Usines Th. Mortier

Correction about Mortier orchestrion #169

According to notes by Roger Duerinck, the 69-key Mortier orchestrion in café 'De Schriek' in Essen (picture in the top left on p.320 of the book 'The Mortier Story') was sold to Oscar Grymonprez in Ledeberg on 29 October 1966. However, it appears that Grymonprez did not rebuild it on the 84-key scale but modified it into a fairground organ. In the same period, Grymonprez must have had a 84-key Mortier orchestrion with serial number #169 (with an original or modified façade). He probably installed the façade of the 69-key orchestrion in front of organ #169 and added a drum and saxophone before he sold the instrument to the de Vilder family in Clinge (near Hulst) in the Netherlands. The rest of the history of the organ is as described in the book 'The Mortier Story'.
Oscar Grymonprez once told to René van den Cruyce (current owned of orchestrion #169) that his organ was built for café 'Het Volkshuis' in Anderlues (in the Walloon provinces in Belgium) and that it was later sold to a café owner in Aalst near the Dender river, where Grymonprez subsequently bought it.