The Otway harp

The decoration on the Otway harp is clearly divided into two different types. The neck and pillar are decorated all over with carved and blackened lines, and the panels between the lines are filled in with an alternating chequerboard arrangement of red and blue paint. Much of this original paint survives and demonstrates a suprisingly vivid original colour scheme.

The soundbox by contrast is quite plain, with subtle decoration - the hexafoil soundhole fretwork, and the double arcading lightly incised down each edge. Armstrong (1904) gives good overview and detail line drawings of the Otway's decorative scheme, but he does not show the paint colour scheme.

References

Simon Chadwick