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.

The next instrument is an unusual form of fairy bells. It was offered for sale on ebay. It is in poor condition