Balthasar-Florence No. 11049

Dear Members and visitors of Harmonium et Anches libres,

First of all please apologize for contacting you in English since I can understand French only to a certain extent (sometimes I need Google translator) but cannot speak it. Anyway I'm sending you best regards from the western part of Germany and as a "hello" I would like to should show you one piece of my small harmonium collection. To be honest, my ability of playing is still at the beginning but I love these instruments very much and this motivates me to improve.

In my parish here at Duesseldorf there is a small group of harmonium friends - one is our church musician (who loves especially French composers), onother one is a professional restorer and composer (also of harmonium music) without whom we could not revive this instrument any myself - a plain 'amateur'. Our common target is to promote harmonium music and a few months ago we already started first initiatives to do that. Apart from that you should know that especially Rossini's "Petite Messe Solennelle" is becoming more and more popular here - bringing additional interest to these instruments.

Today I would like to present you a Balthasar-Florence from about 1885. It was formerly in a chapel of a school at Verviers (Belgium). About 20 years ago a teacher brought it to his home because the chapel was converted into an assembly or class room. Since middle of last year it was a pure piece of decoration and in a non-working condition. Especially the bellows had to be renewed completely while mechanism, tongues and other interior parts were in a surprisingly good condition. After some months of repair we now use it from time to time in one of our churches for sunday services or concerts. (Thanks a lot to 'Harmoniums en Peril' who kindly provided me with some spare parts).

The composition is as follows (440 reeds in total):

(O) Forté
(V) Vibrateur
(S) Sourdine
(H) Harpe Éolienne 2'
(4) Basson 8'
(3) Clairon 4'
(2) Bourdon 16'
(1) Cor Anglais 8'
(P) Percussion

(E) Expres​sion(P) Percussion
(1) Flute 8'
(2) Clarinette) 16'
(3) Fifre 4'
(4) Hautbois 8'
(M) Musette 16'
(C) Voix Celeste 16'
(B) Baryton 32'
(S) Sourdine
(V) Vibrateur
(O) Forté

It is amazing to see that this harmonium has a lot in common with the "Balthasar-Florence catastrophique" presented in another blog: The production numbers of both instruments are very close and they look very similar. They even show the same mistake(?) at one of the porcellains because if you compare the photos you will recognize that both instruments have '(0) Musette' as designation (instead of 'M', as usual).

Here is a series of photos showing you the progress of the restauration work:




























































































































Best regards to all.

'Duesseldorf'

Hallo Duesseldorf,

Welcome to the forum!
What a beautiful instrument! Congratulations for the work...
What are the three "heel" (talonnière)? Grand Jeu and?

Emmanuel

Hello Emmanuel,

thank you for your encouraging words. The talonnière in the middle is the Grand Jeu and those left and right (connected together) is the Prolongement (on/off).

Regards

Duesseldorf

Hello,
Very nice instrument and very beautiful restoration !
I'm looking, since a long time, for the wheels system that we can see on the photos. Where is it possible to buy them ?
Thank you,
Jean-François

Good morning Jean-François,

yesterday I discussed your question with my harmonium restaurer. Although there are few companies here in Germany producing this equipment you are looking for they nevertheless have a certain range of transport wheels (single or double wheels, way of fixation, normal or heavy duty based on weight, with or without rubber wheels and/or stoppers). Such wheels are really very helpful because now the instrument can be moved in church with one hand.

For further details resp. the right version for your need please feel free to contact Klaus Langer (post@harmonium-werkstatt.de) and send him a short desription/photo of your instrument (size, weight, where to use, on rough or even surface). Klaus understands English and is willing to help you in this matter (by the way: you can view quite a lot of restored instruments on this website).

Kind regards
- Andreas -

Hi

Transport systems could be bought also from piano suppliers. I have used these for reed organs and plannig also to use for my harmoniums.
Link takes you to one supplier pages. If price info of some certain is needed please send private message and I'll check and give information.

http://www.pianoteile-baumgaertel.de/?pgid=12QQ34WK005KF747T4THH3Z70&ecskey=khkheiiqunst3t5rav3di7ufb0


BR, Jaakko