John Egan’s Journey Toward Creating the “Most Perfect Harp”
by Mary Louise O’Donnell
E IGHTEENTH century Europe was
characterized by tremendous
developments in the design of the
structure and mechanism of the harp. Unlike
Ireland, Scotland and Wales, where the harp enjoyed
a relatively privileged and respected position in
the musical and social life, the harp in mainland
Europe languished for centuries in the shadow of
the harpsichord. The inability of the instrument to
match the chromatic capabilities of contemporary
keyboard and stringed instruments, despite the
development of double and triple-strung harps,
stymied its development. It was the development of
hook harps, single action and double action harps
that allowed an entrée for the harp into the rapidly
changing harmonic sphere of Classical and Romantic
art music. The improvements to the pedal harp
over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries resulted in an instrument that was capable
of meeting contemporary harmonic demands.
Indeed the elaborate gilt carvings on the capital
and pedestal of these instruments in a rococo style
ensured that the instrument, which was favored by
female aristocracy throughout Europe, was now not
only sonically, but also aesthetically pleasing. The
pedal harp, which had been brought to perfection
by the French pedal harp maker Sébastien Erard
and previous generations of harp makers, was now
established as one of the most popular instruments of
the early nineteenth century throughout Europe, and
in particular, in Ireland.
Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, many foreign harpists performed in
Ireland, and, in the early nineteenth century, the
vibrant musical life in Dublin attracted many of the
40 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
leading contemporary French harpists to perform
and teach in the capital. Some performers arrived
in Dublin via London after fleeing the French
Revolution, in 1789, and others were temporary
residents supplementing concert performances
with teaching duties. The unprecedented demand
for pedal harps increased the demand for lessons,
generating a steady stream of harp students and
teachers in Dublin and its environs during the
first half of the nineteenth century. Harp teachers
including Mr. Poole, Miss Cheese, Mr. Powel,
Mr. Smith and Mr. Blewit regularly advertised in
contemporary newspapers during the early decades
of the century. The arrival of renowned pedagogues,
such as Francis Penthonier, a former teacher at the
Royal Academy in London, to teach at the Musical
Academy for the Piano-forte and Harp at Upper
North Gloucester Street, Dublin, ensured that,
despite its geographical position on the periphery
of Europe, students of harp in Ireland benefited
from the pedagogical expertise enjoyed by fellow
harpists in Britain and on the Continent.1 The
popularity of the pedal harp in Ireland in this period
also stimulated an interest in the Irish harp, and
John Egan, a harp maker from Dublin, contributed
significantly to the development of the design and
mechanism of the pedal and Irish harp in the early
decades of the nineteenth century.
John Egan: From Blacksmith’s Apprentice
to Master Craftsman
Egan’s date or place of birth is unknown and what
little biographical information is available about
1 Freeman’s Journal, 15 July 1833.
him is courtesy of Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan)
in her novel Patriotic Sketches of Ireland, written in
1807. In this short account of Egan, she mentions
how, while apprentice to a smith, he came in
contact with a French single action pedal harp
and how, on examining the mechanism, succeeded
in constructing a similar pedal harp which he
afterwards sold (Owenson 162). He began making
and repairing pedal harps in 1797,2 but no listing
is extant for his business until 1804. In the Dublin
Directory (1804), Egan is listed as “Pedal-harp-
maker, 25, Dawson-street,”3 and it was from this
address that he operated his business until 1820.
Egan quickly built up a large clientele in Ireland and
Britain and could boast that many of the leading
literary, musical, and aristocratic personages of the
nineteenth century possessed harps manufactured
by him. He rapidly established a reputation, largely
due to the efforts of Sydney Owenson who, in 1805,
used some of the money derived from the success
of her novel, The Novice of St. Dominic, to purchase
an Irish harp from Egan which, she noted in her
Autobiography, became “her companion wherever she
went” (252).
Egan’s business flourished in the early decades
of the new century. The increased demand for
pedal harps resulted in an unprecedented rise in
the importation of these instruments, and even
music sellers and publishers dabbled in the business
of selling pedal harps. It was, however, the sale of
his pedal harps at half the cost of importation that
provided the basis for Egan’s successful business.
Egan remained the sole manufacturer of pedal harps
in the capital until 1816, when W. O’Reilly, a violin
and pianoforte maker, began making and selling
pedal harps from his premises at 12 Trinity Street,
Dublin.4 Although the design and perfection of pedal
harps was his primary focus during the early years of
the century, Egan continued to make improvements
to the design of his Irish harps. He was harp maker
to the Irish Harp Society of Dublin from 1809 to
2 F .J., 18 January 1817.
3 Wilson’s Dublin Directory (1804), 39.
4 W O’Reilly is listed in editions of Wilson’s Dublin Directory
from 1816-26, but from 1826 onwards, there is no listing for
him or his business at any address in Dublin.
1812, and in addition to providing Irish harps for the
use of the students, he received a bonus of £30 for
improvements made to the design of the basic Irish
harp structure. His innovations were not restricted
to the Irish harp in this decade. As an accomplished
pedal harp maker, Egan was undoubtedly aware that
the design and mode of production of pedal harps
in Europe was changing rapidly due to a series of
innovations made by Sébastien Erard, and he soon
set up in direct competition with the formidable
Erard family who were based in London, but also
operated workshops in Paris, and, later, Dublin.
Sébastien Erard, who had revolutionised the
design of single and double action pedal harps
during the previous three decades, opened his first
warehouse at Messrs. Law and Sons, no. 2, Lower
Sackville Street, Dublin, selling an assortment of
harps manufactured in London as well as all types
of harp paraphernalia, including sound boards,
music desks, Roman and silver strings, and stools.5
Erard was harp maker to Princess Charlotte of
Wales, and his impressive list of clients included the
Prince of Wales, Louis XVI of France and his wife,
Marie Antoinette. During the course of April 1817,
Erard and Egan frequently advertised, often placing
advertisements in the same column of a newspaper.
This campaign, however, was short lived, and Erard,
although retaining premises in Dublin until 1820, did
not engage in any significant advertising after this
time.6
In 1818, under the patronage of the Countess
Talbot, Egan focused on the development of his
pedal and Irish harps. His intense labours resulted
in the production of the Portable Irish harp in the
latter half of 1819. The instrument was essentially a
much smaller, more easy to move version of a single
action pedal harp, but instead of pedals the harp was
5 F. J., 12 April 1817.
6 Sébastien Erard is listed in Wilson’s Dublin Directory from
1818-20 as operating from 17 Lower Sackville Street. Al-
though advertisements in the F. J., 12&14 April 1817, state
that Erard was available from 2-5pm every day to receive
customers, it is likely that he spent a considerable amount of
time abroad overseeing businesses in Paris and London which
he had left in the hands of his brother, Jean-Baptiste, and his
nephew, Pierre. For more information on the rivalry between
Erard and Egan see O’Donnell chapter 5.
SUMMER 2011 41
fitted with a dital mechanism which allowed limited
harmonic capabilities. The Portable Irish harp is a
perfect example of Egan’s inventive and innovative
attitude towards harp making. From his new premises
at 53, Frith Street, Soho Square, London, Egan sold
his newly invented instruments and gradually began
to build a reputation for himself as a respected harp
maker. In 1821, after nearly twenty-five years of
toil, innovation and ambition, the desire to emulate
Erard’s royal patronage, which had so long eluded
Egan, was finally realised. In late August 1821, Egan
was appointed harp maker to King George IV.7
Egan’s Pedal Harps
In the first two decades of the nineteenth century
Egan produced single and double action pedal harps
but also tried to emulate Erard by attempting to
further develop the double action mechanism that
Erard had perfected by 1810. (See Figure 1.) Egan
consistently experimented with and modified the
Figure 1: Egan’s double action mechanism.
7 F. J., 29 August, 1821.
42 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
design of his pedal harps, and these modifications
to the mechanism of the pedal harp resulted in
instruments, that he proudly boasted could not only
equal any harps manufactured in Europe, but could
also be sold at a considerably lower price than the
cost of importation. In her short narrative in Patriotic
Sketches of Ireland on the “musical and mechanical
talents” of Egan, Sydney Owenson alluded to a
significant modification to the design of his single
action pedal harps that enabled him to sell his harps
at significantly reduced rates. She noted:
…by an invention which he has all the mer-
it, he has so simplified the machinery, that the
springs hitherto found necessary to return to
the pedals, he has laid aside; which renders the
harp less liable to go out of order, much easi-
er to repair, and enables the ingenious inven-
tor to sell a pedal harp nearly one-half cheaper
than it could be imported. (163n)
Despite the invention of the double action pedal
harp in the early years of the nineteenth century,
Egan continued to produce single action pedal harps
throughout his career as a harp maker. In January
1817, he formally announced the launch of his
double action pedal harp:
..his newly-constructed DOUBLE-ACTION
HARP, made on a principle the most simple, en-
tirely different from any heretofore made--a prin-
ciple never before applied to any Musical Instru-
ment…….The Ladies and Gentlemen who will
do him the honour to view and try his newly-
constructed Harps, will find them for beauty of
workmanship, and brilliancy of Tone, second
to none. He engages them made of best sea-
soned Wood and Materials of every kind; and
pledges himself, if any thing should be found
necessary to do to them for five years (String,
Tuning, and accidents excepted), to do it free
of expense to the Purchaser.8
Egan’s double action harps, which were
undoubtedly based on the double action pedal
harps patented by Sébastian Erard in 1810,
8 F. J., 27 January, 1817.
enjoyed considerable success. (See Figure 2.) His
simplification and refinement of these harps over
many years enabled him to manufacture the
instruments cheaply and to sell them at half the price
of similar models sold in London.

Figure 2: Egan’s double action harp.

Egan’s proclivity towards innovation culminated

in 1817 with another advancement in the design
of pedal harps. The employment of increased
chromaticism in contemporary compositions
Figure 3
prompted Egan to develop the ‘Triple,’ or ‘Treble’
action pedal harp. (See Figure 3.) The newly
addition of a triple action, the harp could be played
invented instrument, which Robert Nicholas Charles
in all major and minor keys from seven flats to seven
Bochsa described as “the highest degree of perfection
sharps and, in addition, three additional major keys
the harp can arrive at,” 9 was capable of performing
G-sharp major, D-sharp major and A-sharp major.
compositions in any key. Although I am not aware
(See Table 1.) The capacity of the instrument to play
of any extant example of Egan’s triple action pedal
in thirty-three keys, eighteen major and fifteen minor
harp, the instrument, later renamed the ‘Royal Triple
keys, facilitated greater chromaticism.
Action Harp’, enjoyed some success in the 1820s

(O’Donnell 164).
Major Keys
In the Royal Harp Director (1827), one of Charles
Egan’s most successful publications, he includes C-flat G-flat D-flat A-flat E-flat

an illuminating description of his father’s ‘Triple B-flat F C G D

Movement Harp’ (Triple action harp). He asserts A E B F-sharp C-sharp

that before the invention of the Triple Movement G-sharp D-sharp A-sharp
Harp, the “Pedal Harp was imperfect” (15). The
double action pedal harp was incapable of being Minor Keys
played in three minor keys, namely G-sharp minor, A-flat E-flat B-flat F C
D-sharp minor and A-sharp minor, but with the G D A E B
F-sharp C-sharp G-sharp D-sharp A-sharp
9 Bochsa owned a double action pedal harp, a triple action
pedal harp and a Portable Irish harp made by Egan and was
Table 1: Major and minor keys playable on Egan’s Triple action harp.
highly complimentary about the standard of his design and
workmanship. See Egan, Royal Harp Director, 8.

SUMMER 2011 43
 The addition of the triple action undoubtedly
required Egan to modify aspects of his double action
mechanism. The instrument was still tuned in C-flat
major, and the order of the pedals remained the
same, but the number of pedal notches was increased
from two to three on the F, C and G pedals, so that
when these pedals were depressed to the lowest
notch, the F, C and G strings could produce a
double sharp. (See Figure 4.)With the triple action

Figure 5: The modified fourchette mechanism.

Figure 4: Egan’s ‘Triple’ or ‘Treble’ action pedal harp. Although Egan’s pedal harps enjoyed tremendous
success in the early nineteenth century, his
mechanism the instrument could produce flat,
success as a pedal harp maker has been completely
natural, sharp and double sharps on F, C and G
overshadowed by contemporary harp makers, such as
strings throughout the entire range of the instrument
Naderman and the Erard family in France, and J. & J.
and when all the pedals were fully depressed the
Erat in London. The Triple action pedal harp, which
instrument was set in the key of A-sharp major.
was one of several inventions by John Egan, has not
It is probable that the wooden pedestal holding
been developed by harp makers over the last two
the pedals may have been enlarged and reinforced to
centuries and Egan’s legacy is now only evident in
support the additional pedal wires or rods for the F, C
the design of Irish harps. Curved soundboxes, necks
and G pedals. The fourchette mechanism would also
and forepillars became the models for non-pedal
have been modified and a third row of fourchette
harp makers in the early twentieth century. Perhaps
discs placed below the first and second rows and
it is now an opportune time to celebrate the work of
the series of wires linking the pedals and the neck
John Egan, an inventor and innovator in the field of
increased to facilitate the additional chromatic
pedal harp making.
capacity. (See Figure 5.)

Coda Works Cited

Unfortunately, as I have already stated, I am unaware Egan, Charles. The Royal Harp Director. London:
of any extant example of Egan’s Triple action pedal 1827. Print.
harp; the detailed description by his son Charles,
O’Donnell, Mary Louise. “Custodians of Culture: A
however, suggests that it was an ingenious response
Social, Political, Musicological and Cultural History
to the limitations of the double action mechanism.

44 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL

of the Irish Harp and its Patronage from 1790 to
1845.” Diss. University of Limerick, 2009. Print.

Owenson, Sydney. Lady Morgan’s Memoirs:

Back Issues
Autobiography, Diaries and Correspondence. Ed. W.
Hepworth Dixon. Vol. 1. London: W.H. Allen, 1862.
Print.

_____. Patriotic Sketches of Ireland, Written in

Connaught. London: Richard Phillips, 1807. Print.

ABoUt tHe AUtHor

Mary Louise O’Donnell,

PhD, is a harpist, scholar,
teacher, arranger and
composer. Her research
interests include the fields
of ethnomusicology, Irish
traditional music, the
iconography, organology
and history of the Irish harp, music and identity in
Ireland in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Complete sets and single issues of The
and the role of music as a vehicle for the transmission of American Harp Journal are available:
the utopian impulse. Forthcoming publications include
$250 complete
several articles contributed to the Encyclopaedia of
$10 single copy
Music in Ireland(EMIR) and an article for the latest
volume of Utopian Studies. She is currently working on
Back issues of The Teachers Forum are
a monograph on the Irish harp maker John Egan. V available for $3 per copy.

Back issues of Uncle Knuckles’ Knews

are available for $1 per copy or $30 for
a complete set.

All prices include shipping and

handling.

See To order or for more info, contact:

you Elizabeth Huntley

Editor, American Harp Journal
40th National Conference there! PO Box 278
Greenfield Center, New York 12833
New York City
June 30–July 3, 2012 elizabethharp@juno.com

SUMMER 2011 45
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