|
The firm of Abbott & Smith was founded in 1869 by Isaac Abbott, who, after twenty years experience with the well-known organ builders, Messrs. Hill & Sons, commenced on his own account in Leeds. William Stanwix Smith, also an employee of Hill in London, was for many years Abbott's manager until the founder's retirement in 1889, when he continued the business in conjunction with Abbott's son.The firm was subsequently run by Smith's sons and grandson. The business remained in the family until 1964, when the last male descendant died and the firm was sold by his daughter to Mr J.H. Horsfall, the foreman. In July, 1975, the firm moved into the premises of Wood, Wordsworth and Co. James Jepson Binns was head voicer of Abbott and Company from January, 1875 until January, 1880, when he left to found his own (very successful) business. In the 1970s, I inspected the bulk of the firm's surviving documentation. The results, of this exercise were published in The Organ at the time. Not one of the larger or more famous organ builders of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the firm nevertheless produced much good work. Its rise and fall parallels that of Forster &Andrews of Hull. The demand for organs in the latter part of the nineteenth century opened up opportunities for enterprising organ-builders and Abbott & Smith was no exception. Based in an area when the strength of non-conformism in particular was matched by a bold church building programme, the partners could enjoy a broad market for their products. The earliest opus numbers were often surprisingly large scale, as for example opus 22, for Oldham Unitarian Chapel, with three manuals and thirty-six speaking stops and the organ of St Mark's, Manningham, with four manuals and forty-eight speaking stops. The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century created enough rich people to form the basis of a market for house organs. The firm's early work includes small two manual organs which were built as chamber organs for private individuals. Some of these organs have only three or four stops. Opus 87, however, was on a much grander scale. Built as a house organ for H.B. Mildmay of Flete in Devon, this instrument is reminiscent of the larger chamber organs built by Bishop and Son, with Swell and Choir, but no Great organ. There was a thirteen stop Swell organ, five-stop Choir and two pedal stops, at 32' and 16' pitch. Similarly, the nineteenth century was a period when the growth of public entertainment resulted in orders for concert organs. Instruments such as that for the Arcadia Theatre, Scarborough, (opus 478), were founded on church organ design, with straight choruses, but with manual extension of reeds and extensive pedal extension and manual borrowing. Abbott & Smith exhibited instruments at major venues (as for example the Scottish National Exhibition in Edinburgh) while during the earlier part of their career, they rebuilt the organs in Leeds Parish Church, Leeds Town Hall, St Alban's Cathedral, Halifax Parish Church, Chesterfield Parish Church and Doncaster Parish Church. Their devotion to Schulze is evident from the detailed notes taken during their 1895 rebuild of the last-named instrument. As Forster &Andrews built or rebuilt the majority of organs in Hull, so Abbott & Smith were able to list over sixty organs in the Leeds area. The firm's business pattern is similar to that of most firms founded in the mid-nineteenth century. After early apprenticeship with a major firm, a new firm was founded, flourished, diversified, ran into difficulty during the Great War with little or no work, recovered to a certain extent in the 1920s and 1930s and then dwindled until maintenance and repair work were the only activities. At times of recession, and especially in the l920s the firm turned to export, with instruments being sent as far afield as Africa, Japan and the West Indies. Tonally, the Victorian organs are robust, with at least two complete manual choruses and mainly quint mixtures. Later, again following general trends, the chorus work is reduced until even large three-manual organs have only a small mixture on the Swell. Wind pressures were 3-3.5 inches, for the most part, with the exception of heavy pressure reeds. The small number of instruments designed and built in the 1930s shows a return to chorus building. The firm built few extension organs. Mechanical action was the norm in the l880s, but then tubular-pneumatic and finally electro-pneumatic actions took over. Many still do sterling service in the north of England especially. The company's history and output deserve further study. |