In 1859 the organ builder Willem Hendrik Kam (Rotterdam) built a completely new organ in the old case from 1671 that is still present. The instrument did have 51 voices, divided over 3 manuals and pedal. Eight years later, in 1867, many defects were noted. In 1869 the Bätz-Witte company (Utrecht) carried out repair work. The Mariakoor was being set up as a workshop for this purpose. The composition of the Mixtures was changed and the Scherp of the Manual was replaced by a Gemshoorn 2′.

After a large-scale restoration of the Grote Kerk (1902-1939), a thorough restoration of the organ was carried out by the Gerrit van Leeuwen & Zn firm (Leiderdorp). The front pipes were polished and provided with a layer of varnish. The Violon 16′ of the pedal and the Viola 8′ of the Bovenwerk were renewed, the pedal keyboard was replaced and a pedal coupler ‘in connection with the Rugwerk’ was applied. Because the attack of the Manual was still very heavy, a pseudo Barker system was installed in 1939.

However, the mechanics remained a weak point. Simultaneously with the restoration of the church, the organ underwent a partial restoration in 1986/87 by the Ernst Leeflang B.V. firm (Apeldoorn). Since only a part of the problems could be tackled in this way, a lot remained to be done.

In 2007 the Reil B.V. company (Heerde) started a conservative restoration. Windchests were repaired, the sagging front pipes were stripped of the varnish layer applied in 1939, restored and braced. The pseudo Barker system was removed from the instrument at the end of 2009. The mechanics were adapted in such a way that the playing style can now be called ‘good and natural’. This work was completed in April 2010.

A final phase of conservation restoration has taken place in 2021. The 5 large windchests were provided with new sheep leather and cracks in the bellow blades were repaired.

Source: https://www.grotekerk-dordrecht.nl/het-grote-kerk-gebouw/de-orgels/

8 GB of RAM (excl. operating system) is required to load this organ.