Lorcan Otway with a 19th-century harp that was found in a Dumpster. He plans to have it restored by an expert in London.Posted on 08/10/2009 7:20:31 AM PDT by BGHater
To a certain type of New Yorker,every Dumpster is a potential treasure chest,right up there with thrift stores and stoop sales.
But if the scavenger gods offer only a finite number of prizes, Julie Finch might have claimed one of them.
Last month Ms. Finch stood on her toes to peer into the Dumpster outside her building on West 26th Street and found a blue wooden harp distinguished mainly by caked layers of grime and dust and a snarl of broken strings.
“It was this old thing with wires going in all directions,” she said.“It didn’t look like anything anybody could play.”
Still, as a lover of found objects, Ms. Finch felt duty bound to take the harp home. She offered it to a neighbor whose brother is a composer, but the man’s wife objected after seeing its sorry condition. So Ms. Finch used wood-floor soap to clean the harp and discovered not only clusters of hand-painted gold shamrocks climbing the column and soundboard,but a brass plaque bearing the name of the instrument’s maker,John Egan, and an address on Dawson Road in Dublin.
Egan, who is thought to have made instruments from the late 1700s until about 1840, is seen by many as the father of the modern Irish harp. In the 19th century his instruments were used by nationalist balladeers, like the poet Thomas Moore, who wrote “The Harp that Once Through Tara’s Halls.” Today universities and museums collect them.
“The ancient Irish harp tradition, which goes back to medieval times, was dying out around 1800,” Simon Chadwick, honorary secretary of the Historical Harp Society of Ireland, wrote in an e-mail message.
Lorcan Otway with a 19th-century harp that was found in a Dumpster. He plans to have it restored by an expert in London.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
There’s a special place in perdition for anybody who would throw out such a lovely thing. Good grief! Might as well chuck a Strad in the dumpster. Even if the soundboard is split it’s still worth restoring.
I have a cherished French Horn(really good one with hardshell case) I found at a Goodwill Store.
I have a little Irish lap harp. It isn’t really Irish - it was made here locally by a luthier, it’s a pretty little thing and has a lovely sound.
Fascinating story....
The Chelsea area in NYC was a big Irish settlement in the mid to late 1800s. I know, because my ancestors lived a block away from where they found that harp (West 25th street, between 8th and 9th avenue).
I wonder if the harp was a relic of those times and was brought over during the famine migration that filled up the area, and who threw it out (and what other treasures of that time may have ended up in a dumpster).
Lq
ping
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Thanks BGHater!...Ms. Finch used wood-floor soap to clean the harp and discovered not only clusters of hand-painted gold shamrocks climbing the column and soundboard,but a brass plaque bearing the name of the instrument's maker,John Egan, and an address on Dawson Road in Dublin. Egan, who is thought to have made instruments from the late 1700s until about 1840, is seen by many as the father of the modern Irish harp. In the 19th century his instruments were used by nationalist balladeers, like the poet Thomas Moore... "The ancient Irish harp tradition, which goes back to medieval times, was dying out around 1800," Simon Chadwick, honorary secretary of the Historical Harp Society of Ireland, wrote...To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
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A little bit of history.
I am not a musician or a dumpster diver but I would have rescued that harp in a second! What a find!
Yeah, me too, btw.
What a great story. Wish they would have posted a sound bite with it.
Noo Yawkers are so friggin' cosmopolitan...
What sort of harp do you play? Mine's a little 22 string lap harp, with sharping levers (thank goodness!)
Mine is a 31 string Cunningham. Had it since 1989, but have only been playing since 1996.
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What a amazing contrast!
One guy is wearing headphones and is trying to ignore the world. While the other man, notice's the beauty of the Harp, by keeping his eyes and ‘ears’ open.
If you go here: Link
There are thumbnail pictures, including close-ups of the painting and workmanship. Click to enlarge. Enjoy.
I have a baby grand piano I bought from an old guy. It’s an antique that I had restored(inside not out). It was costly but was well worth the money.
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