Good news for you, dear harpists, dear customers:

In January not only new snow has fallen down, but also some of my PRICES have dropped too. It is worth to write me: just tell me what you are looking for.

harp@beatwolf.ch

My last restoration: an ANONYMOUS harp

Anonymous? WHO was it?
But this Empire harp with crotchet mechanism does not stand alone, I know of several harps that have exactly the same design features. Some harps of this type are labeled GEORGE BLAICHER, PARIS. So well ! Now, all are made by Blaicher? But one of them is labeled BÉNIGNE HENRY, PARIS. So what? (Click on the top image on the right for comparison)

Of course I know that just the same stucco ornaments do not allow clear identification, because these ornaments were traded on a large scale. Furniture and instruments have been equipped with stucco in  special workshops, I think, even as paintings were made in special studios and also wood carvers worked for harp makers too. The same is true again for the mechanics - the guild system was strictly regulated.

But since on this type of harp not only decorations are similar and also the mechanics, but all construction details and wooden profiles are identical, so we may surely ascribe these harps to a single manufacturer. My first hypothesis: in around 1820, it is conceivable that the manufacturer has supplied unsigned instruments to dealers, who then painted their logo on the mechanism lid. Thus Blaicher would only have been a dealer?

Now it was time to check "Bottin", who published an "Almanach du commerce de Paris" from 1799 to 1838. There, George Blaicher is registered from 1824 to 1834 as facteur de harpes. A Henry is listed as a Luthier, but not with the address of Bénigne Henry, who is best known as a composer for guitar and harp. He does not appear as a harp maker in the "Bottin". Recent hypothesis: Blaicher has made all this almost-equal-built harps but labeled only those which he sold himself. Henry has traded some of these harps which he labeled "Henry...". The anonym harps have been traded by other dealers who left them unsigned. Unfortunately I cannot find any more details yet :-(