Restoration of a Very Early French Harmonium: Initial Considerations About a Bad Previous Restoration

This instrument was restored in 1981-1983 by someone who called himself "Pud." His signature was found under the replacement pedals he made. On the underside of the other pedal he proclaimed that he loved "Beenie." Ok. I don't want to know who Pud is or was, but this bit of trivia tells me one thing--that the instrument has been in the US since at least 1981, probably earlier. Most recently it came out of a storage unit owned by a collector who died before he was able to restore it.

Pud did a number of things that were more common in the 1970's when reed organ restorers were following the teachings of Horton Presley, who advocated for the use of modern synthetic materials. "Space Age" materials, I call them. Contact cement, PVA white glue, neoprene, genuine imitation leather, the whole shebang. I grew up in the 60's when traditional methods of repairing things were going by the wayside, and collectively we were brainwashed to think that modern, synthetic glues and materials were superior to traditional, organic materials. "Just like the astronauts use!" was a line we willingly absorbed. In retrospect, the astronauts didn't have anything in their space ships that were made of wood and leather, so hide glue was out of the question.

When using space age materials what Pud didn't take into account was what the marvelous synthetic glues would look like after 40+ years. It isn't a pretty sight. Synthetic material often does not age well. Glues touted as flexible even after application turn to concrete that may come up with a chisel if you're lucky, although it often will bring some of the wood it's attached to with it. 

This first "restoration" of this harmonium is a case study in geriatric synthetics. One example is the neoprene that he used to replace the wadding. Although traditional wadding springs back when the action is opened, it will eventually settle into a pattern that conforms to the wood that is pressed into it. However, wadding can last a century or more. Pud's neoprene did not. These pictures tell the story on that.

Although the neoprene did conform to the underside of the edge of the reed chest it deteriorated with time. Old neoprene will often crumble when handled, as this did (see below). It didn't come up in one long strip. The white glue that held it down also caused it to come up in short pieces.

Below is another example of space age materials used to solve a problem. The white material to the left side of the reed chest was initially a mystery to me. It wasn't paint, and it had texture. It was slathered over seemingly random spots on the chest. Then the light bulb went on. When I started to scrape it off I realized it was joint compound. Yep, that's right. Mud for sheet rock. Pud used this to attempt to seal insect holes and cracks.

These were the most obvious uses of synthetic materials that seemed to be better but in fact were much, much worse. I've seen other examples over the years. Contact cement to hold down bellows cloth that had turned to concrete and had to be cut off with a table saw, things of that nature. 

I hope this gives you a general idea of what NOT to do when restoring an antique musical instrument. The best thing to do, as much as possible, is to do what the original builder did. As much as possible use natural materials such as wool and leather. Hide glue, either hot or cold liquid. 

As a general rule, adhesives that come in a tube and have warnings about the brain damage that will occur if you sniff them are synthetic. Run away in the other direction.

Disclaimer: in a future post I will describe how I made new wadding for the harmonium. I used yarn made of 80% wool and 20% nylon. The cautions above are mostly for synthetic glues and foam materials. Fabric can be a different matter depending on how it's used. Where leather is needed, don't use anything except real leather. Bellows cloth, traditionally made from canvas coated on one side with rubber, has become exorbitantly expensive, and restorers often to go synthetic materials not originally made for that purpose. You want to be sure that the material will work with hide glue. Polyester is a great material but it doesn't do well with hide glue. For felt and woven cloth, use 100% wool felt or cloth as much as possible. Pure wool springs back. Synthetic felt will often not. For the yarn I mention above that I used for wadding, 20% nylon isn't enough to prevent the wadding from springing back when the action is opened.

The reason for all this is twofold:

1) Once restored, it may be at least 50 years before your instrument is restored, if it is still in existence. Materials that don't age well won't work as well half a century later. This is especially true of synthetic glues, which are very difficult to deal with in their dotage. Some elements of case work and other parts of the organ are ok with yellow carpenter's glue, for instance. I used it in specific places in this instrument where nobody would want to have to take it apart and do it over.

2) When you're restoring an instrument, you have to undo the work of the builder or the person who worked on it before you. In the case of my harmonium, the previous restorer did a hack job. No tears were shed by me as I scraped and sanded the neoprene off the valve board. But here's the thing. Keep in mind that if the organ you are restoring is still in existence 50-75+ years from now, someone is going to have to undo what you've done. Let that sink in. Someone is going to have to undo what you've done. If you use synthetic adhesives and other such stuff they will have to go through what I have with this instrument, and they will not thank you. Some restorers have looked at an instrument restored with synthetic adhesives and have decided it was not worth redoing the organ, and it went to the landfill. You don't want that to happen. I have continued with this instrument despite Pud's amateurish restoration because it is very old and very rare. It's been worth the trouble despite the occasional headache (not caused by sniffing 40 year old glue).

More next time!

Restoration of a Very Early French Harmonium: Case Work and Veneer Repair

After complete disassembly of the action and wind system the first thing was to repair the case. The case is made of pine with a rosewood veneer, a factor which sometimes causes problems because rosewood and pine are very different woods with a significant difference in density. As a result, the pine under the veneer can crack when it ages and dries, and the crack will show in the rosewood veneer on top. Also, if the instrument is exposed to extreme dryness and/or prolonged dampness the veneer can bubble and lift.

So, woods!

Rosewood is a very heavy wood, and was pricey even at this time, so the veneer industry that had learned how to veneer mahogany switched to rosewood. Mahogany and rosewood are quite different, though. Honduras mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) has a Janka hardness of only 900 so it cuts easily. Janka hardness is measured by the amount of pressure it takes to press a steel ball 11.28 mm (7/16") halfway into the wood. Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra), by contrast, has a Janka hardness of 2790, certainly not the hardest wood in existence, but significantly harder. The resulting veneer is beautiful but has a tendency toward brittleness which makes it somewhat harder to work with.

Replacing veneer is simply a matter of cutting away the damaged part to clean edges and making a patch that fits in perfectly, then gluing and clamping. If done carefully many veneers can be cut with a pair of sharp scissors. In repairing the veneer on this instrument I used rosewood veneer from a derelict melodeon, an early version of the reed organ. I've also used teak veneer on other instruments if I could find a piece that matches the grain and figuring. Repairing a bubble in veneer can be difficult. It involves slicing through the veneer at the center of the bubble the length of it, and prying up each side so glue can be injected in. Then I put blue painter's tape over the bubble to hold everything in place and I clamp it. I repeated this all over the case. Damage like this is common on instruments and other furniture that are this old.

Brazilian rosewood is a listed species in CITES (Convention on Importation and Trade in Endangered Species) to which the United States is still a member, and international trade is totally banned. That means that the only Brazilian rosewood available for sale in the US is what was here before the ban was enacted. To buy it within the United States is a very expensive venture, with costs about $100 or more a board foot if you can find it (a board foot is the equivalent of a piece of wood 1" thick and a foot square). There are alternatives, though. Bolivian rosewood or Pau Ferro (Machaerium scleroxylon) is very close in appearance although not a true rosewood.

I did not plan to keep Pud's replacement pedals so I made new ones from plywood. I also replaced the pedal board using a section of a piano case I had salvaged. It had a nice burl veneer on it that had some attractive figuring so that worked well. I removed the old pedals and replaced them with the new ones. New linkages on the pedals were necessary since the original ones were damaged by insects. For the linkages I used a wood new to me, rubberwood (Hevea brasiliensis), which is the tree used to produce rubber. The wood is used for various purposes after the tree has passed its prime for rubber production. It is grown extensively in Asia but is native to Brazil. I have a small supply from my brother who scavanged it from a pallet at work. It's hard, and is easy to work.

Restoration of a Very Early French Harmonium: Thoughts on Colonialism and Trade

The awareness of colonialism is very present in historical and cultural studies and discussion in today's parlance. It is a term that is sometimes hurled at someone as a summary judgement with or without merit. I'm not going to go in this direction, however. In this post I'll offer some thoughts on colonialism and the artifacts of it. Bear in mind here that although I am writing about European colonization of significant parts of the world I don't see my own country, the United States, as innocent of similar activity. We stole land that wasn't ours, committed genocide, and bulldozed a continent, stripping natural resources for consumption on a gargantuan scale. We're all in it hip deep.

States have been establishing colonies for a very long time. The type of colonization that began in the 16th century and picked up steam in the 17th century is of a different type, however. It was not just the setting up of trading posts and ports on the coast of a region and trading for exotic materials. The European colonization of much of the world took on a diabolical bent as time progressed. Interiors of continents were conquered, such as the division of the interior of Africa in Berlin in the 1880's, leading to unspeakable atrocities such as the slavery in the Belgian Congo, in the production of rubber.

Slavery was not new by this time, but as colonization grew so grew the demand for slaves. The occupation of the islands of the Caribbean led to the establishment of sugar plantations and the insatiable hunger for African slaves. The English settlement of the coast of North America soon developed a demand for slaves to grow tobacco.

I won't rehearse the long history of atrocities here because they are well known, but it is important to refer to them here.

A by-product of colonization was the discovery of exotic materials. In the Caribbean mahogany, initially a tree used for construction, was discovered to have a distinct beauty and became the fashionable wood for furniture in the 1700's. It needed to be cleared to make space for sugar plantations so planters reaped a double profit with the sale of the wood. Mahogany was clear cut to make room for sugar plantations at a furious rate, depleting or completely eradicating completely the tree in many areas.

Once Brazilian rosewood was discovered in the interior of South America it quickly supplanted the dwindling supply of mahogany for furniture in the mid-19th century. Fashions changed periodically not only because tastes changed, but because ready supplies of desired materials were extracted with impunity, as if the supply were endless. It didn't occur to merchants of exotic woods that the supply might dwindle at some point. Perhaps they realized that something else would take its place.

In Africa, establishment of a European presence made possible the export of two desirable materials used in the manufacture of fine furniture and goods: ivory and ebony.

The ivory trade dominated Africa for many centuries. Ancient Egypt sent expeditions down the Nile four thousand years ago and more in search of this exotic material.  Despite competition with walrus ivory during parts of the Middle Ages and shortages about a thousand years ago, ivory remained a most desirable luxury good. In a fit of colonial acquisition in the early 1840's, when they went to war over Algeria, France acquired what is now Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). The small region with several rivers that gave access to the inland rapidly became a gateway into the trade in ivory. The harvesting of ivory, involving the killing of elephants whose bodies were left to rot once the precious ivory had been extracted, claimed on average one human life for each pair of tusks brought out of the interior of Africa. The human cost was tremendous. That was the nature of colonialism, the domination and exploitation of a human population and their home, and the extraction of natural resources with little or no return to the indigenous peoples.

Ebony was also harvested almost to extinction, and today it is extremely expensive although similar alternatives from India and China have filled the gap.

So how do I feel about this instrument that has wood that was harvested nearly to extinction, and material that cost animal and human life? It's complicated.

I didn't kill the elephants whose ivory was used in my instrument. Nor did I cause the loss of human life. This organ was made more than a century before I was born. Having said that, I consider it with some humility. It contains materials with a price tag from the environment, a price we continue to pay now. But all of our contemporary existence is built on the exploitations and compromises of the past. I'm not willing to eschew an artifact of beauty from the past, but instead will make it a living, breathing musical instrument again, and when I play it I will do so with humility in the full knowledge of its cost. I could choose to isolate it and make a it a focal point of concerns about colonialism but to be honest, every aspect of our lives today bears that burden. The thing to do is to learn, and to do better now and in the future.

Having said that, watch for more soon.

Restoration of a Very Early French Harmonium: Living and Breathing History: Introduction.

 Late last year I embarked on a restoration project on a scale I’ve rarely done. I acquired a very old French harmonium, or pressure reed organ, from a friend. It needed a total overhaul. I was ready for a deep dive into a winter project so it came at the right time.

The organ was made by a firm named Alexandre & Fils (Son) in Paris, France. From the specifications of the instrument and the address on the label I have dated it to a very tight window from 1846-48, which is pretty good for something that old.

The harmonium was developed only a few years previous to when this instrument was made by Alexandre Debain, also of Paris. Jakob Alexandre, a Jewish manufacturer of accordions since 1829, decided to try making a similar instrument. Since Debain had patented the term “harmonium” Alexandre called his instrument an “orgue melodium.” It was very similar to Debain’s harmonium and the two companies competed for the market they had created, while other makers introduced similar instruments. Alexandre bought the rights to the percussion action in 1846 (which is the oldest date my instrument can date from because it has an early percussion action) and invented the expression feature.

The percussion action is a miniature hammer action similar to what might be found on a very early piano. It was designed to quickly activate one set of reeds by gently striking the reed that was played so that it sounded quickly. This became a very desirable feature on later harmoniums. The expression feature cut off the reservoir and the player pumped air directly into the chest, allowing for quick changes in expression or volume. This also became an essential feature of all subsequent harmoniums.

Alexandre moved their showroom several times, making the dating of an instrument fairly easy within a decade or so. Mine shows the earliest address from which they moved about 1850.

This harmonium is a remarkable survivor from a turbulent time in French history. It was made just before the revolution of 1848 that toppled the Citizen King, Louis Philippe, and led to the reign of Emperor Napoleon III. The July Monarchy, so called because it came about in July, 1830, was plagued with periodic insurrections, and assassination attempts against the King. Constant underground seditious activity made Paris a boiling stew of unrest. The time when my harmonium was made was anything but a time of tranquility.

My harmonium is also a living testament to the process of colonization that was sweeping across much of the world. The materials in the organ testify to this. The case is covered in a veneer of Brazilian Rosewood. The keys are made from African elephant ivory. The accidentals (black keys) are made from African ebony. Much of the other woods used (spruce, pine, maple, European beech, possibly cherry) are woods native to Europe and thus carry no colonial baggage.

It is a humbling thing to work on such an instrument that is laden with history both troublesome and dramatic.

In this series of posts I will describe the process of restoration of this instrument, including the challenges and pitfalls. I hope you’ll join me on this journey!