This is one of the largest instruments in The Musical Museum's collection (10ft high, 7.5ft wide and 4ft deep). It arrived in 1966 direct from Imhof's New Oxford Street showrooms where it had been housed for many years. Number 3147, it was made in 1899 and was originally one of two instruments that the firm had kept as part of its historic involvement in the manufacture of top-of-the-range music making machines. It was lent to the Museum by Mrs Frayling, the daughter of Alfred Imhof and a director of the firm.

Constructed by Vohrenbach in Germany, it contains the following pipe ranks:-

Doppel Flute (stopped wood) Trumpet (brass) Diapason (wood) Salicional (string)(metal) Reed (wood with metal tops) A brass plate on the front reads:- "Imhof & Mukle by appointment to Her Majesty The Queen 110 New Oxford Street London WC WORKS Vohrenbach Baden"

Mr Stanley Mukle's grandfather started cutting rolls in 1852 in Shepherds Bush.
The instrument came with 46 rolls of music each in a special wooden cassette. It was originally driven by an early 110 volt dc motor that had been replaced by a more modern motor but retained in the instrument. The original motor was cleaned up and put back into operation and has driven the orchestrion in the Museum ever since. The motor has attracted the attention of both The Science Museum and The Institution of Electrical Engineers. It could be one of the oldest electric motors still working.
Frank Holland first started the acquisition process in 1964 - letters followed in 1965 and the move to the Museum took place over the weekend of 13/14th February 1966. Valued for insurance purposes at £8-10,000 in 1978.
There was also another barrel orchestrion at the works in Uxbridge. Frank thought that it was lent to another privately owned museum in Europe and then sold to Claes Friberg without letting him know! It was a beauty.
Alfred Imhof was taken over by Parnell Instruments Ltd. in 1968 and by 1978 it had become part of Plantations Holdings Group.

A crisis in 1979. Plantation sold Imhofs to Philcom but retained ownership of the orchestrion and wrote to the Museum to announce that they were to sell it at auction. They would sell it to the Museum if a realistic offer was made.

Although valued by Sotheby's at £8-12,000 the Museum's offer of £8,000 was accepted. This was a huge amount for the Museum to raise. The Science Museum's PRISM fund contributed 50% and considerable help was received from National Heritage (Museums Action Movement). A cheque for £8,000 was handed over in April 1980.

Two other Imhof & Mukle orchestrions in the collection are No.2626 (c1880) and No.3327 (c1901) - the latter is without casework and the former works from a pin barrel (neither is in playing condition at present).

It appears that the Imhof and Mukle partnership came to an end about 1896 after some 50 years and the two families then went off in separate directions. The Mukles imported instruments possibly up to 1914 but the First World War would have stopped the trade with Germany. By 1919 few instruments would have been needed and the business would have finished. F.G.Mukle (the son) probably decided at about this time to go into music roll making. It would have been a more reliable business. The works were at King Street Hammersmith and may also have supplied orchestrion rolls, Imhof and Mukle having converted to perforated music rolls in 1915. Brother Stanley joined the business which finally closed in 1949, aided no doubt by the post war paper shortage and lack of market for the rolls.

The Imhof family business in the UK carried on using the name Imhof and Mukle after 1896. They too would have been unable to import German orchestrions between 1914 and 1918. However they appear to have been a forward thinking company and were selling Stentophones in 1915; they were very much engaged in gramophones and, by 1924, radios. The last orchestrion was made in 1928 so it is doubtful if any/many were imported between 1919 and 1928. The firm remained family run and developed television sales before 1939.

After Kathleen Imhof retired in 1951 as Managing Director and Geoffrey Imhof took over, the company seems to have run out of steam. Geoffrey died in 1963 and the company was sold to a firm in the Lew Grade empire. It eventually ended up with Jessel Securities, one of the most famous 60/70s asset strippers. All family connections were severed by June 1968. By 1980 the name had disappeared, lost in the complex structure of a firm called Video Communications.

From 1874 to 1896 the firm was jointly owned and from 1896 to 1968 by the Imhofs alone. Two families spanning 94 years. Between 1968 and 1980 the company had five different owners!

Click here to listen to this instrument in action. (MP3 File 1.6MB) Taken from "Out of the Attic" cassette available from the Museum Shop.
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