Fairy bells in British newspapers 1871-1985
Below is a list of 27 references to the fairy bells in British newspapers. It is a tiny selection drawn from many hundreds of references. All over Britain, and for many decades, readers of newspapers were assumed to know about this instrument, the fairy bells. For some reason, British musicologists and organologists have either ignored this fact or have been unaware of it. In museums and more scholarly works of reference, these instruments, originating from the firm of R.W.Cook in the early 1870s. have been described as bell harps and not as fairy bells.
July 1871. An early advertisement from R.W. Cook and Co.
This is one of the first advertisements. 'Anyone can at once produce enchanting imitations of a peal of bells'.
From October 1871 and also from a London newspaper.
'These delightful instruments are the last [latest] novelty'. The instrument priced at 10s 6d probably meant the 8-string version with the 10-string model at 12s 6d.
1874. This is from an Exmouth newspaper.
In this advertisement the sales pitch is altered slightly. The instrument can play tunes as well as imitate bells.
1876 and Mr. Robinson's contribution to an amateur concert.
Only a few years after the introduction of the fairy bells, players performed them (or it) in amateur events and were still doing so, decades later.
1877
Mr Hargreaves Gill, a freemason. played in the North West area for years and there are many newspaper accounts of him. It was sometimes claimed that he was the inventor of the fairy bells, but that is unlikely.
Amateur concert from 1879.
The famous musicologist, Anthony Baines, was intrigued by this instrument. He couldn't imagine its appeal nor that swinging would affect the sound in a significant way. He sketched some equations on the Doppler effect and in some jottings, wrote, '?hardly likely to captivate an audience?' Here
1883
Mr. Hargreaves Gill again, after he moved from Liverpool to Blackburn.
1884
By the 1880s professional musicians were using the fairy bells. The fairy bells would be just one small element of their performances in music hall and variety acts.
1888 and from a Waterford newspaper.
Another professional performer using the fairy bells as one of many instruments. I have not been able to find out anything more about 'The Black Apollo'.
1889 The Meier Family.
'From the 1860s ' Alpine' music was popular. The performers, in national dress, would play a range of instruments and there would be 'jodl' singing.
1891
Another of the many reports of amateur concert. Here the imitation of bells was more important than playing tunes.
1892
Music Hall again. This time, Carola and Thomas and fairy bells alongside violin, mandolin, guitar, sleigh bells, acrobatics and tumbling.
1893
1897
From 1871 it was possible to buy fairy bells and the instrument was still available for sale decades later. Some players made their own instruments.
1898
Tom Plant, here a Staff-Captain and later a Colonel, was a Salvation Army performer who toured the country for many years.
1906
Another amateur entertainment and 35 years after R.W. Cook and Co.'s first advertisements. The fairy bells is/are still being played.
1913
Lily Clough, now Mrs Lily Clough Herring was another Salvation Army performer who toured for many years.
The Stage 1914
The Stage was the newspaper to buy and sell instruments for professional performers.
1925
By the 1920s there are fewer and fewer references to the fairy bells. But it was played by The Barnardo Boys, who toured for decades. The fairy bells seemed especially attractive to the Temperance Movement, the Salvation Army and child performers from orphanages.
1925
There are advertisements from 1906 offering recording of fairy bells with orchestral accompaniment but it is an unlikely instrument for the sort of recording equipment of those days. One item, the Boulanger March with fairy bells and orchestral accompaniment, is actually a tubaphone. Here in 1925 there appears to be a fairy bells performer in a radio broadcast from Manchester.
1930
In the 1930s there are still occasional appearances of the fairy bells in amateur events but they are now rare.
1940
By now the fairy bells instrument is mainly remembered by old people.
1952
The 1950s and an old man is still playing the fairy bells in a Darby and Joan club. The journalist doesn't feel the need to explain what the instrument is.
1961
A vey old chap with his fairy bells in 1961.
1961
Mr Halford again and the journalist writes, 'the "fairy bells" as he called this instrument.
1975
Mrs James plays the fairy bells at a WI entertainment at Christmas 1975.
1985
Writing in the 1960s it is obvious that the musicologist/organologist Anthony Baines (1912-1997) had no idea at all about the existence of the fairy bells and only became aware of it after reading an article by Ed Stoker in 1976 (see References). Baines must have had an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of musical instruments, yet this one eluded him for most of his life.
In the prestigious Galpin Society Journal, Eric Halfpenny's article on the bell harp (1978), it is equally obvious that he too was unaware of the existence of the fairy bells and its history (see References).
Although there are very rare instances where this instrument is described as a bell harp, overwhelmingly it was known as the fairy bells.