Harp Guitar
This unusual instrument six single strings like a guitar, but has several body features like a harp. The unusual spruce soundboard is reminscient of that of a harp, but faces forward and is parallel to the strings, instead of sitting perpendicular to the strings as on a pedal harp. Behind the soundboard is a cylindrical body made of bent maple. The body is stained green and has two oval sound holes. The wide, lower end of the body rests on a flat plate that allows the instrument to stand on its own.
The harp-like column measures 88.5 cm in height and is fluted. At the top is a circular cornice. The six strings of the harp pass over a scalloped fingerboard with seventeen inlaid frets of nickel silver. At the top, the strings are attached to iron pins with square heads that require a special wrench to be tuned. On the soundboard, the strings terminate with a pin bridge, with hitch pins defining the end of the sounding length.
Though the instrument has only 6 neck strings, as a standard guitar, labelling it a "harp guitar" due to its form is only natural. Additional provenance comes from a second instrument labelled "Mast-fils" (son of J. L. Mast) where the son actually included four additional floating strings, as in the true harp guitar. The instrument is pictured in a 1910 auction catalog of the collection of one Baron de Léry, where it is listed as ""Tres curieuse harpe-guitare Empire de Mast fils, a Toulouse" (Very curious Empire harp-guitar by Mast’s son, in Toulouse). As the term seems too specific for the auction company to have invented it themselves, it is perhaps probable that this form of guitar - whether strung with 6 strings or additional strings - was named the "Empire harp-guitar" by its maker. (Gregg Miner, 2021)
The harp-like column measures 88.5 cm in height and is fluted. At the top is a circular cornice. The six strings of the harp pass over a scalloped fingerboard with seventeen inlaid frets of nickel silver. At the top, the strings are attached to iron pins with square heads that require a special wrench to be tuned. On the soundboard, the strings terminate with a pin bridge, with hitch pins defining the end of the sounding length.
Though the instrument has only 6 neck strings, as a standard guitar, labelling it a "harp guitar" due to its form is only natural. Additional provenance comes from a second instrument labelled "Mast-fils" (son of J. L. Mast) where the son actually included four additional floating strings, as in the true harp guitar. The instrument is pictured in a 1910 auction catalog of the collection of one Baron de Léry, where it is listed as ""Tres curieuse harpe-guitare Empire de Mast fils, a Toulouse" (Very curious Empire harp-guitar by Mast’s son, in Toulouse). As the term seems too specific for the auction company to have invented it themselves, it is perhaps probable that this form of guitar - whether strung with 6 strings or additional strings - was named the "Empire harp-guitar" by its maker. (Gregg Miner, 2021)
Artwork Details
- Title: Harp Guitar
- Maker: Joseph Laurent Mast (French, Mirecourt 1779–after 1830 Toulouse)
- Date: 1827
- Geography: Toulouse, France
- Culture: French
- Medium: Spruce, maple, iron, nickel silver
- Dimensions: Height: 88.5 cm (34- 13/16 in.)
- Classification: Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted
- Credit Line: Purchase, Frederick M. Lehman Bequest, 2007
- Object Number: 2007.323
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments
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