During the Thanksgiving holiday, I visited the home of Fordyce Fox in
Kyle, Texas.  He passed away about seventeen years ago.  His wife is
now trying to clear out his collection of music-related items, because
she has been placed in hospice care in Rhode Island.

Sandy Rouch (phone 512-567-4666) is taking care of clearing out this
estate.  She is doing this as a friend, not an expert, and really
needed my help in sorting some of this stuff out.  Give her a call, if
you see anything of interest.  She is not familiar with this stuff, so
if you have a technical question, feel free to call me at 940-642-0155.
I will try to help if I can.  I spent about three hours there, but did
not take notes.  As to time frame, it's sort of like "yesterday would
be desirable."  They cannot market the house until everything is gone.
Sandy is talking about having a garage/estate sale in about a week.

Three player pianos are there, all standard 88-note variety and in need
of total restoration.  There is an Estey reed organ, the case design of
which I have not yet deciphered.  Its serial number, 110840, should put
the instrument around 1881.  There is a Phelps & Goodman melodeon,
which appears to be complete.  This early instrument, in a rosewood
veneer cabinet, should date from 1866-1869.  Another melodeon had some
restoration started on it.  The finish has been stripped.  However, the
lyre and pedals cannot be found.  It is also in rosewood.  The name was
also stripped; but there is a hint of lettering still visible if you
get the light just right.  I was unable to decipher it in the short
time I was there.

There are jars of rail bushings and felts and some tuning and repair
supplies for piano.  Also there is a rusty piano truck, the type which
allows you to tip the piano.  There is a coffee can full of flanges and
elbows for player piano or other pneumatic instrument.  There are many
drawers full of standard shop tools like hammers, screwdrivers, spring
clamps, etc.  Several large pipe clamps hang on the wall.  There are a
dozen old soldering irons, the type you heat over fire.  There is a
table-model drill press and floor-model band saw.  There is also a
spool of cloth-covered electrical wire that might be used for repairing
old electrical items like fans and radios (about 5/16" stuff, black and
white, and probably 18 gauge).

Piano rolls: I counted over 200 88-note piano rolls, most in their
boxes, various conditions.  Only a few modern QRS rolls.  Also a bag
with a few dozen roll cores and spool ends.  I didn't dig into the bag;
there could be tabs there too.

Books:  thousands, covering history, biography, and technical.  Sorry,
but I grabbed a lot of good ones on mechanical music.  There was no
copy of "Treasures of Mechanical Music", and you can bet I looked.
But I do now have an extra copy of the Bowers Encyclopedia, which I am
willing to part with.

LPs: thousands of classical records.  No idea of condition, but with
that many records, they couldn't have possibly been played much.  Reel-
to-reel tape: probably 100 8" reels of various type of music, all clas-
sical or band type.  If you don't have a reel-to-reel player, there is
one there, which I'm sure is being sold.  Sheet music: two walls of
book shelves packed with music for everything from banjo to full sym-
phony orchestra.

A picture is worth a thousand words.  So here is a link which will take
you to the pictures Sandy took:


http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZsWzFm0cuGLnY&emid=sha
rview&linkid=link2

Jim Quashnock
Wichita Falls, TX