JOHN SNETZLER BUREAU ORGAN 1754
This organ was bought by David Hindle in 2006 from the Caldecott Community at Mersham-le-Hatch. It was given to them by Captain Lane, in whose house Andrew Freeman had photographed it in 1944. It had been extended with a pedal free reed by C.R.Oliver of Plymouth in 1975. In about 1800 it had been turned into a chamber organ, rather crudely. It is not known for whom it was originally made.
In 2006, the following parts of the original organ survived: the wind chest with altered upperboards, the bellows, the Stop Diapason, the sides, floor and back of the case. From the mitering of the longest pipes it was obvious that the organ stood taller than the usual Snetzler bureau organ, so it has been given the form of the 1742 Snetzler in the Belle Skinner collection at Yale University. The veneered kneeboard was re-used, though it probably dates from ca1800, and the rest of the case was veneered in the same fashion, to cover the later damage. The doors use the ca1800 dummy front pipes, re-fashioned. The stoplist was obviously:
Stop Diapason (stopped wood, 1754 except for bº)
Flute (stopped wood, new except for 1754 f#²)
Fifteenth (C D-eº stopped wood, cº-e³ open metal; new)
a¹=422Hz @ 18ºC, tuning Werkmeister III
wind pressure 43mm
