Saturday, March 23, 2013

France: St John's, Luneville


The organ in the Church of St John, Luneville was originally built by Nicholas Dupont of Nancy  between 1749 and 1751. Like most historic organs it has seen its share of renovations and rebuilds, some designed to "improve" the instrument, so intended to "restore" the instrument to some preferred state in its history. The Luneville instrument is unique because there are no pipes visible in the facade of the organ. It was conceived as a treat for the eyes, and the decision being made that the pipework would be totally hidden from view. The most recent work on the instrument was in 1998, with re-dedication taking place in 2003. The Friends of the Organ Association maintains a site dedicated to the organ which includes a stoplist and other historical information. The stamp issued by La Poste is a mini-sheet of two stamps denominated 89c and 1.45Euros. It was issued in 2012 and thus I do not have a catalog number yet. Both of the individual stamps show details of the instrument. The selvage of the sheet shows the entire instrument. Only one aware of the unique design nature of the organ would realize that it is indeed an organ, since there are no visible pipes.



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