Pedal harp

'Back of seven ribs japanned black. Pine belly decorated with chinoiserie figures (of the late eighteenth-century variant with naturalistic faces of the kind also to be seen at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, and elsewhere) and garlands. Pillar of oval section with mouldings and termination in a carved bracket, somewhat as 16/9 [Pedal-harp by Renault & Chatelain, Paris, 1781-1797, Museum no. 469-1897]. The neck and scroll are apparently carved by the same hand as those of the Nadermann and Renault & Chatelain harps (16/5, 16/6, 16/9) [Museum nos. 425-1884, 4449-1858, 469-1897]; the scroll gilt, the rest japanned black and decorated with small-scale chinoiserie subjects in the common fantastic seventeenth-eighteenth century tradition. Single action by crochettes'. Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-Keyboard Instruments. (London, 1978), p. 81.