Limonaire organ

This imposing mechanical organ, painted in bright colours in a firmly Art Nouveau style, provided a lively musical accompaniment to the movement of a large wooden merry-go-round that was donated to the old Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires (Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions) by the Town of Nogent-sur-Marne.

In the 19th century, fairs and funfairs experienced an unprecedented boom as a result of the extraordinary growth of cities and towns during the Belle Époque. Limonaire was founded in Paris in the first half of the 19th century, specializing in manufacturing merry-go-rounds and organs. Its production was so massive that the very name of the company became synonymous with fairgrounds organs. Until the 1890s, those organs functioned like giant music boxes, turning rolls with spiky points that activated the organ’s pipes. Around 1900, this old system was replaced with a new one using perforated cards that allowed organs at fairs to play all of the most fashionable tunes for a lower cost. For example, the Nogent-sur-Marne organ played “Vienne reste Vienne”, “Ah le petit vin blanc” and “La ronde des petits Pierrots”.