Hi

As the new custodian of the Debain Antiphonel piano from the Harold
Smith disposal sale recently mentioned by Nicholas Simons, I was
surprised at some of the inaccurate information flying around at the
view about it's past history. I have been doing a little reading and
have come up with the following:

Debain Combination Pianos

Three examples of pianos combined with the Debain Antiphonel player
device, invented by Alexander Debain in 1846, appear to be recorded
in the usual sources. They are:

EXAMPLE 1

Illustrated in Orde-Hume 'Player Piano' (1970). It is described as a
mechanical piano made by Debain circa 1850. It belonged to the Empress
Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III of France, and was auctioned when her
Farnborough, Hampshire, residence was sold in 1927. At the time of
illustration it was in the Norman Evans collection. It is illustrated
again in 'Pianola' (1984). It next appears illustrated in the Gildings
catalogue of the Harold Smith Collection disposal sale. By this time
it has been re-polished and restored. It is thought by my friend
Jonathan Holmes of Cornwall, UK, to have been the one owned by Douglas
Berryman and in his museum at Goldsithney, Cornwall, between its time
with Norman Evans and Harold Smith.

EXAMPLE 2

Illustrated in Orde-Hume 'Pianola' (1984). This is a keyboardless
piano in the Utrecht museum, and therefore probably the earliest of
the three.

EXAMPLE 3

Illustrated in Sotheby's sale catalogue for 13th September 1983. It is
shown as having four castanets which can be switched in to play from
the top four piano note keys. It is illustrated again in 'Pianola',
though it is not possible to see the castanets, since a pile of
planchettes is obscuring the appropriate part of the key bed. Possibly
Orde-Hume obtained his illustration from Sotheby's? This example is
again illustrated in the new Reblitz book, described as being in the
Robert Gilson collection. It is stated that the instrument plays more
or less loudly by having different lengths of projection on the
planchettes, a feature I am unable to confirm at present from the ones
we have. They do have automatic sustaining pedal control, after a
fashion. In other words, the dampers are normally held off when in the
mechanical play mode, but are applied from time to time by a suitable
steel 'wedge' on the planchette.

Thanks in anticipation!

David Evans
Hampshire, UK

Does anyone know of more examples? I have not included the several
known Antiphonel keyboard attachment devices (like 'dumb organist'
machines) in the above, of course, only pianos with built-in
Antiphonel players.