October 15th & 16th 2016 Premier Coin-Op Sale & Advertising
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/16/2016
Gaudin & Cie, Paris, France. This is the largest scale Gaudin Dance Organ known. During the 1920’s the firm of Gaudin created some of the most elaborate carvings and fairground organs ever built, including exposed brass trumpet pipes, life-size human figures and animals, and immense musical machines with complex instrumentation. This example was located in England mostly complete but with moisture damage. It was shipped to Antwerp, Belgium to undergo total restoration by the world-renowned organ expert Jonny Verbeeck and his staff. The musical scale was extended even further to include a full rank of massive bronze carillon bells, the largest of which weighs about 600 pounds!
At one time these magnificent organs were used in traveling shows all over Europe, including companies that showed motion pictures, or played a concert in the town square. Attention to detail is extraordinary, from the four gold leafed, nine-foot tall wood statues, whimsical birds and carved lions, dragons, and immense gold leafed pots, oil paintings, and massive columns. The organ has been maintained in excellent playing condition and plays with either cardboard book music or a convenient MIDI player system. It comes with a nice supply of massive large cardboard music books, as well as over 100 MIDI song files.
Due to size and requirements of disassembly this instrument will be sold via a video presentation online and at the auction house. The 125 Key Gaudin Organ is assembled and in excellent working order at the collection building of Mr. Paul and son Chris Andrews in Fort Worth, Texas.
Please contact any of the Morphy Auctions staff to make arrangements for a private on-site visit and full inspection prior to the sale date. Morphy Auctions will provide assistance to the new buyer for relocation of the instrument anywhere in the world.
We also refer you to reference The Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments by Q. David Bowers (p.856) for details about the Gaudin instruments produced and photos. Today there are a number of musicians arranging new music for these instruments in either book form or MIDI digital music files. Therefore, a virtually unlimited library of songs is available for these machines.
Since this instrument is unique (only example known), the opportunity to acquire a Gaudin organ of this size and spectacular detail will likely never come again!
Condition: (Excellent).
Item Dimensions: 32' W. x 21' T. x 11' D.