David Bridgeman-Sutton has divine, feathery inspiration in the form of Angels
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Angelicals
“Ye watchers and ye holy ones,
Bright Seraphs, Cherubim and Thrones, 
Raise the glad strain. Alleluyia! 
Cry out Dominions, Princedoms, Powers,
Virtues, Archangels, Angels’ choirs. Alleluyia”. 

(Words by Athelstan Riley to the tune Lasst Uns Erfreuen.)
Heaven was perhaps the favourite subject of Mediaeval artists, who depicted the several orders of angelical in a wall-paintings and stained-glass windows. (The second favourite, Hell and its inhabitants, fortunately does not concern us here.)

Angelic figures, therefore, readily occurred to organ-builders seeking inspiration for the adornment of organ cases. A particularly useful form was that of the cherub, which, consisting only of a youthful head and a pair of wings, could be moulded to fit any space. With wings outstretched cherubim, singly or in rows, support many an entablature; with wings encircling their heads, they form bosses to towers of pipes and, variously contorted, they fill in odd gaps here and there.
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Pic. 1 Mansfield College, Oxford
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Pic. 2 Pembroke College, Oxford
Figure 1, from the organ at Mansfield College, Oxford, shows the most usual form: gilded, as here, the cherubic figure looks particularly fine against dark wood. It and its companion may once have formed part of another organ - many older cases were adapted in the nineteenth century.
​Figure 2, with wings furled, is now incorporated in the case at Pembroke College, Oxford. This is believed to have come from the Harris organ of 1726, built for the Sheldonian Theatre; it is certainly in, at least, its second incarnation.
​Oxford, the poet’s “city of dreaming spires” (parodied by a former Organ Scholar of St John’s College as “city of screaming choirs”) is a good place to find cherubs. The organ case of Christ Church cathedral (partly by Bernhardt Schmidt – c.1680) incorporates unusual pairs of Siamese-twin cherubs, supporting the principal towers. Fine examples are also to be seen on many French organs, including the grand organ of Notre Dame, Paris.
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Pic. 3 Wells Cathedral
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(Wells angel - a bouncer in disguise?
Carving cherubs seems to resemble pastry-making in that a good hand is needed. This was, unfortunately, lacking at Wells in 1662, when Robert Taunton worked on the organ. His cherub (Fig 3) appears utterly dissolute. Anyone meeting it in the street would assume that it earned its living as a night club bouncer, supplementing the income thus earned by nobbling racehorses on commission. Not surprisingly, it was left off the case at a later rebuild and presented to the local museum.
​Shakespeare states that one of the duties of angels is “quiring to the young-eyed cherubims”. Research has so far failed to substantiate this claim. It is, however, widely believed that a great deal of trumpet playing goes on in angelic circles and trumpet-playing angels are a favourite and very beautiful form of ornamentation. In the original plan for Sydney Town Hall, such an angel was shown crowning the case. In a changed design, it gave way to the present tabernacle.

Figure 4 shows those adorning the superb case at Oliwa Cathedral in Poland. The grace and elegance of these figures with their gilded natural trumpets must be unsurpassed. (There are also angelic flautists and bell-ringing putti.) A unique touch here is that the player, from the console, can cause the figures to raise or lower their instruments, an effect said to be much enjoyed by local people.

Let’s have more angelicals on new cases.
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Pic. 4: Oliwa Cathedral, Poland
David Bridgeman-Sutton,
December  14, 2004
Picture captions/credits:

1. Dr Walter Houston, Mansfield College ; 
2 John Brennan, Positif Press, Oxford 
(website www.positifpress.com)
3, Cedric Laycock Archive; 
4, Jenny Setchell.