Page:The Early English Organ Builders and their work.djvu/36

 The Fabric Rolls of York Minster are among the earliest and most interesting documents of their class. Particulars of the "organs" commence as early as 1399, and in 1419 we have the following entries:

"For constructing two pair of bellows for the organ, 46s. 8d.

"For constructing the ribs of the bellows of the same organ, by, 12d."

A representation of the instrument, of this date, is still existing in York Cathedral; beneath the great niche over the west window, of which there is an organ carved in the pediment; the pipes appear without a case, and it has a single row of keys on which an angel is playing from a music-book held by two small boys or choristers below, while another is behind blowing the organ with a pair of common bellows. A similar device is carved over a door on the north wall of the Cathedral of Utrecht.

It is doubtful whether John Couper was the builder of the organ, or merely the carpenter. The ambiguity of the