Season's greetings to MMD members!  Philippe Rouille enquired the other
day about a firm of organ builders in GB, White and Langshaw.  Some of
you may be aware that a useful book was written by Canon Noel Boston
and Lyndesay G. Langwill: Church and chamber barrel-organs - published
Edinburgh by Langwill, 1967.  It records

  'White & Langshaw: London, pre 1821. Organ builders,
  no. 57 Old Street Square, John Puncher, Proprietor'.

Under the entry the authors record an organ which they have seen in
Ord-Hume's collection 'showman's organ with shoulder strap hooks.
Brass plate lettered as above'.  There is more information under
Langshaw which I quote:

  'Langshaw, John: Born 1718.  Died 1798.  London and Lancaster.
  Organist and barrel-organ builder who was employed about 1761,
  under the direction of Handel's amanuensis, John Christopher
  Smith in setting music on the barrels of a very large organ
  built by Snetzler and others for Luton Park for the Earl of
  Bute.  This organ was later destroyed by a fire at the mansion.
  John Langshaw became organist of St Mary's Parish Church,
  Lancaster in 1772 and died in 1798 when his son John (born in
  London 1763) succeeded him and may have been a partner of White
  and Langshaw.  John Langshaw, Organist, appears in the Lancaster
  Poll Book of 1818.  He probably sold his interest in White &
  Langshaw, London to John Puncher about whom nothing is known'.

There are references to Langshaw in Mendel's Lexikon and Grove's
Dictionary.  There is also an article on The Earl of Bute's Barrel
Organs in Musical Opinion for February 1966.

One of our London subscribers may know where Old Street Square is (or
was) and whether other organ builders were working in the area.

The book is a mine of information although only runs to 120 pp.  Sadly
it has long been out of print and rarely turns up for sale.

Hopefully Philippe may have some information for me about French barrel
organs.  I have a small barrel organ known as a serinette which some of
you will know was made to teach canaries to sing (apparently there were
larger versions used to teach larger birds!).  There is a maker's name
on the barrel (which I can't remember off the top of my head) but the
place of manufacture is given as Mirecourt which I have heard is where
violins were manufactured, and the date is (I think) 1772.

The pipes are either tin or a very thin lead and one or two have
snapped but are still there.  I need someone skilled to repair these
and retune the organ.  It has a tune sheet with French tunes (from the
18th century).  Does Philippe know anything about these which he could
share with the rest of us?

My use of the system is courtesy of my employers who have kindly
provided me Netscape access to the Web.  I am amazed at the wealth of
information available along with all the images.  My big regret is that
I don't have a sound card.  In case Father Christmas is reading this he
now knows what I want next year! My thanks to all the folks who provide
these pages and the links.

Peter Wellburn (p.wellburn@nls.uk)