The recent postings about early Gavioli organs has set me thinking
about one of my long term projects.

I have a 48-key street barrel organ that is undergoing an extensive
rebuild as quite a bit of it was missing.  Once I cleaned all the paint
from the case I found the following written along the name board.  This
is reproduced as written, actually inlaid with white wood into a black
veneer:

  ORGUE A TROMBONNE  No 2  GAVIOLI brevete
  Rue d'Aligre 14  Faub.  St Antoine a PARIS
  SYSTEME GAVIOLI

Underneath this main inscription in smaller letters is "ANCne Mon CORVI".
One expert tells me that this organ was not made by Gavioli but by Mon
Corvi, who used to work for Gavioli, and until today I accepted that
this address was Corvi's as it didn't agree with Gavioli's as stated
in some books.  I now find that the Rue d'Aligre address really is
Gavioli's, so does that make my organ a Gavioli?

Who was Corvi?  There is a record of him briefly in one book and his
name does appear without dubiety on an organ owned by an English
collector.  Also on the organ is the name "CHAMIER & CIE A PARIS",
stamped into the right hand end on the keyframe, but this may be a
rebuilder.

The scale of 48 keys includes 12 trumpets and 3 trombones, which
duplicate the lowest three notes of the main note scale.  The flue
scale consists of three pipes per key throughout, playing at 16-foot
pitch under the case and 8- and 4-foot pitch on the chest.  All of
these pipes are present.  Seven trumpets are present but all of the
trombones are missing.  These appear to have been positioned in the
centre of the back of the chest and would have risen into a case
extension which sits on top of the standard shaped case but with only
half the depth.

Also noted on the keyframe are ten piccolos, and these are absent from
positions both on top of and underneath the chest.

One thing that worries me is that the barrel may have been repinned
to play without the trombones, as these three keys appear to be pinned
similarly to the centre section of piccolos rather than follow the bass
line, playing at the beginning of selected bass notes.

I would be grateful of any help in determining the true builder of
this organ and also for details of the arrangement of trombones so that
I can reproduce as closely as possible the original organ.

Many thanks from the UK,
Nicholas Simons