In 1889 Lyon and Healy, a successful retail and mail-order musical merchandising company, added the manufacture of harps to its business. Within a decade the firm became a serious international competitor and soon surpassed the Paris companies of Erard and Pleyel. Lyon and Healy's success was built on sturdy and durable wooden construction and smooth and secure action of the metal rods and levers, which were crafted with the highest precision. The basic construction, however, follows the French models, in particular Erard's double-action harp.

The present example, with the serial number 115, is among the company's earliest to survive. It corresponds to model number 23 in Lyon and Healy's first trade catalogue for harps, which appeared about 1900. The instrument is a semigrand harp, with seven double-action pedals and an eighth pedal for a swell mechanism to increase the volume. It also features a fourchette mechanism, which terminates the sounding length of the forty-five strings, and a semicircular body. Body base, column, and harmonic bar are ebonized and richly decorated with gilt flowers, birds, and a human figure.