Lyon and Healy
Gold Concert Grand Harp "Louis XV Special"
The gold concert grand harp "Louis XV Special", bearing the manufacturer Lyon and Healy's
serial number 1689, is a 46 string, extended sound board instrument of superb detail in
both sculpture and painting and of extraordinary sound. It is 71 3/4 inches in height
and weighs approximately 90 pounds. Requiring two years to complete, it was finished
at the Chicago workshop of Lyon and Healy, renowned for making the world's best
concert harps, on August 24, 1916. The carving of the column, base and neck is
said by experts to be the most artistic exhibition of the wood carver's skill
ever produced in this country. With superb physical appearance and condition,
it is additionally a musical instrument of superlative tone, beauty, and volume.
The harp was specially made, with its matching chair and music stand, for the owner of a
Pennsylvania coal mine, who purchased it from Lyon and Healy for his daughter, a harpist.
No one remembers the name of the original purchaser and the Lyon and Healy sales records
were lost in a destructive fire, so the firm is unable to provide additional information.
She kept the harp and its matching chair and music stand until her death. Her estate sold the harp, music stand and chair, as well as the original cover for the harp and its shipping trunk, to Samuel Pratt, who held if for several years. Mr. Pratt was the manager in California, New York, and Chicago for Lyon and Healy, the firm that originally created the harp.
At the time of the purchase of the harp, chair and stand, circa 1960, Mr. Pratt was the Lyon and Healy manager in New York City. He died in 1983 and is survived by two widows, both harpists. Louise Pratt, his first wife, whom he divorced in 1964 and Rosalie Pratt, his wife at the time of his death, both live in Utah and are both affiliated with the Brigham Young University at Provo, Utah. Mrs. Rosalie Pratt remembers that the harp was kept at their Montclair, New Jersey home. After Mr. Pratt's death, Rosalie pratt gave all the harp archives collected in Mr. Pratt's life to the Brigham Young University Library and thereby founded the Pratt Harp Collection in the Harold B. Lee Library. The collection includes a number of original photographs of the harp from the time of its making.
Sam Pratt sold the Louis XV harp, chair, music stand, cover, and shipping trunk to harpist Samuel Milligan of New York City in approximately 1967. Mr. Milligan was then working for the same firm of Lyon and Healy. Mr. Milligan reports that Maria de Stefano, an elderly harpist and longtime friend of the great tenor Enrico Caruso, knew and greatly admired the harp.
In 1971, Samuel Milligan sold the harp, chair and music stand, along with the cover and shipping trunk to Mr. Henry C. Fanelli, professional harpist in New York City, who then owned it for approximately the next fifteen years. It was used by Mr. Fanelli in a number of famous Broadway Musical pieces, including Andrew Lloyd Weber's ""Phantom of the Opera". Mr. Fanelli also used the harp for a number of recordings, including "Pacific Overtures". Mr. Fanelli remembers that the harp was specifically examined and commented on most positively by Steven Sondheim at that time. Mr. Fanelli also used the harp in "Ballroom", Michael Bennet directing. In 1986, Mr. Fanelli sold the harp, chair, music stand, cover and shipping trunk to Mr. Jack Nebergall (deceased 1996), a well-known harp soloist residing in San Francisico.
Mr. Nebergall then kept the harp at his residence at 465 Collingwood Street in San Francisco, until 1988, when he sold the harp, chair, music stand, original cover, and shipping trunk to Peter S. Reis, an American then living in Brussels, Belgium and Venice, Italy. Mr. Reis specifically bought the harp, chair and music stand, along with the cover and shipping trunk, for the use of the world-renowned concert harp soloist Susanna Mildonian, the only harpist to have ever won first prize in the three major international competitions for the harp: Israel, 1959 (the first international competition ever held in the modern era); Geneva, 1964; and Paris, 1964. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque in Paris for the excellence of her recording of Debussy's and Ravel's major harp works.
Ms. Mildonian used the Louis XV harp in many of her important concert engagements throughout Europe during the period of 1988 to 1993, including solo recitals, chamber music and as soloist with major European orchestras. In fact, the first European recital on the Louis XV Special was in Venice at Teatro La Fenice, which theater was destroyed by fire in 1997. She has also recorded using the Louis XV harp, including two currently available compact disc recordings of solo recitals featuring the Louis XV harp on the album covers (Pavane label, recording numbers ADW 7190-2 and ADW 7215). Ms. Mildonian chose to use the Louis XV harp for her publicity photographs because of its remarkable and unique beauty and imposing appearance. She chose the Louis XV harp for her major concert engagements and recordings because of its splendid sound qualities, which she characterized as the best of any harp she had ever heard or played.
The firm of Lyon and Healy made three copies of the harp in the 1920's, but all are of simplified design and sculpture. These partial copies bear serial numbers 2649, 2743, and 2838, made in 1924, 1924, and 1925, respectively. It should be noted that Lyon and Healy's files designate the original Louis XV harp, serial number 1689, as "Louis XV Special", whereas the later three partial copies do not bear the "Special" designation with the model name. The "Special" designation was used by Lyon and Healy to designate an instrument made with more than the usual detail work or other special construction attention. Lyon and Healy also completed two partial replicas of the original harp in 1985 and 1992, also of abbreviated design and differing dimensions, and of reportedly markedly inferior sound quality. No harp other than the first Louis XV "Special" serial number 1689 has been made with such detailed carving, or with the matching chair and music stand.
The Garland Publishing Company chose for the cover of its music publication catalog and featured a full-page size superb, color photograph reproduction of the capital of the column of the Louis XV Special, as another tribute to this apex of sculptural beauty representing music and musical performance.
From October, 1995 to January, 1999, the harp was on loan to and on exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, in the Mertens Galleries for Musical instruments therein. A copy of the placard describing the harp is attached. The harp was used at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a private patrons' concert on April 19, 1996 and performed on by Judith Kadar, an American harpist living and performing in Berlin, Germany. Mr. Laurence Libin, curator of musical instruments for the Metropolitan, has written about the Louis XV Special: "The harp would be a very impressive and useful addition to the collection, as we have no playable harp of nearly comparable quality." The Winter 1988/9 edition of " The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin" featured a photograph of the Louis XV standing in front of its impressive, original shipping trunk as part of an exhibition and book concerning world exhibitions and the labels concerning them.
Most recently, the harp was selected to be used for two international concert events sponsored by the German Embassy in New York City and the German Cultural Attaché. It was performed on by German harpist Florence Sitrek in December, 1996 in two solo recitals. In the spring of 1999, the Louis XV was again heard in concert and used by harpist Rebecca Flannery for a CD, released for the World Harp Congress in Prague, 1999.
The Louis XV concert grand harp with its matching chair and music stand is a truly magnificent musical instrument of rare and excellent workmanship, unique quality and beauty, exceptional condition, and superlative sound quality. It is a culmination of the combination of the visual and aural arts.
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