1907 Doherty Reed Organ - Chapel Model

I am originally from Regina, Saskatchewan where some of my family resides. I set a kijiji ad finder for reed organs in the City, in case something of interest came up that my family could either pick up for me, or perhaps consider restoring themselves. 

A Doherty chapel organ with a very beat up case came up for sale. I had trouble comprehending what sort of life the organ had experienced to look so rough. The original finish was worn away in multiple places, the case had gouges and scratches, the scrollwork was busted out on one side, there appeared to be burn-marks (from cigarettes?) or chemical spills on the keyboard that ate through the celluloid key covering down to the wood, the foot treadle carpet was worn through, every single stop face was gone, four stop knobs were broken off, the veneer was starting to crack and peel slightly at one location, and the Doherty text was almost completely scratched off (how does it get scratched? Someone playing the organ with five inch long finger nails??).

Update: I later concluded the damage to the keys was likely caused by urine from mice and the stop board scratches may also be due to mice. Fortunately, I did not find any evidence of mouse activity inside the organ.

Serial number on the action (action was likely purchased from another factory and the the case built at Doherty):

Comparing the organ with the 1901 Doherty catalog page, I could see ALL of the wood spindles and rails, along the back and around the lamp holders, were broken off.

I found photos of an organ online with an identical case, which serves as a valuable reference for what it should look like.

I'm aware of one other organ of this same case and action (19 stops) owned by someone in England. So there are at least three in total in extant. However, my 1907 Doherty is the only Doherty chapel organ with 6 octaves that I have yet seen.

This organ was doomed for the landfill. I contacted the owner and learned that the organ originally came from Cannington Manor Historic Provincial Park in Saskatchewan. It was moved to the basement of the owner around 1980.

I contacted Cannington Manor and the Anglican church at the site, inquiring if they had any historic information or photos on file. Sadly, they weren't able to find anything. They indicated several organs had been donated to the site over the years from the surrounding area. It may have been one of several organs that was at the site over time, and may not be original to that site.

Cannington Manor Provincial Park - Wikipedia

My generous family picked up the organ for me. I had a chance to play it on a visit during the summer of 2020. We fully expected the organ to not work at all. 

Amazingly, contrary to the expectations based on external appearances, the action on this organ is in very good condition and is fully playable — and sounds incredible. My grandmother took the organ for a spin and enjoyed it very much.

An air test measured 17 seconds (max time middle C holding air with only the 8' stop open and no pumping), which is very good. I've read that the Estey factory used 15 seconds as a minimum standard for quality control checks [source: Manufacturing the Muse, by Dennis Waring] (by comparison, my 1890 organ is at 5 seconds in winter and 9 seconds in summer). The leather on the exhausters is soft and pliable. All the stops seem to work. The reeds sound reasonably in tune.

There were a few issues:

• Only one external exhauster valve was working. We opened up the front panel under the keyboard and found the leather flap valve had fallen off. We did a temporary fix using a thumbtack to put it back in place.
• About 6 reeds are missing, including the reeds from all ranks of the highest note on the treble side, leaving the lowest note on the bass side empty for each rank. This is due to someone in the past moving all the reeds up one semitone. This dropped the pitch of the organ from around A454 to A424, which was perhaps an effort to make the high notes in some songs easier to sing. Perhaps I'll find some of the missing reeds stashed inside the organ -- if I'm lucky.
• Some of the stop linkages were loose and disconnected.

From the “Manufacturer’s Certificate of Warranty”, nailed to the inside of the back cover:

• Action "Style 35"
• Date: October, 1907.
• Serial number [matches number on the back of the case]: 54597.

The following numbers and text were found penciled on the back of the keys in the following order, each line per key:

• 1901 [matches action serial number]
• Nov. 15/05 [does not match Oct 1907 on warranty card. This is puzzling.]
• Sibley [in cursive]
• 54597 [matches serial number on case]
• 35 [matches style 35 on warranty card]

Style 35 is not shown in the 1901 Doherty Catalog. Possibly a designation for the 6-octave version of the 5-octave Style 33, which also had 19 Stops. Perhaps Style 36 was the 6-octave model of Style 34?

Number of reeds: 4 rows of reeds on a 6-octave keyboard (4x73), plus 13 note sub bass = 305 total reeds. 

• Summary overall reed sets: 16'SB, 8', 4', 2', 2'c // 16', 8', 8'c, 4' [c=celeste rank]
• Soft stops: 8', 4' // 8', 8'c
• Grand Organ engages: 16'SB, 8', 4' [not 2', 2'c] // 16', 8', 8'c [not 4'] 
• Bass/Treble reed set division at tenor E/F. 
• Bass/Treble coupler division at tenor E/F.

The organ is registered with the Reed Organ Society (Registration No. 6623).

Compare with 165 reeds in my 5-Octave 1890 Doherty chapel organ (2.5 rows + SB) and 290 on my 5-octave Farrand (4.5 rows + SB).

Examination of the Vox Humana tremolo fan initially had me puzzled, as I did not see an air intake valve. I later learned the valve is hidden under the platform upon which the fan is mounted, with a hidden air intake under the foundation board.

This organ has now been disassembled and is in storage.