Cooper, Gill & Tomkins
Estey
E Fehrle
S Smith
South Africa’s oldest organ building firm formally existed in one form or another since 1902, with its origins dating back to circa 1898. First it was the sole concern of WC Cooper, later it became Cooper & Gill, and finally Cooper, Gill & Tomkins or as it was affectionately known “Cooper Gill”. Over the years the firm waxed and waned with the times, but it always remained in essence the same business – albeit in a different guise. The history of the firm during any given period seems to have been dictated more by who the major supplier of imported parts or entire organs was, rather than by international trends. This then also dictated the styles of instruments that were most promoted. The tendency to “stick” to a style, whatever it may be, is a characteristic of South African builders in general. During the lifetimes of the founders the firm was definitely English in its business. They supplied English-style instruments to their clients at first, but later a shift was made – first to American and then to German products.
William Charles Cooper spent his childhood first in Marchwood, a village close to Southampton, and later in Southampton itself. He went to the church school on Pear Street Green until the age of 13. William came from a very musical family and was taught to play the organ by Dr Sharp, the organist of St. Mary’s Church in Southampton. At thirteen he accepted his first post as organist at Jesus Chapel on Pear Tree Green where he already sang in the Choir.
Cooper came to what was then the Cape of Good Hope for the first time in 1898
In 1904 another Binns man, Harold Gill, joined Cooper to help alleviate the ever-increasing workload. Soon they were trading as Cooper & Gill. The first factory was situated at the top of Wale Street in Cape Town, but it seem that they occupied quite a few other sites in the city. The Cape Town branch was located in Loop Street for a number of years from where a brisk trade was also practiced in other musical instruments and violin strings. Gill was in charge of the Office and Works, and Cooper did most of the traveling. In the very early days organs were supplied by numerous builders, but particularly by Binns.
The third member of the partnership, Alfred Maberley Fellowes Tomkins came to South Africa in 1905 and was responsible for the erection of the 1905 Norman & Beard organ in the Cape Town City Hall.
The partnership of Cooper, Gill & Tomkins was officially founded in 1911, at the same time as the granting of agency by Norman & Beard, with offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg. There had been an informal partnership between Mr Tomkins and Cooper & Gill prior to that. By the 11th November 1911 the arrangements regarding both the agency and Cooper, Gill & Tomkins’ partnership were finalized, and on the 1st of January 1912 a formal notice was published informing clients of the formation of the new partnership and the agency of Norman & Beard.
Tomkins administered the Johannesburg branch. Working first from No. 10 Pope Street, Bellevue, and then later for a short time from Klein Street, Hillbrow. The Johannesburg branch serviced a vast area, with the entire Transvaal, Orange Free State and Rhodesia falling under its care – an area larger than that serviced by the Cape Town, Bloemfontein, and Port Elizabeth branches put together.
The Estey Organ Company was founded in 1846 and manufactured excellent reed organs for more than half a century before commencing the construction of pipe organs in 1901. In that year they engaging the services of Mr. William E. Haskell(1865-1927) of Philadelphia, who had trained in the Roosevelt workshops, to establish the pipe organ department. During the next fifty-nine years Estey would build and rebuild 3 261 organs, all of which had tubular-pneumatic or electro-pneumatic action (with one exception).
During the first decades of the century, the Estey catalogs described standard designs, the stoplists having no upperwork but that Haskell specialty, a labial reed stop. The stop actions included such oddities as the "stop key" and "luminous" types, and while the organs were built of excellent materials, they were often so compact that maintenance was expensive and nearly impossible to perform. Estey concentrated on stock model two-manual instruments and regarded any deviation in size and specification as a "Special" job. Most of the older organs were sold through agents and Estey stores, and a company policy forbid any dealing in old organs replaced by Esteys. Many organs shipped to the stores or music dealers were not immediately set up in a permanent location, and some with "Store" on the list remained unsold for years. Player organs (called "Automatics") were popular until the 1930's and for a few years around 1930, "Minuette" models that vaguely resembled grand and upright pianos were build on the unit system.
Erwin Fehrle was born in Echterdingen, near Stuttgart (DE) in 1910 and was apprenticed to the firm of Wiegle in 1924. After four years he had completed his apprenticeship. He was sent to work in the Mauser weapons factory during WWII where his knowledge of metallurgy was highly valued. At the end of the War, he started his own business, and was primarily contracted to restore organs suffering from war damage.
In 1948 he joined the firm of EF Walcker. In 1951 he was sent to South Africa by Walcker to act as their representative at South African Organ Builders (SAOB). At the time SAOB were importing a large amount of parts and organs from Walcker and installing them in churches with a Walcker/SAOB nameplate at first, and later with only a SAOB nameplate.
In 1962 Fehrle established E Fehrle & Co., (Pty) Ltd. in Randburg. On his retirement in 1975 he handed his business over to his Dutch collegue, Jan Roeleveld, who renamed the firm to Fehrle & Roeleveld. By the time that Roeleveld returned to the Netherlands in 1994 the firm had built almost 50 instruments, ranging from a small P/I to the seven P/III instruments standing in the following buildings:
At the time of his death in Johannesburg in 1996 Erwin Fehrle enjoyed the honour of being regarded as South Africa's finest organ builder.
Sydney Smith was active in Port Elizabeth in the 1870's. In 1897 he erected the Hill organ (P/II 17 1897) in the Roman Catholic pro-Cathedral, Johannesburg. In 1902 he erected the Hill organ in the Wesleyan Church, Pietermaritzburg.