English harp-ventura, sycamore back, tortoiseshell sides, pine soundboard and Wedgwood jasperware rose, 1828-30, by A.B.Ventura

"Flat-based body with separate back and sides. Back of sycamore with a raised central panel. Sides of blond tortoiseshell. Belly painted cream-coloured, with a wide border of painted leaves in black and gold. Supported in the open soundhole by an internal bracket is a wedgwood [sic] blue and white jasperware cameo centrepiece showing a cherub playing a lyre. There are two small fingerboards on the belly for one and three strings respectively, also a fingerboard on the neck for three strings. The harmonic curve carries ten strings provided with fourchette semitone mechanism taken from the Érard harp and actuated by seven brass levers, each with a sprung locking device. (Only seven levers are required since three of them each control a pair of octave strings.) The mechanism is encased between brass plates.The tuning key is kept in a trap with a lid, in the flat top of the body." - Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p.69.

This Harp-Ventura formed part of the Collections of Carl Engel (1818-1882), and was valued at £4 when acquired by this museum in 1882.

The harp-ventura was a fashionable harp-guitar hybrid patented by Angelo Benedetto Ventura (c. 1781-1856) in 1828. As well as being lavishly decorated, this instrument was fitted with a series of levers or 'push-stops', which raised the pitch of the open strings by a semi-tone, and with three fingerboards, which extended the range of the higher notes. Ventura patented eight harp-guitar variants, for which he wrote a number of song arrangements. He also taught music to Princess Charlotte (1796-1817), daughter of the Prince Regent.

248-1882