Saturday, December 24, 2016

IMHOF & MUKLE, VÖHRENBACH, GERMANY ORCHESTRION - FABRIK in Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum, Scotland.

IMHOF  &  MUKLE ORCHESTRION - FABRIK, VÖHRENBACH,  GERMANY.
Written from first hand research and illustrated by George W. Randall, 
co-founder in July 1996 and former 
Vice Chairman Kinloch Castle Friends' Association.      

Technical descriptions from written notes by my late life-long friend,
Stephen Frankland, (3 January 1953 - 19 October 2009), a time served organ builder.
All photographs George W. Randall  © COPYRIGHT

The Imhof & Mukle Orchestrion at Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum, Scotland.

LEFT: Housed below the staircase the “works” side of the Orchestrion, with drum, cymbal, tambourine and triangle above. RIGHT: Above the bellows and airlines are the 264 pipes for clarinet, flute, French horn, trumpet, bassoon and trombone.






The company received numerous decorations and medals at exhibitions: including London 1862 and 1884, Dublin 1865, Mannheim 1880, Sydney 1880, Melbourne 1881, Amsterdam 1883, Antwerp 1885 and Paris 1900.

Custom fitted behind ornate, part glazed oak cabinetry under the principal staircase off the Great Hall, at Kinloch Castle is a magnificent 
Imhof & Mukle Orchestrion gifted, along with all the contents of this late Victorian former hunting lodge, to the British nation by Lady Monica Bullough, widow of Sir George Bullough, on 28 February 1957, which would have been Sir George's 87th birthday.

>*<  >*<  >*< >*< >*<  >*<  >*< >*<>*<  >*<  >*< >*<>*<  >*< 


>*<  >*<  >*< >*< >*<  >*<  >*< >*<>*<  >*<  >*< >*<>*<  >*<  >*< >*<




The premises of Daniel Imhof & Leopold Mukle, 110 New Oxford Street London,
(founded in 1845), which sold Orchestrion No. 3220 
to Sir George Bullough  reputedly in 1906, the year major internal and external
work was being carried out at Kinloch Castle.
The Imhof & Mukle Company at Vöhrenbach, Germany, closed in 1930
and the Oxford Street shop was sold in 1963 following the death of
Godfrey Imhof, grandson of Daniel Imhof.

Today 110 New Oxford Street, is a mobile phone warehouse.


*
The March 1978 Kinloch Castle Inventory of Contents by Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers, Edinburgh, Scotland records:
"Item 397 Orchestrrion by Imhof & Mukle, 
No. 3200 (their mistake) 
40 Rolls of music on wood drums."

In March 1992 Phillips recorded on Page 6 
of the Castle's contents:
"An orchestrion, electrically operated 'orchestra' playing on drums, cymbal, triangle, piano floten, piccolo, faggot, posaune, woodwind, 
brass and silver trumpets, organ pipes, 
all fitted in a panelled glazed case No. 3220 
and numerous rolls."  

In June 1996 Phillips conducted yet another inventory and valuation of contents. 
On Page 5 they recorded verbatim their 1992 description. 
In August 2007 Bonham's undertook an 
"insurance valuation report" of Castle contents. On Page 32 they recorded: 

"An Orchestrion by Imhof & Mukle" in fitted oak case, playing on drums, cymbal, triangle, piano floten, piccolo, faggot, posaune, woodwind, brass and silver trumpets, organ pipes, all fitted in a panelled glazed case no. 3220 and numerous rolls." 
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The precision punched music roll runs left to right. 

Operationally, the orchestrion is similar to a fairground organ, but whereas the latter operates via a folding card system the former utilises a Manila paper roll, known as a holzgehäusewhich has precision punched holes similar to a pianola roll.

The Manila paper music roll passes under a series of steel fingers,
known as the Tracker Bar. 



*



SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE KEY ACTION (SIMPLIFIED)
NOTE IS 'ON'  (i.e. the note is sounding).

The chambers A and B are charged with air. When the steel finger (1) encounters a hole in the manila paper roll, it falls through the hole thereby lifting the valve (2) allowing air to enter lead tube (x) and inflate the purse (3). This causes valve (4) to lift, allowing air to enter tube (Y) and inflating the pneumatic motor (5). This in turn pulls down pallet (6) admitting air from chest B 

into the groove, and cause the pipes situated over that groove to speak.
(One pipe only shown).





Early orchestrions were clock-work
driven by falling weights.
* 
The original 100 volt series-wound DC
motor above has long since been replaced
by a modern AC electric motor.

The original motor drive was controlled
through a potentiometer enabling the speed of
the music to be increased or decreased.

The replacement only runs at one speed.
*
*
The materials used in the Orchestrion’s construction are of the highest quality,
as is the workmanship. The metal flue pipes 

are of tin - more correctly an alloy of tin
and a small percentage of lead - pure tin 

being very difficult to work.
The resonators of the pipes of the trumpet 

class are brass, the other reeds being of tin. 
The flute-toned pipes are made of wood.

Original bottles of lubricating oil.

The new electric motor (1250 revs.) runs at only one speed unlike the original.
Note the gearing to the Bellows Crank Wheel right.

Drive pulleys - Ratio gearing to Bellows Crank Wheel.

When crank speed is 60 RPM, the motor speed would be 1417 RPM
With 1425 RPM AC motor with 3 inch motor pulley, 
the crank speed would be 60.3 RPM.
Primary Belt: Habisit Suisse Green Polycord 7 mm. diameter.

(Drawing and description ©  Craig J. Macpherson, M.B.E., B.E.M..)


Bellows crank wheel drives Habisit Suisse Green (round) 
Polycord Primary Belt.

The 2006 Report recommended the drive belts were replaced throughout.



The music roll “cassette” is known as a holzgehäuse.
Once played the roll has to be rewound manually.


A badly damaged metal holzgehäuse.


Woodworm dust visible bottom shelf. The beetle bores round tunnels,
usually going with the grain and will fly to find new wood sources.


“Unfortunately the most important component of the Orchestrion is also the most fragile, the music rolls,

at least one hundred years old and easily damaged.”

 

Original music rolls are available, existing ones can be repaired and a limited title range of new ones are made. Protecting the playable rolls must be as much a priority as restoring the instrument itself.

 

(From the 2012 Report - Now ten years out-of-date!)





Organ builder Stephen Frankland replacing a music roll in July 2001.
Titles include: San Toy Lancers, Overture Bohemian Girl, Wagner's Lohengrin, 
Grieg's Wedding March, A Selection from Faust, Coppelia Ballet, 
Selection from Belle of New York and Selection from Romeo and Juliet.




The play mechanism gearing and 
pulleys (right) 
to the wind instruments.
The materials used in the Orchestrion’s construction 
are of the highest workmanship. 

*

You can hear and see this remarkable instrument 
by clicking on the YouTube link below:

*
The Overall Structural Condition in the 2012 Report concluded the instrument “can still be described as excellent, 
although under threat from severe
woodworm infestation. The base and building frame has shrunk slightly and will require woodworm treatment, 
washing and joints tightened.”



The Overall Condition of the Organ as an Instrument 
highlights again the effects of woodworm on the primary action rails, wind chests 
and timber pipe-work, and how woodworm attack has affected 
“the majority of notes (which) fail to play when required or do not sound their proper 
note due to debris ... ... blocking wind-ways, valves and pipework. 
The leather-work on both bellows and feeders is hard and stiff, all external leather-work on the primary and secondary movements is perished.”






Time served organ builder Stephen Frankland undertakes temporary 
repairs to leaking timber pipework in July 2001 with permission 
of the Castle Manager.


The materials and workmanship in the Orchestrion construction is of the highest quality. The metal flue pipes are tin - more correctly an alloy of tin and a small percentage of lead - pure tin being very difficult to work. Other pipes (red) are tubes of wood the joints 
of which break down over time, they are also vulnerable 
to woodworm attack.
The resonators of the pipes of the trumpet class are brass, 
the other reeds being of tin. 
The flute-toned pipes are made of wood. 


*
The percussion section sits snugly under the rising main staircase visible above.
Behind the pannelled back is the Castle front entrance lobby.

The Report  recommended the bass and snare drum be washed thoroughly, the clockwork beater mechanism and springs cleaned, overhauled and adjusted. 
The pneumatics stripped of perished leather and recovered with best quality white splitskin of suitable grade in the traditional manner using hot scotch glue.

The drum roll mechanism. 

The Report continued: the triangle and cymbal required washing and polishing, 
new hanging cords fitted in the same style in place of those that were found to be 
perished on the triangle and the cymbal assembled in a proper manner. 
Clockwork beater mechanisms cleaned and overhauled, 
bearings lubricated and adjusted. 
Perished leather removed from the pneumatic motors and replaced 
by best quality splitskin.


The percussion viewed from the front comprises snare drum, 
triangle and cymbal.
The drum roll (previous photograph) and two soft beaters on large drum 
(photograph below). 

Drum viewed from the back.
*


The full brass section.


Comprising Tracks 95 - 108:

Forte fluten, Piano fluten, Piccolo, Faggott, Posaunen, Bariton, Trompeten, Klarinette, Pauke (2 tracks), Einzelshlag (2 tracks), 
Crescendo Forte and Crescendo Piano.


This Post is dedicated to
my lifelong friend, Stephen Edward Frankland, 
piped organ restorer and builder, 
3 January 1953 - 19 October 2009.

Life is short, 
sometimes shorter than we realise!



*
One must not forget the Kinloch Castle Orchestrion is custom modified and the instrumentation adapted to fit under a staircase.
 Today it requires urgent attention as a result of years of neglect.
 In addition the ravages of woodworm, damp and degeneration of materials 
- particularly animal glues - mean that:

"the longer this most urgent work is put off, the less chance there will be of saving it for future generations."

Publicly owned and a major part of 
The Sir George Bullough, Bt., Memorial, 
full restoration must result in the instrument being properly housed and maintained in the future, and available to be seen and heard first hand 
by the public for generations to come!

As the instrument has to be totally dismantled and removed to specialist premises for full restoration this question 
MUST be inevitably asked; 
following restoration should the instrument be returned to Kinloch Castle its rightful home, itself under constant threat of closure, the accommodation and Bistro having already become a thing of the past? 

The Orchestrion belongs in Kinloch Castle ... ... 
the Castle too must be saved!


*
So, what happens next - 
restore it or lose it?

MAKE YOUR CONCERNS KNOWN -

"NOBODY MAKES A GREATER MISTAKE 
THAN HE WHO DOES NOTHING BECAUSE 
HE COULD ONLY DO A LITTLE." 
(British Statesman: Edmund Burke 1729-1797)

Don’t let Britain’s heritage slip away through indifference -

Contact  -

The First Minister of Scotland, 

St. Andrew's House, 
Regent Street,
Edinburgh, EH1 3DG, 
Scotland.

Telephone: 0141 424 1174

THE ISLAND OF RUM, INCLUDING THE FULLY FURNISHED  
LATE VICTORIAN /EDWARDIAN KINLOCH CASTLE, 
WAS PURCHASED WITH TAX PAYER’S MONEY IN 1957.

  UPDATED 23 MARCH 2024

*

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

KING  JAMES  VI  OF  SCOTLAND  1567 - 1625
 KING  JAMES  I  OF  ENGLAND  &  IRELAND  1603 - 1625
Portrait  attributed  to  the Flemish  artist  Paulus  van   Somer,  c.1577 - 1621  
 Research and photographs © by George W. Randall.  



This magnificent oil on canvas bearing the attribution 
Paul van Somer is part of the 
Sir George Bullough, Bt. Memorial
gifted to the British nation by his widow on 
28 February 1957 and located in the Great Hall, 
Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum, Scotland.



The 26,400 acre island, (with its still fully furnished former 
late Victorian hunting lodge), was purchased by the Conservative Government of the day to be used as an outdoor research  laboratory for the conservation and enhancement of Scotland’s natural heritage.
Originally placed in the care of the Nature Conservancy, from 1992 Scottish Natural Heritage, the agency, funded by taxation, is responsible to the Scottish Parliament 
in Edinburgh, with a budget of £46.5 million in 2018/19.
(Down from £53 million in 2015.)

Regrettably in 1957 or the intervening sixty-three years no specific care body or funding has ever been allocated or sought for the protection and conservation of these magnificent 
publicly owned treasures.  WHY?

      +   +    +           *           +    +   +

The full-length portrait of King James VI of Scotland and King James I of England and Ireland
displayed in the Great Hall, Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum, Scotland.
*

The painting is one of three out of twenty-five
 professionally surveyed by an art conservator
in 1996 and deemed:

 “in poor condition (and) in urgent need of 
studio treatment for major structural conservation and restoration.

The Flemish artist Paul van Somer was born circa. 1577 and moved to England
during the reign of James as King James I of England and Ireland where
he became a leading painter at the royal court.

James, only child of Mary, Queen of Scots and her second husband, Lord Darnley,  
became King James VI of Scotland on 24 July 1567 following the forced abdication of his mother.
Following the union of the Scottish and English crowns he also became 
King James I of England and Ireland on 24 March 1603 until his death on 27 March 1625 .
*
The painting was recorded in the 1978, 1992 and 1996 Inventories of Kinloch Castle Contents, 
by Phillips of Scotland, as being “a full oil on canvas portrait of King James VI
in the manner of van Somer, in white dress and red velvet cloak, plumed hat on table.” 
79 x 92 inches / 132 x 200 centimetres.

The 1996 professional art conservator’s appraisal concluded:

“ Local consolidation and treatment of the flaking 
paint will never prove effective.
Studio treatment over a period of many months” is necessary to 
restore and conserve this painting, which is “in very poor 
condition (and) must be treated as a priority.”


“Losses of paint layer are widespread and continuing ….”
(Quote from the 1996 Professional Appraisal)
*
The painting was examined off the wall but not removed from its frame. A cloth backing cover 
was tacked to the back and part of this was lifted to examine the stretcher.

The Report continues: the paint layer was considered “inherently unstable as it (was) delaminating
over a wide area of the ground, that is the priming layer beneath.
This shows through … as deep pink in most areas and chalky grey in others.”
Loss and flaking was recorded as “widespread, notably in a prominent area around
the sitter’s feet, right across the chain and sitter’s chest and shoulders, as well as …
the concave dent in the upper quadrant.” 

The fine weave canvas was intact with no tears or holes, but the lining had failed as there was 
widespread flaking and instability across the pain and ground layers. Tension was “a little slack.”
Tacking edges appeared secure. There was, however, “a slight concave dent, approximately
3 x 9 centimetres, situated 25cms. from the top edge and 42cms. from the right.”

The Stretcher/Strainer was found not to be the original.



A varied network of fine cracks, craquelure, due to shrinkage of both paint and ground
was noted, particularly around the face. The varnish layer was considered
“poor, discoloured and uneven, with considerably yellowed with discoloured residues
from earlier layers trapped beneath.
The amount of surface dirt gave the painting a poor appearance.”
The gilded frame was found to be “structurally sound and in fair condition.”
*
King James VI of Scotland from 1567 to 1625 and
King James I of England and Ireland from 1603 to 1625 by Daniel Mytens.
*
Crowned King as a child of just over one year old, the country was run by a series of 
Protestant Regents until James reached his majority.
The tapestry behind the King bears the Tudor Rose emblem and the motto “Beati Pacifici

“Blessed are the Peace Makers.”
*
In August 2007 Messrs Bonhams conducted an inventory for insurance purposes
of Kinloch Castle contents.
With reference to the King James portrait they recorded:

“Manner of Daniel Mytens. Portrait of King James I of England, VI of Scotland, 
shown full length and seated in court robes. After a portrait by Mytens 
in the National Portrait Gallery, London. 
Oil on canvas. 200 x 132cm.”
*
The bleak future for this painting is summed up in the Conservator’s concluding remarks 
written twenty years ago in 1996:

Local consolidation and treatment of the flaking paint will never 
prove effective, the painting must be de-lined and re-lined and the 
extensive flaking paint secured with impregnation of the paint 
and ground layers from the reverse.
The process of removing the existing lining canvas,
the thick residues of animal glue on the reverse of the original 
canvas and impregnation of wax/resin (or similar) adhesive 
from the back, together with a subsequent relining, 
is a time-consuming treatment.


*
It is not the purpose of my posts to quote valuations or 
estimated costs of restoration,
all of which are now many years out of date.
Suffice to say regards this painting 
the 1996 restoration costs exceeded the 2007 valuation.

So, what happens next - restore it or lose it?

Don’t let Britain’s heritage slip away through indifference -
Express your concern by contacting:

The First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon,
St. Andrew's House, Regent Street,
Edinburgh, EH1 3DG, Scotland

Telephone: 0141 424 1174





THE ISLAND OF RUM INCLUDING A FULLY FURNISHED  
LATE VICTORIAN /EDWARDIAN KINLOCH CASTLE 
WAS PURCHASED WITH TAX PAYER’S MONEY IN 1957.

*
UPDATED 20 MARCH 2020 
to raise public awareness of the present condition 
and uncertain future of these publicly owned art treasures.






Photographs and research © George W. Randall.