Images(2)

Harp-guitar

Date1831 ca.

Place MadePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, North America

Serial No.none

SignedEMILIUS N. SCHERR / PianoForte and Organ Builder / PHILADELPHIA / N 305 Market Street / All kinds of Musical Instruments Repaired printed label is identical to letterhead reproduced in Libin's book, p. 132, figure 152, showing a square piano, a chamber organ with female player, and an upright piano.
Descriptionelongated body that rests at one end on four metal pins at the base
built with guitar neck/fingerboard
played like an ordinary guitar
19 frets
2 open soundholes
6-strings
bridge with a moustache
3 inlaid position markers on the fingerboard
peg head is a "sideways scroll" with geared turners
peghead "scroll" terminates in a bird's head (eagle?)
edges of belly, soundholes and back are painted with a foliate design
back wears a large painted design in it's center, with a lyre, flowers, leaves, and a grotesque face
DimensionsOverall length: 1471mm
Body width: 330mm
ProvenanceAccording to Marianne Wurlitzer, the harp-guitar "was purchased from a descendent of the famous Norwegian violinist Olé Bull. Olé bull's daughter bought a lovely house in Southbury, Connecticut. The house has an even lovelier octagonal shaker barn and it was apparently in this barn that the harp-guitar has been lying for all these years." (May 31, 1989)

Published ReferencesSilva, Ana Sofia. "Digging the Fifties: A Curatorial Perspective on 50 Objects from the NMM Collections." NMM Notes (October 2023): 27.

"Museum Makes Important Acquisitions Again in 1989," Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter XVII, no. 2 (January 1990), p. 2.

Credit LinePurchase funds gift of Stella Anker, 1989

Object number04650

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