David Kettlewell, who died in 2011, was both a performer and an academic. He is still renowned for his research on the dulcimer and his thesis from 1976 remains a major study of all aspects of that instrument. The closest instrument to the bell harp must be the dulcimer and it is not surprising that he wrote the ‘bell harp’ entry in New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians in 1980 (First Edition) and repeated in 2001 (Second Edition).
Unlike others writing about the bell harp, Kettlewell clearly distinguishes between instruments from the eighteenth century and the later instrument known as fairy bells, which appeared around 1870. But there are serious problems with the entry, both factual and with the overall impression given of the instrument. This is surprising because the New Grove Dictionary comes with a reputation for scholarly excellence and with a very high price for print or for online subscription. It is widely accepted as a trusted source for reliable information and a secure, first point of reference.
The following categorical assertions are made in the entry:
‘...examples were produced in the early 18th century by John Simcock of Bath’
‘...fairy bells…was played by English and French street musicians in the late 19th century and early 20th.’
‘...the left thumb plucking the lower strings and the right thumb, with a plectrum, the shorter ones.
1) ‘Examples were produced in the early 18th century by John Simcock of Bath’
None of the surviving instruments, taken to be bell harps of 18th century origin, are dated. John Simcock was active in the middle of the 18th century, not the early 18th century. John Simcock made English harps, not bell harps. The information which contradicts Kettlewell’s entry is in his own references, an article by Eric Halfpenny article from 1978. See References
The only evidence that currently exists shows that John Simcock lived in Bath from 1760-63, not before and not after. There is evidence after 1763 that he lived in Leek and Manchester.
2) the assertion that the instrument was ‘played by English and French street musicians’.
This dubious item of information is presumably referring to the fairy bells, an instrument introduced in the 1870s by the firm of R. W. Cook and Co. The fairy bells instrument was known for decades with that name, fairy bells, not ‘bell harp’. The contention that the fairy bells (with that or any other name) was played by French street musicians has no evidence at all, not in Kettlewell’s references or anywhere. Anthony Baines also suggested the same idea and again without citing evidence.
Perhaps the idea comes from misremembering a passage from A.J. Hipkins’ book, Musical Instruments, Historic, Rare and Unique (1888). Hipkins recalled seeing a street performer a few years earlier (i.e. some time in the early 1880s), ‘A few years ago a Frenchman played the bell harp in the streets of London, attracting audiences by the novelty of the instrument and the grace with which he swung it.’ Hipkins must have been referring to the fairy bells rather than the 18th century bell harp and the player he admired was playing in London, not France.
There is nothing to be found in any of the powerful search engines and online resources such as Gallica, the Base Nationale des Instruments de Musique, MIMO or anywhere else to support the claim that the fairy bells (or the bell harp) was ever an instrument of French street musicians. There is no evidence that the instrument was ever played in France.
There are many hundreds of references to the fairy bells in British newspapers from the 1870s and well into the 20th century. Many of the references are to amateur performances in concerts and entertainments. There are very few references indeed to street musicians. It could be argued that there is nothing especially newsworthy about street musicians and no reason for stories about them. But where is the evidence that the fairy bells instrument was a street musician’s instrument? There is a lot of evidence that the fairy bells instrument was played both by amateurs in amateur entertainments and by professionals as part of their stage acts.
But Kettlewell’s entry gives the strong, and entirely unsupported, impression that the instrument was either a novelty instrument for amateurs at home or a street musician’s instrument.
3) ‘...the left thumb plucking the lower strings and the right thumb, with a plectrum, the shorter ones’
Is this about the eighteenth century bell harp and English harp, or the later fairy bells? The context suggests both. This assertion seems to have been plucked out of thin air. Nothing in any of the references cited by Kettlewell, or from anywhere else, suggests this at all. All of the 18th century descriptions of the bell harp given in encyclopaedias and works of reference agree that the bell harp was played with plectrums (wire, whalebone etc) attached to both thumbs. There is no evidence at all that the fairy bells instrument was ever played with plectrums. In the very sources that Kettlewell cites (Ed Coker and Eric Halfpenny) it is made clear that the fairy bells instrument was played with the thumbs. Kettlewell’s assertion has no evidence at all and is, frankly, a daft idea.