Handles installed...
These are the finished handles, matching the originals.
Filling old screw holes...
Since the new hardware would occupy the same holes as the originals, it was necessary to drill out and plug all the old holes with white oak plugs. These were trimmed off, stained, and shellacked.
Handle forensics...
The original handles had been replaced with brass drawer-pulls (the double holes inside rectangular marks), but the screw holes for the original handles were still in evidence. These were trunk-style straps with leather handles. New replacement hardware was still available, and matched the original holes, hole for hole.
An Estey "JJ" Folding Field Organ
Initial impressions...
The legs are a bit wobbly: it turned out that the screws holding the hinges to the case at the top of the folding legs had torn out of the legs. The drop-down knee panel could not drop, held up by the displaced hinges (the hooks for it can be seen dangling from the front edge). The knee lever for the swell is not out--it should be protruding to the right of the decal.
Initial impressions...
The case handles are brass drawer pulls--not original! The hinges (all 25 of them) are lightly rusted, and missing their original brass plating.
...but it's an Estey
The original Estey Organ Company label is glued to the top of the action board (= soundboard). It gives the serial number--421438--which can be used fairly reliably to determine the date of manufacture, 1919. The other information which documents the instrument's passage through final tuning and inspection, is often not legible, as in this case.