51-Key Jan van Eyk – ‘Paulus Potter’

51-key Jan van Eyk

51-key van Eyk ‘Paulus Potter’ playing: Sh-Boom – Keyes, Feaster, McRae & Edwards

Unique in this collection, this organ is known as a ‘Dutch street organ’ and dates from 1989 – manufactured by Jan van Eyk & Son in Terwolde, The Netherlands. As opposed to the UK, where mechanical organs were used primarily in amusement attractions, street organs have been traditionally used in Holland to serenade passers by in the street with the latest musical ‘hits’ of the moment.

Tonally, the organ plays in a different style to the other instruments on display, in order to carry a diverse genre of music. It features registers for violin, bourdon and tremulant. Despite having been produced in recent decades, it is still representative of the traditional street organ sound.