Salon Organ (Harmonium with mirror), Östlind & Almquist, Arvika, serial number 1287 (c. 1895), KH 390 (2007)
This magnificent Salon organ, exquisitely well-crafted with its double, faceted mirror glass, is said to have belonged to “the manufacturer’s daughter Ida” – probably Östlind’s eldest daughter Malvina (Ina) – and to have been in her possession for a long time, which may be part of the explanation for the organ almost like factory new.
They have increased the normal size of the medals on the keyboard flap, at the time a way of emphasizing quality in the manufacture, which indicates that the instrument was in the factory for a few years and was its exhibition organ. This model was also on the letterhead, when in 1896 they registered for the Stockholm exhibition in 1897, and is described as an organ “med de mest fullkomliga resurser som kan åstadkommas i harmonium” (with the most perfect resources that can be achieved in a harmonium).
The instrument can be found in the company’s catalog from 1896 and is called a “salongsorgan”. It was made in “genuine walnut or imitation ebony” and had “10 stops, 5 octaves, and 13 registers including the so-called ‘pedal bass’, a self-playing pedal register, which “merely outlines the lowest note of all chords”.
