Jan L.M. van Dinteren, translation Hans van Oost
As described in HP 1996 on page 61 the present owner, Mr. Frans van Reeken, bought a Ruth style 37, then owned by the museum and puppet theatre in Luebeck, Germany. The organ arriverd in the Netherlands on the 29th January of that year. Two LP records were once made in the sixties (Zeitlose Melodien, by the late Curt Baum of Hamburg).
The organ was originally a barrel organ of the 24 type with 90 keys, and it was built between 1890 and 1900. An impression of the original front can be found on the next page (from the catalogue). The Ruth factory started the rebuilding of this organ to play book music of style 37 (old) in April 1925. In this process some pipes were modernized and some were added; for instance the old piccolo pipes were replaced by violin pipes. Under the owners were Mr. Alfred Rössler and, from 1956, Mr. Ernst Lehmann from Hamburg-Wandsbeck in Germany, a postman by profession. Mr. Lehmann was an idealist and one of the founders of the Club Deutscher Drehorgelfreunde.
After Mr. Lehmann passed away in 1987 the organ was owned by the 'Museum und Puppentheater' in Lübeck.
The Ruth organ was taken apart after Mr. Van Reeken braught it to the Netherlands. Hans Brink did some repairs and gave some advice. The organ chest was stripped from all paint layers, after which some beautiful, however aged, intarsia emerged. The front, in which some plastic parts were used, was removed. On removal a rather complete part of the original gilded black barrel organ proscenium was exposed. There were no side parts, because the original instrument did not possess any percussion. The owner thought for some time about what to do with the front. My advice was to complete the original. After some time the owner changed his mind and bought a nice one-piece proscenium from Voigt Orgelbau in Frankfurt-M. The result was showed on several occasions in the past few years.
(Pictures: The organ in 1996 and recently)