September 29:

Our topic for the Poster Stamp Bulletin for Octorber & November is Music, so here’s an older article, revised, on Harps.  It was originally written for use in Topical Times in 2015.

HARPS

I met a wonderful young harpist in New York, Bridget Kibbey. If you love harp music she is terrific and has her own website. She is not a collector but I gave her a few Cinderellas and she loves them….has them out on her living room table. Needless to say, I thought, aha, here’s a potential new enthusiast. In my search I have come up with some nice items related to harps, not the world’s easiest topic. 

There are many instruments called harps. Some are not harps but more related to lyres and zithers. The two basic modern types of true harps are Celtic harp, also used in Wales, and the bigger standing harp with pedal action. The former is, as they name implies, primarily associated with Ireland and may be found on her stamps, postal stationery and patriotic Cinderellas. I’ll talk about them some other time. 

Here are 3 Poster Stamps with lyres and harps.

1. Lyre: “Third German Singing Group Festival, Hamburg 1882.”  The lyre is small & handheld, with a U-shaped frame and crossbar to hold just a few strings. 2. Column with Lyre & Harp: “The Singer’s Curse; Syndetikon, glues everything together.”   3. Harp: “Oberlausitzer Singing Group Festival, Zittau June 1914”.

The modern standing harp derived from the so-called Egyptian harp of a type that became popular in Europe in mediaeval times. The stamp below shows a very early one from the Renaissance era.  Each string could play only one pitch, but the addition of pedals permitted more chromatic notes to be played; notice the pedals at the base of the harp on this advertising postal card from the 1880s; they make it possible for the strings to play 2 or 3 pitches. 

Being a particularly beautiful instrument, harps are often used to celebrate and symbolize musical events such as Music Week in Lucerne in 1941, seen below.   

Many harps were manufactured by companies that also made pianos. The finest U.S. maker is Lyon & Healy, celebrating their 75th year in business on the foil seal above. They are still in operation www.lyonhealy.com

An interesting example of image plagiarism can be seen in the stamps issued by Lichtenstein Pianos and Perzina Pianos. I suspect the colored image came first. The woman sitting by the sea exemplifies the tranquility associated with harp music.

__Art Groten