Dear Edmond,

The date you found in the organ is more than likely a date placed there
by someone at the factory.  You will probably find additional dates on
the right side of each of the reed banks along with the name of the man
that worked on it.  These will be visible behind the swell shades.

Your instrument is truly an Orchestrelle.  You can tell by the glass
door on the pressurized spool box and the exposed-to-atmosphere pouch
board behind the spool box.  As far as the model, Aeolian probably made
thousands of variations of every model.  I have found variation in at
least seventy-five of the instruments I have come across in my forty
years of collecting.  I believe the small embellishments might have been
left to the cabinet maker, or just because a particular moulding was out
of stock, something else was substituted.

These were expensive instruments in their day.  I call them the poor
rich man's pipe organ.   If you were a wealthy home owner or a church at
the turn of the century, you would have installed a pipe organ, perhaps
with a player, in your home or church.  People of a little less
affluence would have bought an Aeolian Grand, Orchestrelle, or Solo
Orchestrelle for their home, for anywhere from $800 to $5,500, or more.
I say "more" because Aeolian advertised that they would produce an
instrument in any wood or style that you wanted, and they were
especially accustomed to matching their instrument cases to the
customer's interior furnishings.  The instruments were built of the
finest materials available, and no effort was spared in the design and
construction of the instrument or the case.

Regarding the model, there is sometimes a label on the rear transfer
board on the upper right side (from the back) of the case.  It usually
shows the style or model.  If not there, you may find a label under the
cheek block on the left of the keyboard.  You would have to remove the
key cover to remove the cheek block.  The key cover is easily removed by
taking out three screws on its top rear edge, in front of the spool box.
There is also a small connector block underneath the rear hinged section
of the key cover, on the left and right sides, screwed into the cheek
block.  Remove all of these screws, and then you can remove the key
cover.  Place the screws back in the threaded boards they came from, for
safe-keeping.  Then remove the four screws beneath the keybed and
screwed into the cheek block, on the left side only, and the label will
be exposed to view.  It was usually placed there by the Case Department
of the Vocalion Organ Company, the company that made the Grands and the
Orchestrelles in America for the Aeolian Company.  This label typically
has the model, style, and number, plus a series of dates, usually a week
apart, when as many as four coats of varnish were applied to the case
and rubbed out.  Each person performing these jobs signed and dated this
label at the completion of his work.

You have a potentially fabulous instrument, for which literally
thousands of rolls were produced from the 1880's to the 1920's.  You
probably have rolls that came with the instrument; but if you don't, you
will have no trouble in acquiring a library of music to suit your taste.
I hope this whets your whistle to restore this instrument to its
original condition.  By all means, obtain the missing pieces from those
who have them.  Feel free to contact me if there is anything else you
need to know.

Sorry for the run on, but someone has to sing the praises of these much
underrated instruments.

Walter Kehoe