Single action pedal harp
Maker
Erard frères
Date1800 ca.
Place MadeParis, France, Europe
Serial No.275
SignedErard Freres par Brevet D’Invon
Paris / Facteurs de Forte-Piano & harpes ite L L M MeImperiales & Royales
DescriptionSingle-action
7 pedals
Ram’s-head plaster decoration at capital (3 ram’s heads with horns connected by 4
crescents between. Ram’s heads used by Erard before 1810 (Rensch p. 102)
also 3 full figure angels and four feathers (leaves?)
sets of 2 winged griffins (?) holding lyres around top of column.
Long leaves at base of column.
4 four-toed feet
No decoration on soundboard
Pillar slants forward
41-strings capacity
Semi-circular body, offset fluted pillar with Grecian caryatid and merman capital; deep
harmonic curve with brass plates
Typically, Erard’s harps had a sycamore frame and soundboard of Swiss pine (Rensch).
DimensionsHeight: 65” (5’5”) (ca. 1654 cm)
ProvenanceInstrument originally sold to L. G.(?) Charles Campbell, ca. 1800. Repaired in July 1897 for a Wm. Elsworth. “Came into” donor’s family ca. 1911 and was “played for 5 years, stood in a bedroom for forty years, and was used as decoration in [donor’s] Scottish dancing room for thirty years.”
Published ReferencesRoslyn Rensch. The Harp: its History, Technique, & Repertoire (New York: Praeger,
1969).
Credit LineGift of Robert E. McNair, 1986
Object number04011
On View
Not on view
1700 ca.
1990 ca.