Help with ID on a Lyon and Healy

[Pete Johansen]

Was wondering if anyone can point me towards a good resource for identifying an older Lyon and Healy pedal harp. I cant seem to find any markings that say what series it is, and am coming up short on google searches.

[barbara-brundage]

got a photo and a serial number? The serial number will be on the action plate on an older harp.

[carl-swanson]

In addition, if you take the little wood action block out(that’s the block between the two action plates at the column), it will have written on the back of it what model it is.

[Pete Johansen]

It has a serial number of 550. Which seems pretty low from what I’ve seen. I’ll remove that block in a little bit to find out which model it is. Thanks. Excited to find out more! I’ll snap a few pictures too.

[Pete Johansen]

Removed the wood block and the only thing written on it was #550 with two lines underneath. I don’t know if saying that it has 45 strings and 7 levers helps at all.

[carl-swanson]

I think that #550 is a very early instrument. My understanding is that when Lyon & Healy started building harps in 1889, they started with serial number 500. If that’s true, then your harp was probably built within a year or two at most of that startup date. So they probably didn’t have different model numbers at that time.

[Pete Johansen]

So would that make it roughly equivalent to a more modern Semi Grand, or are these early harps considered more of an antique than a functional instrument.

I’m pretty familiar with guitars, and know that they changed so many things about how they were made in the 30’s and 40’s that many instruments earlier than that are considered more of an antique than a players instrument.

I’m relatively close to Chicago, does Lyon and Healy offer restoration and regulation services, or are independent shops the way to go?

[barbara-brundage]

Yes, but I think there are two sets of harps with 500 serial numbers, aren’t there, Carl? Didn’t they start over again at 500 after one of the early fires, so that there are harps from the early 1900s and also harps from the teens with those same numbers?

[barbara-brundage]

I don’t know why my edits didn’t show. I meant to say ‘from the 1890s and also from the teens.’

Anyway, if you have the first harp with the 550 serial number, that’s a style 21 which was sold to Miss Clara Thurston of Chicago, according to the L&H 1899 harp catalog. (It used to be available as a reprint; not sure if it still is.) There’s a swell photo of Miss Thurston and her harp and a testimonial from her on page 84.

[barbara-brundage]

Oh, and also, just FYI, those seven things at the bottom are pedals, not levers. You have a pedal harp. Pedals you work with your feet so they’re down at the base of the harp. Levers you flip with your hands and they’re on strings at the top of the harp.

[barbara-brundage]

Yes, L&H offers restoration services. So does Carl.

[barbara-brundage]

Yes, you can still get the catalog reprint:

http://us.harp.com/info/products/pact_show/id_19395895/

[Pete Johansen]

I realized that shortly after I posted that I had incorrectly called them levers. Can you tell I’m a greenhorn?

[Pete Johansen]

What is the name of Carl’s shop?

[barbara-brundage]

http://www.swansonharp.com/Repair.html

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