Unusual Musical Instrument ~ The Friction Harp, Photograph, c. 1915
Mounted Silver Print Photograph, by “People’s” So. Bend, Indiana, 14 x 11 inches, c. 1915, Condition- Near Fine/Very Good+
What might appear to be a photograph depicting Saint Peter at the pearly gates of heaven, turns out to be an incredibly rare image of a musician with an obscure instrument called a friction harp (aka the aluminum harp or friction chimes) ~ made by the J. C. Deagan Company of Chicago, Illinois, around 1915.
The musician would have played the “harp” by rubbing the nickel-plated aluminum tubes in a vertical motion with gloves heavily coated with resin, to produce a sound reminiscent of gliding one’s damp finger around various sized wine glasses.
Mounted Silver Print Photograph, by “People’s” So. Bend, Indiana, 14 x 11 inches, c. 1915, Condition- Near Fine/Very Good+
What might appear to be a photograph depicting Saint Peter at the pearly gates of heaven, turns out to be an incredibly rare image of a musician with an obscure instrument called a friction harp (aka the aluminum harp or friction chimes) ~ made by the J. C. Deagan Company of Chicago, Illinois, around 1915.
The musician would have played the “harp” by rubbing the nickel-plated aluminum tubes in a vertical motion with gloves heavily coated with resin, to produce a sound reminiscent of gliding one’s damp finger around various sized wine glasses.
Mounted Silver Print Photograph, by “People’s” So. Bend, Indiana, 14 x 11 inches, c. 1915, Condition- Near Fine/Very Good+
What might appear to be a photograph depicting Saint Peter at the pearly gates of heaven, turns out to be an incredibly rare image of a musician with an obscure instrument called a friction harp (aka the aluminum harp or friction chimes) ~ made by the J. C. Deagan Company of Chicago, Illinois, around 1915.
The musician would have played the “harp” by rubbing the nickel-plated aluminum tubes in a vertical motion with gloves heavily coated with resin, to produce a sound reminiscent of gliding one’s damp finger around various sized wine glasses.