Selling pipe organ - any advice?

[ATG]

Hi, with much sadness I have decided to sell my Saxon Aldred 842 practice organ. Built in 1990, with classical mouldings designed by Frank Bradbeer and pipeshades in carved limewood. Disposition 8/4/2, 8' stopped flute permanently on both manuals, 4' gemshorn available on lower manual, 4' gemshorn and 2' tin principal on upper manual. Pedals permanently coupled to lower manual. Casework mainly solid oak, keyboards by P&S in cocobolo and maple. Laukhuff blower at about 70mm pressure. The casework breaks down into manageable portions but a small van would be required to transport the base section.

This got me through many years of grade exams and service preparation but we are now preparing to downsize and will not be able to take it with us.

I'd be very grateful for any suggestions as to the best way to market this, and the approximate price to ask. Or any offers! We are in North Hertfordshire.

Thanks in advance,

Jeremy

[Tony Newnham]

Hi Jeremy

An idea of the size would be helpful - especially the height!  Sadly, even if would fit under my ceilings, I have neither space nor spare cash at present, much as I'd like a pipe organ at home.

The IBO have a redundant organs web page (see their web site), and there's a Facebook group & the Organ Matters forum that deal with organs that are available.  Your local organ builders might also know of potential customers.

Every Blessing

Tony

[innate]

Looks lovely, Jeremy.

I too would be interested in the dimensions. Might be time to move our harpsichord into another room!

Is the blower inside the main case or does it protrude?

Best wishes,

Michael

 

[OwenTurner]

Some thoughts which will stand correction by someone with more awareness...

I wish I had the space and the money, but I don't have either!

This link https://www.pipeorgans.eu/en/pipeorgans was shared in this forum a few weeks ago and has wasted hours of my time. It seems to have a surprising turnover of stock week by week too.

Before lockdown I used to play a game with myself of visiting the quarterly piano auctions in Conway Hall London, giving a few pianos a good look and play and guessing the hammer price ahead of the auction by spending an evening at the preview. With pianos there is much more similarity and repetition. After a couple of years I could estimate most to about 5%. Organs are inevitably rarer and therefore harder to price or shift and I fear you might lose out if there is an urgency. Financially you might gain if you could find someone or somewhere to lend it, if they look after it, to until a buyer is found.

I hesitate to mention it as inevitably a sore point to our forum's previous funder but one of those in the link is a Mander organ which came up in the liquidation auction at £6700 (https://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/auction-catalogues/peter-davies-and-sons-ltd/catalogue-id-peter-1-10049/archivelot-5c8c620e-8d92-426a-9f1c-ac1700cdeb6b) and now features here https://www.pipeorgans.eu/en/pipeorgans/(2)Mander-4-I at 24,500EUR, so there's a serious mark up going on in some cases.

In retail the usual is for each stage in the supply chain to double cost to strike their sell price, but that is only good for where there is predictable supply and demand. When I bought my second hand grand piano from a dealer it was OK to make cheeky low offers (I got a 10% reduction off advertised price after starting about 25% beneath), so turn that round and it's OK to to make cheeky sell prices and see if you get offers, like when selling houses, but again only worthwhile if there is no urgency to shift it.

I sold a harpsichord at Early Music Shop a few years ago. They took a % of the sell price as an agency but a percentage of something is better than the whole of nothing; and I needed the space. You could try there, but I suspect they'd not want to hold it in their shop as I had to work to persuade them to give space for my small harpsichord. https://earlymusicshop.com/collections/used-instrument-agency-keyboards

Finally I had a very good conversation with an organ builder a year or so ago about an organ he was selling. He'd definitely be worth asking for advice. http://www.pipeorgansirl.com/kennethjones

 

[ATG]

Thank you for the various advice and comments, and apologies for not replying sooner.

The blower is fully enclosed in the base, and has a small reservoir with concussion panel above it.

The dimensions are (rounded up): 2220mm high, 1480mm wide (over cornice mouldings), 1350mm deep to rear edge of pedalboard.

Regards,

Jeremy

[Cornet IV]

I sold an Italian virginal to the Early Music Shop and found them really easy to deal with. But this was when Malcolm Greenhalgh was in charge in Denmark Street and a few years ago now, so things probably have changed - as they irritatingly do.