A bright red organ with brass pipes found by Leanna Denikin in the attic of her grandfather Nikolai (aka Nick). On the front was a brass plaque reading “The Calliaphone”. Carved onto the cover of the keyboard were the words: “Be still, for there is strange music”.
It was found along with a trunk containing a 23 old dolls all, except one in the form of a clown, were damaged. Playing it seemed to animate the clown doll in some way. Both the calliope and the trunk full of dolls containing the clown were stolen from the attic some weeks later.
A neighbor who witnessed the theft claimed the people removing the items “looked legitimate.
Page 43 of Gregory Petry’s Freaks and Followers: Circuses in the 1940s shows a reproduction of an old black-and-white photograph: a small group of carnival workers: a contortionist, a fire-eater, two strong-men, a ringmaster and an organist sitting behind a calliope. labelled as being from 1948 and taken in Minsk, Russia. The ringmaster and organist are labled Gregor Osinov and Nikolai Denikin. This traveling show was called the Circus of the Other.
As of 2016, the calliope was, according to Jonathan Sims, in the Magnus Institute’s Artefact Storage. It had been acquired by the Institute sometime in 2007.
Librarian’s Note: It’s possible that this artifact was “collected” by Breekon and Hope Deliveries. If so, how did it end up at The Magnus Institute?