Irish, 1800-1810

Back and side separately constructed of an unidentified wood and now much worm-eaten. There are three soundholes in the back. The belly, of six pieces of pine, appears to be more recent. The post is curved in something of the old Irish manner. The neck is offset over to the right-hand side, and the strings are tuned on the right side of the neck by brass tuning pins. There are forty-one strings (the present strings of wire being modern replacements) held om the holes in the belly by small iron nails or toggles.' - Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard insturments. (London, 1998), pp. 77 - 78.

This instrument was given to the South Kensington Museum in 1872 by The Ven. Archdeacon Saurin of Armagh.

This Irish harp or Cláirseach dates from about 1800, a time when harp playing was enjoying a revival in Ireland. Following a famous gathering of harpists in Belfast in 1792, harp societies were formed in Belfast in 1808 and Dublin in 1809. Unlike the Welsh harp, which had three rows of strings, the Irish version has only one, and the traditional Irish technique is to play with fingernails as opposed to the flesh of the fingertips.

616-1872