped on the sides; the entire mechanism may be lifted out of the case, which may be older.
Artwork Details
- Title: Book Harmonium
- Date: 19th century
- Geography: France or Germany
- Culture: French or German
- Medium: Wood, various materials
- Dimensions: Length (perpendicular to keyboard): 33.4 cm
Width: 48.8 cm
Depth (with lid): 32.2 cm
One-octave span: 15.5 cm - Classification: Aerophone-Free Reed-harmonium
- Credit Line: The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889
- Object Number: 89.4.1668
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments
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