Harp Making in
Late-Georgian London
At the end of the eighteenth century, after the French Revolution, the centre of pedal-harp making moved from Paris to London. There, building on the work of its Bavarian originators and Parisian developers, mainly immigrant makers elevated the instrument to new musical, technical, and decorative heights, and placed it in the hands and salons of the British upper classes and aristocracy. Until recently, the story of harp making in England has been dominated by the Erard family who built about 7,000 of an estimated 15,000 harps made in London during the nineteenth century; some 20 other makers have been all but forgotten.
This book, the story of harp making in late-Georgian England, assesses the role and consumption of the harp in society whilst describing its decorative and technical development. Forgotten makers and their innovations are identified. Through the lens of newly discovered documents and the reinterpretation of others, Jacob Erat's manufactories are reconstructed. His working methods, illustrative of those used in the wider industry, are rediscovered, and employees and suppliers are revealed anew.
ISBN: 9781527265110
428 pages
Price: £60
Harp Making in
Late-Georgian London
At the end of the eighteenth century, after the French Revolution, the centre of pedal-harp making moved from Paris to London. There, building on the work of its Bavarian originators and Parisian developers, mainly immigrant makers elevated the instrument to new musical, technical, and decorative heights, and placed it in the hands and salons of the British upper classes and aristocracy. Until recently, the story of harp making in England has been dominated by the Erard family who built about 7,000 of an estimated 15,000 harps made in London during the nineteenth century; some 20 other makers have been all but forgotten.
This book, the story of harp making in late-Georgian England, assesses the role and consumption of the harp in society whilst describing its decorative and technical development. Forgotten makers and their innovations are identified. Through the lens of newly discovered documents and the reinterpretation of others, Jacob Erat's manufactories are reconstructed. His working methods, illustrative of those used in the wider industry, are rediscovered, and employees and suppliers are revealed anew.
ISBN: 9781527265110
428 pages
Price: £60
25 February 2024 - Contextualising Early Nineteenth-Century London Harp Makers, with Nancy Hurrell, 'Regency Harps & Music', hosted by The Historical Harp Society.
3 June 2023 - The Pedal Harp: It's History and Development. Acadamh na gClairseach - Harps of the World. 6 May - 17 June 2023.
10 June 2022 - Mike Baldwin and Lewis Jones: The Hochbrucker Family and the Adoption of the Pedal Harp before 1760. American Musical Instrument Society Annual Conference, 8-11 June 2022, National Music Centre, Calgary, Canada.
13 November 2021 - Jacob Hochbrucker: Innovating and developing the first pedal harp. 'Between the Strings: Festival of the Historic Harp, Haus de Musik und Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria. 11-14 November 2021. www.harfenlabor.com
21 November 2019 - (Re)constructing Musics of the harp: London Metropolitan University. Joint paper with Lewis Jones.
2019: 'Mizen: Rescued Folklore' featured in four episode of the 'Encounters with the Good People' podcast. Episode 1 examines my family's connection with the folklore of the Mizen Peninsula; episode 2 recounts tales of the good people from Goleen and its environs; episode 3 focuses on the place of landscape in folklore, and episode 4 discusses the place of the sea in the folklore of Ireland's Mizen Peninsula.
29-30 November 2018 - The Early Pedal Harp: Developing a Common Descriptive Language. International Workshop - ‘The Early Pedal Harp as a Museum Artefact: Research–Conservation–Presentation’, Alter Seminarraum, Research Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Deutsches Museum, Munich. website - https://earlypedalharp.wordpress.com
22 January 2018 - Jacob Erat’s harp manufactories: repurposing town houses in late Georgian London, Cass Research Seminar, 'Networks of making and habitation, the lives and works of Giuseppe Naldi and Jacob Erat' (Lewis Jones and Mike Baldwin)
Mike Baldwin, Finding my Voice, in Special Children Magazine, issue 235, April-June 2017, pp.29-31 https://shinetrust.org.uk/2016/11/10/finding-my-voice/
Mike Baldwin, Robert Bruce Armstrong's Irish and Highland Harps, in The Time Traveller Magazine, 2nd edition, March-May 2017
28 May 2016 - The Employees of the Late-Georgian Harp Makers (or Thieves, Drunks, and Drowners of Dogs). Made in London Conference, London Metropolitan University
27-30 September 2015 - Robert Willis and innovation in harp design - The Galpin Society Conference, in association with the Institute of Acoustics - University of Cambridge
26 November 2014 - The early nineteenth-century, London-made ‘Grecian’ Harp, The Gilding and Decorative Surfaces Group, Institute of Conservation (ICON) Annual General Meeting, keynote
8 October 2014 - The ‘Grecian’ Harp: Ornamentation, Decoration and Architectural Monumentality - PhD student symposium - London Metropolitan University, The CASS Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design
21 May 2014 - Erat’s harp manufactory at 23 Berners Street (1821-1826): workshop organisation in a Georgian town house - PhD student symposium - London Metropolitan University, The CASS Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design
11-12 September 2013 - Consuming the Harp in late Georgian England: Products, Services and Customers of the Erat Manufactory, 1821-1824 - Georgian Pleasures Conference - Bath Spa University (Centre for Musical Research and Centre for History and Culture), The Hoburne Museum, Bath
25-29 July 2013 - Patents, Politics and Personalities: the Mechanisation of the Harp 1794-1845 - Musical Instruments- History, Science and Culture Conference, co-hosted by The Bate Collection and The Galpin Society in association with "Making the Tudor Viol" (University of Huddersfield, supported by the AHRC) & CIMCIM (Comité International des Musées et Collections d'Instruments de Musique) - University of Oxford
M Baldwin, The Erat Harp Manufactory: Painted and Gilded Decoration (text), GSJ, no.66, March 12
M Baldwin, The Erat Harp Manufactory: Painted and Gilded Decoration (photos), GSJ, no.66, March 12
M Baldwin, The Inventor of the Double-action Harp with Fourchettes: Groll versus Erard, FOMHRI, no. 79, April 1995, pp. 29-34. https://www.fomrhi.org/uploads/bulletins/Fomrhi-079.pdf