What year did they stop making the 22? And why? I just got a 22 from 1915 and it is amazing. Is there something special about that era of L&H that this instrument has held up so beautifully? (It was rebuilt in 2006, but it didn’t need a new neck and still doesn’t..!)

Balfour,

There is another reason for the demise of semi-grand harps. From the manufacturing standpoint, there is little if any difference between the production costs of making a semi-grand or a concert grand. But the buying public expects the semi-grand to cost less, virtually eliminating the profit margin for the sale of semi-grands. Because of this, I’m amazed that any harp manufacturer makes a semi-grand harp.

The quality of wood that was available was of the best possible, and the quality of workmanship was high as well. But it also depends on what you expect from a harp. Lyon & Healy has made many improvements over the years, and their harps are much more consistent now. The oldest harps also seem so great because there were periods of much-lower quality as in the 1960s.

@cblack Yes, when I updated the pictures to have the correct resolution, it ate my post, but also wouldn’t let me repost it. I’m not sure if it’s hidden and needs to be approved by a mod, or if something else went wrong. I’ll repost it below; if an admin knows what’s going on, feel free to let me know.

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We have one from the mid-40s, which is supposed to be a good time period (note: while you will find mostly gold harps from this time period, there are also natural Style 22 / 23 being made by the 40s).

I am not an expert on any of this, but as I understand it, with harps being used in settings that needed more projection, and strings got heavier duty, they started needing to use slightly thicker soundboards sometime around the late 30s or early 40s. This means that, while the ones before the mid 30s or so can be amazing, you’re less likely to find one with an intact soundboard than with ones a bit later, especially if modern concert tension bass wires are / have been used. There are also periods of time with necks that hold up better than others.

Interestingly, while I’d always thought of the 22 as “a 23, but smaller”, and had assumed that the former was based on the latter, I have the reproduction of the 1899 L&H catalog that was reprinted in 1979 (hope it’s Ok to share the photos below from it her, and the No. 22 in there looks similar to a modern 22 / 23, but the No. 23 at that time looks nothing like either a modern 23 or 22 – looks like a straight soundboard, the carving is floral, the default column and base have been “ebonized”, and it’s the same dimensions as a 21, so probably smaller and fewer strings than a concert grand. Curious if anyone who knows more about the history has any of the backstory here, or has seen this older style of 23 floating around.

One person told me that the 22 is one of the most varied models (you’ll see two different column styles, same as the 23, and other minor differences in the appearance; there is also a rare “Wagner bust” model).

@cblack You can get a copy of the catalog online, for example:

Lyon & Healy – 1899 L&H Commemorative Catalog

@carl-swanson I could be wrong! I have not seen a lot about them, nor have I seen one in person, so this is very much second-hand information. I think there are very few of them, right? Would love to see!

I first heard it mentioned (and referred to as a Style 22) by a tech who is very well informed, and also see a few references to it being a Style 22 on a couple of Facebook posts (one by H Bryan and one by International Harp Museum), but I make no claims to first-hand knowledge.

I tried to link to some photos here, but can’t get them to link (should be findable via a web search, though).

For anyone who’s curious about the older iteration of the Style 23 (the straight soundboard / semi-grand version), I just remembered – there’s one in the Met’s collection that I came acast time I came across this:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/503991
(the image is in the public domain, so I’ll attach a small version of it here as well)