France: St Jean de Moirans

This envelop specifies that it is "philatelic correspondence," probably to let postal workers know to treat it carefully. Probably it is merely the postmark which the sender wanted to conserve through the postal journey. The stamp is Scott 2664, issued 13 June 1998, for a National Music Festival. It was the Europa theme for that year. As such it is at least tangentially related to the postmark. The instrument in St Jean de Moirans was installed in 1978 by Xavier Silbermann. The same builder added stops to the pedal division in 1981 which completed the instrument. It is small, a mere 713 pipes.  This site gives the specification and a few more photographs. Finally this site also discusses this little instrument. This one notes a need for restoration work on the organ, and a fund that has been set up for the project. Without more information it would seem the postmark is simply to promote a series of concerts on the organ scheduled for 18 June 1998. Moirans, France is in the former Rhone-Alpes department of France, near the Swiss and Italian borders. At a little less than 8000 residents, the population is similar to the town where I currently live!

I recently came across this envelop as I was doing some more cataloging of my collection. It shows a pretty view of the church in the cachet. The postmark shows the organ and some pipes, though it is faint.

Italy: Valvasone, 2

This cover was produced September 15, 1974, and seems to celebrate the "return to service" of the organ in the Duomo in Valvasone, Italy. I have written about this organ in a previous post, for a different cover. That cover marked the 30th anniversary of the 1970's restoration. This cover is contemporaneous with the restoration. The cover uses a stamp (Scott 1149) issued to commemorate athletic games in Rome (28 June 1974). It is not a first day cover, simply a postcard with a special postmark. The Italian in the postmark reads:


manifestazione inaugurale restauro organ servizi distacati
inaugural event restoration of organ services

This site gives some information on the duomo and the organ. The Italian version includes some pictures. The instrument has been recorded in 2003, and thus includes all of the restoration work of which I am aware.  

The back of this postcard includes a photograph of a woman holding flowers in front of a depiction on the Madonna and child. No information about the photo is included on the card. The only other word on the card is "rotante" which means, enigmatically, means "rotating."