ABSTRACT
The oldest extant chamber organ in the British Isles still in working order, though not English-made. The date 1602 appears on shields carved into the frieze below the cornice. According to an unsigned letter in The Connoisseur (March 1902), the date was altered (why?) from 1592 by W.H. Head, a former owner and a restorer of musical instruments. At the same time Head is also said to have removed from inside the case a wooden tablet inscribed 'E. Hoffheimer. Fee. Vien. [?Wien] 1592'. Nothing seems to be known about Hoffheimer. The organ surfaced in the island in the 1870s (it may already have been at Carisbrooke) and then had a succession of owners before passing into the care of the Ministry of Works in 1944. It was publicly exhibited in 1872 at South Kensington, in 1900 at the Crystal Palace, and in 1904 at Fishmongers' Hall when it was used by Sir Frederick Bridge to illustrate a lecture on 'Music in England in 1604'.
