Melodeon
Alternate name(s)
- Reed organ
Maker
George A. Prince & Co.
Date1871-1872 ca.
Place MadeBuffalo, New York, United States, North America
ModelLyre leg
Serial No.35808
SignedPrinted paper label on the board behind the keyboard (the surface also serving as the bottom edge of the music desk; gold-colored ink leaving the black background to show as the inscription: GEORGE A. PRINCE & C[O.] / BUFFALO, N.Y. / NEW YORK and CHICAGO[.] Patented Graduated Swell.
Printed paper label on the top board of the bellows.
MarkingsStamped into the brass escutcheon for the stop lever in the bass endblock: BASSO TENUTO / PATENTED 24TH JUNE 1862
Stamped into the brass escutcheon for the stop lever in the bass endblock: DIVIDED SWELL / PATENTED 22D MAY, 1855
Printed paper label on the treble swell louver.
Printed paper label on the board behind the reeds and swell louvers.
DescriptionFive octaves FF to f3. Two pedals: swell (left) and bellows (right). Two handstops: “basso tenuto” in the bass endblock, by which a key played in the bass octave (FF to E) is held down until another is played; and “divided swell” in the treble endblock, by which the swell slat behind the reeds f1 to f3 is opened. Ivory-covered naturals, with rounded fronts; ebony(?) sharps. Case veneered in rosewood. The instrument rests on two inverted lyres attached to the bottom at left and right with thumbscrews and connected near the floor with a matching stretcher which holds the pedals.
Pitch at A = 448
“lyre leg” (according to current collectors’ jargon)
The list of dated serial numbers in Gellerman’s Atlas is suspect: see Koster (1994), p. 288. From the serial number 27,291 of a Prince melodeon of the same model listed (registration number 0007) on the website of the Reed Organ Society (www.reedsoc.org, accessed 8 August 2011) with a basso tenuto knob evident in the photo thus indicating a date no earlier than 1862 when this device was patented, one can infer that NMM 14517, serial number 35,808, must have been made some years later.
Dimensionscase (without projecting molding and lid) 936 mm long by 465 wide
total height with closed lid 757 mm
3-octave measure 485 mm
ProvenancePurchased by James Johnson at the Salvation Army in Rapid City. Reportedly it had been in the previous owner’s family in South Dakota since the 19th c.
Credit LineGift of Carolyn and James Johnson, 2010
Object number14517
On View
Not on view
