Those harps are only about 155cm/5′ tall and quite light. Over the years, harps got bigger and more complicated to play, it was more difficult for a young lady to become accomplished, and so the piano soon took pride of place in the parlour. Harps remained quite ornamented, but change came. First, there was the art deco styling of the Lyon and  Healy Salzedo model, introduced in 1928, designed by Witold Gordon in collaboration with the great harpist Carlos Salzedo.

And then, in 1957, this harp by German harpmakers Thurau, won a prize at the Trienniale di Milano. It was designed by Rainer Schütze, who was schooled in the Bauhaus way:

And Lyon & Healy introduced this harp, the Style 30, in 1958:

And not modernist, but you could say it’s either an interesting break with tradition, or it’s really going back to the idea of the harp as decorative sculpture; the Scolpita by Italian harpmakers Salvi:

Of course this post is just about how the harps look. If you want to know more about pedal harp construction and how they work, there’s a good introductory article at Harp Spectrum. Folk/Celtic/lever harps have their own story which I may do a post about later! And if you’re looking for harps and harp accessories, music, lessons, etc in Canberra? Head to the Harp Centre.

in an online catalogue from Shapiro Auctioneers. The description suggests it’s likely to have been designed by Clement Meadmore, a famous Australian-American sculptor, who was designing furniture in the early 1950s. You may have seen his sculpture at the National Gallery:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pvk/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

He originally studied industrial design (with a strong interest in aeronautical engineering) at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and you can see that industrial-atomic-spaceage look throughout his designs:

These chairs were made in 1950, and sold for about $5000 in 2008.