Art Collections Online
Date: 1774-1775
Media: oak, pine, mahogany
Size: h(cm) : 411.4 case x l(cm) : 323 x d(cm) : 104.8
Acquired: 1995; Purchase - ass. of NHMF
Accession Number: NMW A 51193
This organ was made for the music room of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn’s house in St James’s Square. The case was designed by Robert Adam in 1773 and made by the carver Robert Ansell. It is the only one of a small group of monumental Adam organ cases to survive. It is crowned by a portrait of Sir Watkin’s favourite composer, Handel. The life-size plaster figures represent Terpsichore, the muse of dance and song, with a lyre, and Euterpe, the muse of lyric poetry and music, with a flute. The organ itself was made at a cost of £250 by John Snetzler, the principal builder of the day. It was altered in 1783, and rebuilt and enlarged in 1864, when it was moved to Wynnstay, the Williams-Wynn house near Wrexham. The colour-scheme, also of 1864, added blue to the original green, white and purple.