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Pedal Harp

1780 - 1785 (Made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

By about 1780 Queen Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793) had helped create a vogue for the harp in France, as she was a keen player. This instrument is a single-action pedal-harp, fitted a hook-like device called the crochet, which raises the pitch of the string by one semi-tone, when activated by a pedal. It is also decorated with fashionable chinoiserie motifs. This harp is signed 'Wolter' of Porte St Denis, Paris, who may have been the same person as Jean-Matthias Wolters (active 1740-1793).


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
planed, japanned, painted and gilded wood (maple?) body; pine soundboard
Brief description
Pedal harp, japanned wood, decorated with chinoiseries by Jean-Mathias Wolters (active 1740 - 1785), Paris, French, 1780-85.
Physical description
'Back of seven ribs japanned black. Pine belly decorated with chinoiserie figures (of the late eighteenth-century variant with naturalistic faces of the kind also to be seen at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, and elsewhere) and garlands. Pillar of oval section with mouldings and termination in a carved bracket, somewhat as 16/9 [Pedal-harp by Renault & Chatelain, Paris, 1781-1797, Museum no. 469-1897]. The neck and scroll are apparently carved by the same hand as those of the Nadermann and Renault & Chatelain harps (16/5, 16/6, 16/9) [Museum nos. 425-1884, 4449-1858, 469-1897]; the scroll gilt, the rest japanned black and decorated with small-scale chinoiserie subjects in the common fantastic seventeenth-eighteenth century tradition. Single action by crochettes'.

Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-Keyboard Instruments. (London, 1978), p. 81.
Dimensions
  • Height: 1680mm
  • Width: 500mm
  • Depth: 840mm
Measured by Conservation, 2012
Marks and inscriptions
Wolter Porte St Denis à Paris (Inscription painted in black at the top of the soundboard. Both Baines and Vannes (c.f.Dictionnaire Universel des Luthiers (Brussels, 1951)) suggest that this "Wolter" could be the same as Jean-Mathias Wolters (active 1740 - 1785))
Translation
Wolter at Porte St Denis, Paris
Gallery label
[Label text by Peter Thornton] Pedal harp French (Paris); about 1780 Inscribed 'Wolter Porte St. Denis à Paris' Pine body, japanned and decorated with chinoiseries The French pedal-harp became a decorative piece of furniture in its own right and much skill was devoted to the decoration of such instruments . Jean-Matthias Wolters was one of several excellent harp-makers producing instruments of this kind in Paris at the time. The decoration is by the same hand as that to be seen on the Taskin harpsichord on the same time. Bequeather by Captain H.B. Murray Museum No. W.46-1911(1971)
Credit line
Bequeathed by Captain H.B. Murray
Object history
This instrument was bequeathed to the Museum in 1911 by Captain H.B.Murray.
Production
The instrument is signed 'Wolter' but it is probably an alternative spelling to 'Wouter', 'Woltaier' or Jean-Mathias Wolters, a luthier active from about 1740 until 1785.
Summary
By about 1780 Queen Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793) had helped create a vogue for the harp in France, as she was a keen player. This instrument is a single-action pedal-harp, fitted a hook-like device called the crochet, which raises the pitch of the string by one semi-tone, when activated by a pedal. It is also decorated with fashionable chinoiserie motifs. This harp is signed 'Wolter' of Porte St Denis, Paris, who may have been the same person as Jean-Matthias Wolters (active 1740-1793).
Bibliographic reference
Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p. 81.
Collection
Accession number
W.46-1911

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Record createdApril 14, 2009
Record URL
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