Just picked up on the strand.  The machine was bought by me from a
London auction house with clear provenance that it had come from Shaw's
home.  It was a standard 65-note machine and if I remember right it was
light oak.  It was in good order but I never got around to restoring
it.  I sold it again at auction quite a few years ago with the letters
and provenance and obviously I have now no idea where it went.

Provenance is a very, very difficult thing to prove.  Yes, it came from
where he lived, but was it his or a later owner's?  There was no bill
of actual sale to him, just a series of people's letters all attesting
to the fact that he owned and used it!

I have this vague memory that it was sold when his house became owned
by our National Trust.  It seems a thing they quite often do, i.e.,
strip contents they don't think quite fits.  In Devon in the UK there
is a magnificent 1920/30 house called "Castle Drogo" whose architect
was Sir Edwin Lutyens.  The house originally had a Welte Vorsetser and
a Orchestrelle.  Both were sold.

Yes, it is interesting to hear about the rich and famous who had these
machines but mechanical music was more than this -- it was the music
for the masses and so far nobody has written a history of the such
instruments taking in the consumers as people.  All the books tend to
be technical or histories.  In my view they need to be put in context.

I am off to Waldkirch for the Orgelfestival this weekend.  I am sure
other MMDers will be attending.

Jonathan Holmes
Penzance, UK

 [ Found at
 [ http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-castledrogo/
 [
 [   "Inside modern technology and family keepsakes -- radios and
 [   gramophones, toys, dolls' houses, photographs and books --
 [   sit alongside 17th-century tapestries and inlaid tables."
 [
 [ -- Robbie