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Unusual or anomalous 'bell harps/fairy bells'
Unusual or anomalous 'bell harps/fairy bells'
Eli Colman's 'box of bells' certainly counts as an unusual form of bell harp and has its own section. There are other instruments which resemble bell harps or fairy bells but may be only coincidentally similar. With more information about these instruments it might be possible to determine their relationship to the other swung zithers described on this website.
There is a very handsome instrument in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston USA
The museum describes it, cautiously, as a 'psaltery (bell harp)'. Length 61.5 cms, height (=max height?) 16 cms, width (=max width?) 35.8 cms.
Rod Howell has been in contact with the Boston MFA and, unfortunately, the instrument is currently in storage. However the museum staff kindly sent some descriptive notes.
On the slightly convex top (or curved cover), made of maple, there is an image, in ink, of what looks like a townscape and the word, 'KILWINNING'. Kilwinning is a town in Scotland and the museum gives the instrument's origins as 19th century Scottish.
The sides are of birdseye maple and the soundboard is pine with two small roses visible underneath the playing area. The roses have cut-out shapes of lions. There is scrollwork decoration at the wider end with two snakes as part of the design.
The actual layout of the hitch pin planks/bridges is not specified and cannot be seen in the photograph, but black stained wood is used and the hitch pins have ivory buttons. Given the description of the tuning (see below) it is probably reasonable to suppose that the hitch pin planks/bridges are arranged as on other bell harp-type instruments.
There are 18 triple courses with seven courses of brass on the left-hand side and 11 courses, seven of brass and four of iron, on the right-hand side. Oddly, the hitch pin plank on the left side is longer than on the right, despite having fewer courses.
There are no wrest pins; the instrument has a brass, watchkey tuning mechanism (see Instruments 2). It doesn't have lugs but it does appear to be lightly constructed and perhaps it could be held and swung if the hands could grasp it and if the thumbs could reach over to the middle of the instrument. Overall it appears to be a finely crafted instrument, made to be played as well as admired.
The tuning given in the museum's descriptive notes is from d to g, two octaves and a fourth above: presumably d- b'' and presumably straightforwardly diatonic in D major. See Tunings for similar tunings in D major but that also include a 'c' natural for the key of G as well.
According to the museum, before 1992 the instrument was in Scotland and had been in the King family for generations. The museum claims the instrument is from the 19th century but gives no specific details of when it was made. It is surprising that an instrument as unusual and elegant as this remained unknown in organological circles in Britain.
None of the other bell harps/English harps discussed on this site are known to be of Scottish origin even though two of them are in the Edinburgh Collections. The bell harp is illustrated and described in J.G. Dalyell's Musical Memoirs of Scotland, 1849. but it does not look anything like this Kilwinnig instrument. As discussed here, Dalyell's 'bell harp' is actually Simcock's English harp (i.e. Simcock's version of the bell harp).
This Kilwinnig bell harp looks rather different from other bell harps described on this website; it is much deeper and the wrest pins and hitch pins are covered. The snakes and lions designs in the scrollwork and the roses are puzzling. There is no obvious connection with Scotland or with bell harps.
If the Kilwinning bell harp was made in the 19th century it is very different from the fairy bells, an instrument that was very popular in Britain from the 1870s, and there is no record of bell harp activity earlier in that century. So, as an artefact from the 19th century, it must surely be a one-off project of some sort. No other instruments like this are known from the 19th century.
Unusual 19-string fairy bells? - this section is still being developed! (31.1.26)
This strange instrument was offered for sale on ebay a few years ago. I wrote a short article about it in FoMRHI. (156, December 2021). It is in poor condition.
Unusual right bells-type instrument
The plain rectangular box with single wire strings and cut-outs in the lid look like a very typical example of a fairy bells instrument. But it has 19 strings whereas most surviving fairy bells have either eight or ten strings.
The stringing follows the FRAS principle (Forward Reverse Ascending Scale: the strings get progressively shorter and the scale ascends at first from left-right 1 the centre of the instrument and then from right to left, again towards the centre). There are 7 strings in a row on the left side and 11 strings in a row on the right side plus one other string by itself (non FRAS principle), also on the right side. Like fairy bells but unlike 18th century bell harps and English harps the hitch pins are at the playing end of the instrument.
In the late 19th century R.W. Cook and Co. produced 17-string fairy bells but these were just the 10-string model with the intervening chromatic notes on raised strings in front of the basic 10, and with an overall range of only a tenth. Nevertheless there are examples of fairy bells with more than 10 strings and a range of more than a tenth: 12, 14 and 16-string instruments exist too. But this 19-string instrument is surprising.
The limited range of notes on the 8-string and 10-string models means that both hands contribute to producing one melodic line. After all, fairy bells are just meant to be fanciful bell-like sounds; the instrument was marketed by R. Cook in the 1870s as a novelty bells imitator. The possibilities for playing with a right-hand, treble side with an accompanying left-hand bass are very limited. But with this 19-string instrument it is possible to think of 7 bass notes on the left with 12 trebles on the right and it would be possible to play a simple melodies with admittedly a basic accompaniment. It is more like a small harp or psaltery, but nevertheless designed to look like fairy bells.
What about the string on the outermost right, with its own wrest pin beneath its own cut-out on the top? On some 18th century instruments the longest and lowest note is (surprisingly) on the outermost right side. But on this 19-string instrument this outermost right string isn't the longest. In the photos the wire for this string doesn't appear to be of a significantly thicker gauge and it is not a wound string. This outermost string does not seem to functioning as the lowest in pitch. There must be some other reason for its existence.
Despite its larger than normal size, the instrument has a strap, presumably for grasping and swinging while playing, just as on smaller instruments. But it only has one strap on the left side and there is no indication that there ever was a strap on the other side. Instead, on the right side, some felt has been glued (see below).
The playing area: a soundboard in two sections and with simple design from drilled holes.
The playing area is in poor condition. It is very unusual because it is raised above the baseboard and so this instrument has, in effect, a small soundboard. The soundboard appears to be in two sections separated by a gap. The puzzling outermost string on the right side passes over a sort of metal rider and disappears into this gap. (The photos are misleading because the string next to the outermost one has broken and is lying as if it were the outermost string - see below).
Fairy bells usually have no soundboard, so this too is unusual, but it's not unknown. For example:
8-string fairy bells with a soundboard.
Looking again at the playing area of the 19-string instrument, there are many drilled holes which are probably a simple design feature. I wrote about the playing area on this instrument in my article in FoMRHI and speculated that something might be missing, perhaps some sort of contraption which might explain the presence of the felt on the right side.
This photo shows again the outermost string passing over a metal rider and going into a gap. Notice that a broken string which should be on the left has fallen to the right. The string going into the gap is the outermost string.
Closer view of outermost string.
In this closer view (above) the outermost string (with its own cut-out for the wrest pin) can be seen more clearly. The metal rider increases the height of the string above the soundboard compared to all the other strings and this string can only be plucked from a position further forward than all the other strings. Its hitch pin is placed quite differently from the other strings too (see later).
The back of the 19-string instrument is different from other fairy bells too. Usually, as in the image below on the right, the back is made from a single piece of wood but with a reinforcing bar glued and screwed under the hitch-pin block.
The back of the 19-string instrument
The back of R. Cook 10-string model
The back of the 19-string instrument, for some reason stained black, is designed in a different way. But for what purpose?
Another, very similar, 19-string instrument has surfaced. Many thanks to its owner, Maura Barnett, for all the following photographs.
Instrument belonging to Maura Barnett
It is generally in much better condition than the one above apart from its hitch pin block/area. There is a string missing on the right hand side.
Below are the two instruments, side by side, for comparison. They are taken from different angles so the perspective is inevitably a bit distorted. Obviously they are two examples of the same design. (Both instruments have a strap on the left hand side even though the strap on one is not visible).
Maura Barnett's instrument is on the right. Both instruments have straps on the left side only.
Here is the instrument being held.
Instrument belonging to Maura Barnett
My idea that there might be some sort of missing contraption in the playing area is surely wrong. Maura suggests that the felt on the right hand side (from the player's perspective) is to cushion the hand as it stretches over the 12 strings. This position allows the right hand forefinger finger to be employed as well as the thumb. Notice that forefinger is placed on the raised, single string which has its own wrest pin.
It might be the case that the right forefinger could be used to play other strings than the outermost one, but it is ideally placed to play just this one string, the outermost string.
It seems, then, that the design idea is to have the outermost string struck only with the forefinger and never with the thumb. As this outermost string is further away from and raised higher than the other strings, the risk of hitting other strings by mistake is minimised.
The same sort of idea was used in Thomas Cook's 17-string model instruments from the 1870s which have 10 strings (as was very common) but also 7 extra strings slightly further away from the player and raised up. These 7 extra strings are all chromatic notes and they are placed well out of the way of the diatonic notes.
R.Cook 17-string model with the chromatic notes, away from and raised above the diatonic notes.
String raised on a metal rider on the 19-string instrument.
A very reasonable assumption, then, is that the outermost, raised string on these 19-string models is a chromatic note. For an instrument tuned to a diatonic C major scale, the outermost note, played with the right-hand forefinger, could be the sharpened fourth, F#. Melodies like 'Blue Bells of Scotland' and 'While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks' when played in C major, cadence on G at some point, and F# is the leading note. Assuming a diatonic C major tuning, F# is very useful for some well-known tunes. It would also allow a useful range of notes in G major too.
As the tritone in C major, F#is especially jarring if struck by mistake but the design layout of the playing area attempts to minimise that possibility.
Another possibility than F# is G# which could make some minor key tunes available, but doesn't enable a complete melodic minor scale.
One problem with F# (assuming a C major tuning) is that with 18 more available notes there will be other instances of the note, F and they will be F naturals. But the single F# will be in the upper middle range of the instrument where it is most needed. In simple accompaniments the lack of an F# in the bass is not that important and the high F would hardly be used anyway.
Maura has provided the string lengths and the pitches when bought:
Chart of string lengths (and pitches when bought).
Note: Maura is labelling the outermost string on the right-hand side as string 8. In my article in FoMRHI I missed the fact that this string's vibrating string length must be measured from its wrest pin to the metal rider on the soundboard and not to the hitch pin plank like all the other strings. Maura measures string 8 at approx 34.5cms and similar in length to string 11 on the right-hand ('treble') side.
She also notes that the gauge of this string looks very similar to the other strings. Just as on the other 19-string instrument, this outermost right string seems not to be functioning as the lowest note.
The pitches of the instrument when bought are quite chaotic. Overall the strings are getting progressively shorter (approx 2cms) throughout the instrument (as usual at first left to right on the left side and then right to left on the right side). Other things being equal, the progression will be scalar and most probably a diatonic scale although the pitches given are very far from that. The string length of c.54 cms is typical for fairy bells with a lowest note of C. But at least one 19th source gives F major as the tuning for an 8-string fairy bells and F is the tuning of the lowest note that Maura measured.
There are many examples of 8- and 10- string instruments. Instruments with more strings than this are rare. So what might have been the thinking behind this 19-string model?
The 8- and 10-string models, the first to be introduced, can do what fairy bells do: with almost no effort they can be be made to sound quite like a peal of bells and it's not too difficult to swing/wave/rotate the instrument (as in producing the peal sound) and play Westminster Chimes or other chimes and other bell-like effects that would have been familiar to audiences of the time. And, with more effort, some simple tunes with a narrow range can be played. Anyone wanting more musical possibilities than this could simply play a different instrument.
But the designer of this 19-string instrument clearly wanted a slightly more sophisticated type of fairy bells and presumably with the possibility of two- part playing: a melody with a simple accompaniment. On this instrument it will still be possible to play bell-like effects: descending scales ('rounds') and chimes and so on. But for an ordinary amateur I suspect it would be too challenging to simultaneously swing the instrument while playing a bass part on the left side accompanying a melody on the right. Hence the rarity of this fairy bells variant!
The positioning of the hitch pin for the single, outermost string is the same on both instruments:
Maura's 19-string instrument: the back area and a close-up.
The first 19-string model showing the back area and a close up of the hitch pin
Another unusual feature of both instruments is the wrest pin design:
Maura's instrument.
Same design on the other instrument.
The flattened shape of the wrest pins is reminiscent of traditional pins made before the introduction of piano pins except that there is a V-shaped groove in the top. Presumably the V-shaped groove is a replacement for a drilled hole. (But traditionally, before high tension piano wire, wrest pins didn't have drilled holes).
22-string fairy bells! this section is still being developed Feb 2026
Rod Howell has an even more preplexing fairy bells variant. Many thanks to him for all the following photographs of this instrument.
22-string instrument belonging to Rod Howell.
The overall design is exactly that of fairy bells instruments: it has a rather plain rectangular body shape but somewhat wider than usual, it follows the FRAS principle stringing arrangement (overall the strings get shorter at first from left-right and then from right-left), the wires are enclosed under a top, and it has the characteristic design of the cut-outs in the top to allow access to the wrest pins.
As in some examples of fairy bells, the FRAS principle only partly applies. The strings are getting shorter on each side and in opposite directions but the shortest string on the left-hand side (from the player's perspective) is approximately the same length of strings in the middle of the right-hand side.
Here is an extreme example of this concept. On this 10-string fairy bells the string lengths on both sides almost mirror each other. Other things being equal this would suggest that the same notes are duplicated on both sides of the instrument.
10-string fairy bells
Of course the gauge of the string, not just the string length, is important too. On this 10-string instrument the strings on the right side could well be of a narrower gauge so that the strings do ascend in pitch overall.
It is easy to see why the string lengths aren't progressively getting shorter on the 22-string model throughout the whole instrument. The shortest string on the instrument (in the middle but on the right-hand side) is as close to the playing area as it can be. The longest string on this same (right) side is more than half way down the instrument. If the longest string on the left side was just a bit longer than the longest string on the right side then the whole sequence of strings on the left side would have to be shifted downwards and the body of the instrument would have to be considerably longer. The instrument would have to be even larger than it already is.
The ornamental shape on the top of the 22-string instrument partly recalls the design on some other fairy bells.
Gloucester Folk Museum
Next is the instrument with the lid off and with the playing area now on the right side of the photograph:
Interior.
It is a well-made instrument and Rod suggests that the construction indicates a professional maker.
Dovetails
Why would anyone want to design an instrument like this? It is obviously modelled on fairy bells-type instruments but is also very different from the popular 8- and 10-string models. It is too big and too heavy to swing/wave/rotate while playing, and each thumb has to cope with 11 strings (rather than the usual 4 or 5) on each side.
Hitch pin block
It seems most likely that an instrument like this would have to be played on a table (or possibly on the lap). There is some evidence that this is so.
The following photo shows a side view of the area near the front of the instrument and the hitch pin block. Underneath there is an angled block of wood. Why is it angled rather than flat?
For this block of wood to lay flat on a table, the whole instrument would have to be tilted upwards. There is no corresponding piece of wood at the other end of the instrument, but presumably the instrument needs some way of being held and tilted upwards to match the angle at the front end. The instrument appears to be designed to be placed on a table but raised up from front to end.
Angled block underneath the front, hitch pin end.
One of the 18th century bell harps in Edinburgh is designed to be played on a table with the instrument tilted upwards, away from the player. It has a hinged stand at the other end of the instrument which lifts the instrument upwards.
But there is something even more surprising. The instrument has 22 strings and this would give three octaves if tuned diatonically. But there are notes pencilled on the right (treble) side, next to each wrest pin:
Right-side wrest plank with the names of notes pencilled on the wrest plank.
On the right side the indicated notes are ascending from D to C, chromatically. There are no notes written on the left-hand side. If the left-hand side follows the same pattern then the left-hand side ascends from E flat to C#.
This seems somewhat improbable but if it were so, the instrument's range would be from an E flat to C, an octave and a sixth higher. Any tune in any key that fitted in that (quite small) range would be playable. Chromatic stringing suggests an instrument capable of playing more sophisticated music or, at least, capable of playing tunes in several keys. The small range of notes overall - an octave and a sixth - is quite limiting and two-part playing with a melody plus some accompaniment would be very restricted.
Perhaps the notes on the left-hand side are tuned in some other way; perhaps diatonic on the left side with the chromatic notes on the right. For example, the 11 left-hand side notes could be from a low G diatonically up an octave and a fourth up to C. That would give an overall diatonic range, in the key of C, of two octaves and a fourth. Certainly many more tunes would be available in the key of C and with some chromatic choices now available on the right side.
Another possibility is to have the left side notes ascending from a low G to C but with an F# rather than F natural, so that the instrument is basically in G major but with chromatic notes in the upper range.
Yet another possibility is that the left side notes are partly chromatic. There are some constraints on all these possibilities. The instrument is clearly some sort of fairy bells type instrument, a simple instrument, played in the decades around 1900 by amateurs, but also by professional entertainers on stage too. That could suggest a basically diatonic instrument with some chromatic notes. If the left side is diatonic and the right side is chromatic, the overall range, diatonically is 18 notes, just like the 19-string instrument described above. The 19-string has one chromatic note, the 22-string has four.
Assuming for a moment that the instrument is diatonic on the left side, in the key of C, just how useful would these chromatic notes on the right side actually be? I suggested that a single F# could be useful on the 19-string model (discussed above) for simple tunes like 'Blue Bells of Scotland' with a simple accompaniment. But, for music like this (e.g. 'Blue Bells) of Scotland' having all the other chromatic notes might seem superfluous.
On the other hand, a song such as 'Don't Dilly Dally on the Way', from 1919, has four accidentals. In the key of F the range is from C below F to D above and the melody includes G#, F#, B natural and D#. Popular songs from the early 20th century sometimes use accidentals and obviously cannot be played, exactly as written, on diatonic instruments.
With the given tuning for the right-hand side of this 22-string instrument (chromatic D-C) I couldn't find any key for a diatonic left side that would make 'Don't Dilly Dally on the Way' playable. If the left side had a diatonic scale in F, all the accidentals could be played but the song has a high D, a tone above the highest note on the right side. In other keys only some of the accidentals are available.
'Don't Dilly Dally', and the many tunes like it, could be played in several keys on an entirely chromatic instrument. In that case this 22-string instrument is essentially a single-line, melodic instrument with both hands on both sides of the instrument creating one melodic line. After all, that is how melodies are played on typical 10-string fairy bells.
Before looking at another pressing issue it's worth considering if this instrument was built as some sort of experiment. Trying to figure out how it might have been played without knowing the context of the experiment is futile. Similarly, it might have been built for some educational purpose: but what educational purpose?
There is another very pressing, practical issue. Perhaps the instrument was entirely chromatic and perhaps not, but if the pencilled notes are taken at face value the right side of the instrument is definitely chromatic. Here is the hitch pin area again:
The playing area, as viewed from the front end.
And here is the playing area viewed from above:
The playing area.
All the player sees are 22 strings. The right side strings are chromatic and the left side may also be, but just looking at the right side. How will the player recognise the diatonic strings on the one hand and the sharps and flats on the other?
Keyboard instruments distinguish the two by colour and positioning. Mallet instruments have the diatonic notes nearer the player and the chromatic notes further away and raised.
Some instruments, like chromatic dulcimers and four-row xylophones, have the notes somewhat abitrarily placed, but all the notes have a particular place and are usually named too. On this instrument there is just a line of strings with no indication of what string is at what pitch.
Perhaps something is missing. Here is a fretless zither (sometimes referred to as a guitar zither). It too has a left side and a right side. The left side has strings arranged to give a few chords for accompaniment. The right side on these sort of instruments is usually diatonic but some, like this one, are chromatic.
Chromatic, fretless zither. (CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=122268)
On this fretless zither there are two full octaves on the right side. That is 25 strings on the right side alone. The strings are simply arranged side by side whether diatonic or chromatic but the glued on paper underneath shows the diatonic notes numbered 1-15. The chromatic notes are numbered in black circles. The name of each note and its position on the stave is given.
Here are two other curiosities and I have no more details about them.
This second one is a possibly sort of bowed psaltery.
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