|
|
miistermagico Regular user 154 Posts |
---- On Fri, 01 Apr 2016 00:26:02 +0100
<charlesandsandra@wowway.com> wrote ---- Charles Turek sent a message using the contact form at http://www.spr.ac.uk/contact. Simeon Edmonds in his book, ESP Extrasensory Perception, 1975. Claimed that the accordion in the Daniel Dunglas Home collection was not the accordion used by Homes but was a duplicate. Why did Edmonds make this claim? Can you tell me more? Where did this accordion come from? And exactly what is it? Could you describe it? Make, manufacturer and year. Please reply soon. Thankyou., Charles M. Turek Dear Charles Thank you for your email. I think that doubts have been raised as to whether this was Home's accordion on the grounds that there was some uncertainty as to whether Home actually possessed one, as the accordion used in a seance was always supplied by one of the sitters. There is a letter written by Michael Coleman in the SPR's Journal in 2005 which states: To the Editor, Some years ago (Coleman, 1996), in an exchange with the late Gordon Stein, I quoted a number of witnesses to the effect that accordions used in D.D. Home's seances were always the property of one of the sitters, and never that of Home himself. I also quoted a report of Mme Home (1890) to the same effect. I further stated that there seemed to be no published evidence that Home ever possessed an accordion. I now have to retract this statement, since I have discovered just such evidence in this Journal. In a review of Mme Home's biography of her husband (Home, 1888), Prof. Barrett and F. W. H. Myers relate that Myers was permitted by Mme Home to examine the original letters which she had quoted in her biography (Barrett & Myers, 1889). The reviewers then chose to quote a dozen of these which seemed to provide evidence of Home's psychic powers. One letter from a gentleman (who did not wish his name to be published) contains the statement (Appendix I, p. 130):- ‘Mr. Home has an accordion; it is not a mechanical one, for he left it by accident at Mrs. Parkes' house one day, and I carefully examined it.’ Hence my statement that there is no published evidence that Home owned an accordion can be seen to be incorrect. I had concluded from the sitters' and Mme Home's remarks that the accordions used at Home's seances were never the medium's own property, that the accordion owned by the SPR had not previously belonged to D. D. Home himself. This conclusion seemed to be confirmed by the fact that in the list of items belonging to Home, bequeathed to the Society by a relative of Mme Home, there is no mention of an accordion (JSPR 24, 40, 74). But the quotation given above means that the Society's accordion may well have belonged to Home. So there is some doubt about its provenance and it was possibly this to which Edmonds alluded in stronger terms than the evidence warranted. The accordion may have been simply omitted from the list of items bequeathed to the SPR, which seems unlikely. If not, I think that the means by which the item came into our possession is lost in the mists of time, but I shall ask a colleague who may know more about it. I believe the instrument is in our office so I shall ask the secretary to check the make though I am not sure we would be able to tell you the date of manufacture from a casual inspection. Regards Tom Ruffles SPR website team |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » Penny for your thoughts » » The Accordion of Daniel Dunglas Home (0 Likes) |
[ Top of Page ] |
All content & postings Copyright © 2001-2024 Steve Brooks. All Rights Reserved. This page was created in 0.02 seconds requiring 5 database queries. |
The views and comments expressed on The Magic Café are not necessarily those of The Magic Café, Steve Brooks, or Steve Brooks Magic. > Privacy Statement < |