The challenging projects are not always the larger ones. This organ had started off as a 1754 Snetzler bureau organ, with Snetzler’s usual hand-written label chopped out of the back of the pallet box and mounted. It had been rebuilt a couple of times, including once by a harmonium builder who provided a free-reed pedal. It was a mess in other words, with a lot of Snetzler’s work surviving. Nick reconstructed the case, re-using the surviving original panels, etc. There was a veneered lower case front panel which was probably introduced in about 1810 but matched the surviving front surfaces from 1754. It provided a model for the veneered decoration of the sides. The longest wooden Stop Diapason pipes gave the height of the case, and account for its form, unusual amongst Snetzler’s organs (the only other surviving is now in the 1742 organ now in the Belle Skinner Collection at Yale University).
