Triple harp, made by David Evans, London, 1736

"A high-headed harp with back of nine ribs of sycamore. Rising belly of pine, framed with scallop-shell and floral scroll painted decoration in gold with blcak detail. The six small soundholes in the belly are each surrounded with painted wreaths in gold, picked out in black. The string holes are shod with metal, The post is japanned black with gilt chinoeries. Its finial is meeing. The neck is richly carved with a mask and floral ornament and with a human head close to the sound box, and partly gilt. The strings, tunedo on the left side of the neck, include: right-hand row, thirty four strings, middle row twenty-nine, the shortest being located just below the sixth of the first row; the left-hand row twenty-five, the shortest opposite the eleventh of the first row." (Baines, Anthony. Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard insturments. London, 1998, pp. 76 - 77.)

Given by Messrs Kirckman & Sons

This instrument was given to the South Kensington Museum by Messrs Kirckman & Sons in 1869.

This harp was made in 1736 by David Evans, an instrument maker based in Rose Court in Covent Garden, London. He may well have been the David Evans who was employed as harpist to George III (reigned 1760 - 1820). This type of harp was developed in Italy and Spain from about 1580 and was used in Wales until the 1890s. It was known as the triple harp, because it had three rows of strings, the outer two being tuned identically and the middle one chromatically. Messrs Kirckman & Sons, the most famous makers of English harpsichords in the previous century, presented this instrument to this museum in 1869.

1740-1869