1960s photo London England Chiappa fairgrounds organ ornate fair music nymphs

Description: 1960s Vintage image of Chiappa organ. Very nice image of a beautiful organ. Check out the 1940s automobile on left side of image. More on Chiappa and fairground organs below: "Prior to settling in London, Giuseppe Chiappa lived in Paris and served an apprenticeship under the famous mechanical organ manufacturer Gavioli. On the completion of his apprenticeship, Chiappa moved to London to establish his own business as a Barrel Organ Manufacturer and Repairer in the 1860's. The first company premises were at 5 Little Saffron Hill (now known as Herbal Hill); however, he relocated to Eyre Street Hill in 1877. Giuseppe Chiappa amassed a large stock of hand-cranked barrel organs that he would maintain, retune and then rent out by the day to Italian street musicians. Giuseppe Chiappa was a great craftsman, and the company also manufactured new and increasingly complicated organs. Many of organs were ornately decorated with carved human figures with arms that moved in time to the music. Some arms moved to strike bells. Extract:-Clerkenwell - a little history "A fairground organ is a pipe organ designed for use in a commercial public fairground setting to provide loud music to accompany fairground rides and attractions, mostly used on merry-go-rounds. Unlike organs intended for indoor use, they are designed to produce a large volume of sound to be heard over and above the noise of crowds of people and fairground machinery. History As fairgrounds became more mechanised at the end of the nineteenth century so did their musical needs grow. The period of greatest activity of fairground organ manufacture and development is from the later 1880s through to the introduction of effective electrical sound amplification in the mid-1920s. The organ chassis was typically provided with an ornate and florid decorative case façade designed to be a further fairground attraction in its own right as with all fairground equipment. The ornate case façades frequently had different instruments such as a Glockenspiel or Drums that provide visual entertainment as they played. There were often ornate human figures such as a conductor whose arm moved in time to the music or women whose arms would strike bells. The mechanics to accomplish this motion were quite intricate and provided a pleasant visual experience in addition to the music. The organs were constructed so as to be able to produce the popular music of the period. Organs were designed to mimic the musical capabilities of a typical human band. For this reason they are known as "band organs" in the United States. The motive force for a fairground organ is typically wind under pressure generated from mechanically powered sets of bellows mounted in the base of the instrument. The instruments, designed to be operated without a human performer, are keyboard-less apart from a few one-off[citation needed] examples. The organ is played mechanically by either a rotating barrel with the music pinned thereon like a music box, a strip of cards perforated with the musical data and registration controls called book music or interchangeable rolls of paper similarly programmed called music rolls. However, Victory, pictured above, while a traditional mechanism plays traditional books, it also contains a Yamaha MIDI interface and is most often played electronically - with a blank card in place of the traditional book. Owner, Willem Kelders, uses this interface to link organs (Rhapsody and Locomotion - driven by Victory) together so they all play the same music perfectly synchronised. Fairground organs were used in many settings such as general fairground rides, static side shows such as bioscope shows and various locations in amusements parks such as ice rinks and the like. Manufacturers of fairground organs also typically made instruments for indoor usage in a dance hall called a dance organ and travelling street use called a street organ Like all mechanical instruments fairground organs come in a vast array of sizes and technical specifications made by a myriad of manufacturers all of which had their own trademark characteristics. As with all vintage equipment there is a strong preservation movement associated with these instruments and today new instruments and music are still being made."-Wikipedia Image meas. apx. 6 1/2" x 4 3/4". Judge condition of images from scan but please ask any and all questions before bidding as I want you to bid with confidence. These are historical images documenting a bygone era of organs ... 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Price: 15.99 USD

Location: Royal Oak, Michigan

End Time: 2024-10-10T21:20:09.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD