Regarding the Nechada organ listed for sale in the 130822 Digest,
this is an interesting coincidence, because my son has recently seen
this organ in Tbilisi!

The owner of the organ claimed it was made in 1814 (as stated in the
MMD listing).  That is incorrect, being a misinterpretation of the
numbers on the tune sheets and the key frame (which you can see in the
2nd video mentioned in the 130822 MMD posting as 1814).  That is the
organ's opus number, not its date of manufacture.  My son has seen,
besides this one, three other organs in Tbilisi, two of which are
Kitesov organs, and one likely Nechada, and they are all marked exactly
the same way: the same number on the key frame as on the tune sheets.
Their opus numbers are 1576 (Nechada), 2108 and 2300 (Kitesov),
obviously not the year of manufacture.

We also believe, though are not positive, that the two barrels included
with this organ are not the originals.  The bottom sections of both
original tune sheets have been removed and new ones pasted over (there
is a small remnant of the left one in the upper left corner).  In
addition, the intact tune sheet is written in Georgian, indicating the
possibility that the Kitesov family pinned the new barrels.

My son, though not extremely knowledgeable about barrel organs, did a
pretty thorough investigation of the organ under my guidance and knows
the condition of the organ pretty well.  We have additional photographs
of the organ.

We now have the 2108 Kitesov organ, made by Vano Kitesov (Ivan, Oganez)
Yakovlevich in the 1890's when he was apprenticing with Ioganna Nechada
in Odessa.  It will be on display at the MBSI convention in Chicago
next week.

Dale Dohler