The Queen Mary harp

Split Palmette
PSAS, vol XV

The Queen Mary harp is interesting for being the most complete and best-preserved of all the old harps. It is covered in original and intricate carving, most of which retains clear traces of its original vermillion red paint. The decoration includes a number of pieces of Christian symbolism suggesting that the harp may have been made as a commission for a church or monastry. The vine-scrolls and the particular shape of the "split palmette" leaves have clear parallels with 15th century West Highland grave slabs from the Argyll area, suggesting that this is the time and place that the harp originated. The decoration on the soundbox can be compared with the harp depicted on a grave slab at Keills, in South Argyll.

The decorative scheme is divided into two seperate areas. The forepillar has very fine and delicate incised decoration on all of its flat panels. Each side has two medallion roundels, with heraldic beasts, joined by long vine scrolls. The front and back surfaces have geometric key patterns. The incised lines are darkened and the flat areas between the lines coloured with vermillion paint. The scultpted two-headed fish on the front of the forepillar has relief carving on it - the fish heads have bulging eyes, their shoulders have relief interlace vines, and their flanks are plain. This relief carving is also highlighted with blackened incised lines and vermillion paint.

The neck and soundbox by contrast have burned lines, arranged as double line borders which loop around small circles as a border around each component. It is not clear if there was ever paint on these components or not. That these do nonetheless match the pillar is shown by the vine leaves on the treble end of the soundbox above the eyebrows.

The decoration on the harp was exhaustively described by Robert Bruce Armstrong in 1904; the paint was identified as vermillion by Karen Loomis in 2010 (Karen Loomis, ‘Modern Technology Sheds a Light on Two Famous Historical Harps’, in Wire Strings, the newsletter of the Wire Branch of the Clarsach Society, October 2010, p.7-9

The NMS publication Angels, Nobles & Unicorns (HMSO/NMS 1982) says that the Queen Mary harp is “one of the finest examples of Medieval Art produced in Scotland.”

Further reading:
R.B. Armstrong, The Irish and Highland Harps. David Douglas, Edinburgh, 1904, p. 168-183. Photos, many line drawings of elevation and details, and extremely comprehensive written description.

Simon Chadwick