Harp Pegs Project

A draft page of WireStrungharp.com

by Keith Sanger

Apart from the surviving old wire strung harps, all of which have been noticed, photographed and to some degree measured, there is another part of the wire-strung harp which still turns up during archaeological excavations, or languishes almost unnoticed in museum collection trays. These are the tuning pins or pegs, both descriptions are used, and as far as I know there has been no real attempt to draw together their details. This first came to my attention in 1991 when I had approached the Ulster Museum in Belfast regarding further information about a harp pin which had surfaced at an excavation overseen by one of their staff.

The reply I received helpfully included the additional information that they had a number of other harp pins in their collections, but my request for further details was met by the response that they did not have the sort of information I had requested recorded and with pressure on their staff time were unable to provide it, but I was welcome to come and measure the pins myself. This was duly done and added to a growing collection of reports of harp pins compiled from a variety of different sources, from old journals to modern museum archive catalogues.

As I now have a growing number of these records with in most cases some sort of measurements it seems reasonable to see if it is feasible to tabulate them and perhaps draw some conclusions. So this particular part of the website is by nature an experiment or an ongoing visible research project if you like. By its nature, nothing will be fixed and its content and format will be liable to change almost at whim, subject to how the whole process develops, an experiment in all senses of the word.

The first part of this process is to list with their details so far as I know them, all the harp pins I currently have on record. This in itself will at least provide some sort of resource, whether or not it proves possible to move onto any sort of meaningful analysis. This will immediately highlight the first problem in that even where archaeological records have noted measurements, there is no standard format although as the list is starting with those pins in the Belfast Museum, their measurement included not just overall length and diameters, but also an estimate of the length of the squared key end. Of necessity this last measurement was an estimate as deciding exactly where it became an effective round section which in turn would have implications for the 'width' of the harmonic curve and the two metal strips either side was very much a matter of judgment.

A second and major problem is that many of the finds have little in the way of provenance; indeed some have none at all. This leads to the question of what should or should not be included, for example there are a few early wooden pegs, perhaps not from a harp at all, along with more numerous bone pegs from the Norman gut harps. Then there are those pins totally without any provenance but which are comparable with existing pins in some of the surviving harps. For example, there are a number of pins in the collections of the British Museum which were part of donations by early antiquarian collectors. Some of them came with vague statements of ‘found in County x, Ireland’ but there are three more which have absolutely no information other than date of donation and the collector, but which appear to be from wire strung harps.

Another and hopefully growing problem are the number of finds in England made by metal detectors of what in appearance are pins which are similar to existing wire strung harp pins. Mostly these also come with no provenances at all, other than location of find, but they can still be measured and added to the database, hence the hopeful part as the larger that base is the better. Therefore, despite the lack of a uniform comparability, in the first stage of this project of simply compiling the list all such items will be included although some may be removed on moving to stage two when and if it proves possible to extract any meaningful analysis from the database.

Measurements of Loose Harp Pins

Ulster Museum Belfast

diagram of a harp pin illustrating points (a) and (b)
1. Museum reference number 554.1937
Overall length: 94mm
Diameter at (a): 7mm
Diameter at (b): 5mm
Length of squared section: 18mm
(13) Punches (?) Bronze lengths 2 ½ inches — 4 ⅛ inches some with design on one end, other end perforated.
No localities. F.J. Scott.
Side note: I think these are parts of a harp — the bits to which the strings are fastened. A.H.G.
2. Museum reference number 554.1937
overall length: 70mm
Diameter at (a): 6mm
Diameter at (b): 5mm
Length of squared section: 15mm
Provenance as No.1.
3. Museum reference number 554.1937
Overall length: 63mm
Diameter at (a): 6mm
Diameter at (b): 4mm
Length of squared section: 13mm
Provenance as No.1.
4. Museum reference number 554.1937
Overall length: 91mm
Diameter at (a): 7mm
Diameter at (b): 5mm
Length of squared section: 18mm
Provenance as No.1.
5. Museum reference number 554.1937
Overall length: 80mm
Diameter at (a): 7mm
Diameter at (b): 5mm
Length of squared section: 14mm
Provenance as No.1.
6. Museum reference number 554.1937
Overall length: 79mm
Diameter at (a): 7mm
Diameter at (b): 5mm
Length of squared section: 12mm
Provenance as No.1.
7. Museum reference number 554.1937
Overall length: 73mm
Diameter at (a): 6mm
Diameter at (b): 5mm
Length of squared section: 14mm
Provenance as No.1.
8. Museum reference number 554.1937
Overall length: 98mm
Diameter at (a): 7mm
Diameter at (b): 6mm
Length of squared section: 14mm
Provenance as No.1.
9. Museum reference number 554.1937
Overall length: 103mm
Diameter at (a): 8mm
Diameter at (b): 6mm
Length of squared section: 12mm
Provenance as No.1.
10. Museum reference number 554.1937
Overall length: 95mm
Diameter at (a): 7mm
Diameter at (b): 5mm
Length of squared section: 15mm
Provenance as No.1.
11. Museum reference number A255.1974
Overall length: 75mm
Diameter at (a): 7mm
Diameter at (b): 5mm
Length of squared section: 12mm
No Provenance
12. Museum reference number A255.1974
Overall length: 75mm
Diameter at (a): 7mm
Diameter at (b): 5mm
Length of squared section: 13mm
No Provenance
13. Museum reference number A38.1986
Overall length: 75mm
Diameter at (a): 6mm
Diameter at (b): 4mm
Length of squared section: 12mm
Found at building works on Falls Road, Belfast.
14. No reference number
Overall length: 91mm
Diameter at (a): 7mm
Diameter at (b): 5mm
Length of squared section 12mm
No Provenance.
15. No reference number
Overall length: 64mm
Diameter at (a): 6mm
Diameter at (b): 4mm
Length of squared section: 15mm
No Provenance.
16. No reference number
Overall length: 83mm
Diameter at (a): 8mm
*Diameter at (b): 4mm/6mm
Length of squared section: 13mm
*This pin is rectangular at end and measures 6mm/4mm
Provenance as No.1.
17. No reference number
Overall length: 107mm
Diameter at (a): 7mm
Diameter at (b): 6mm
Length of squared section: 16mm
No Provenance.

The British Museum Collections

Catalogue number 1891.0420.26
Found/Acquired: Ireland
Harp–peg; bronze; rectangular head
Length: 10.2 cm
Catalogue number 1891.0420.25
Found/Acquired: Ireland
Harp–peg; bronze; rectangular head
Length 10.5 cm
Catalogue number 1881.0310.18
Found/Acquired: Cloonfinlough crannog
Bronze (?) harp–peg or (?) punch with quatrefoil motif on head and shank of oval section pierced at end.
Length: 6.8cm
Catalogue number 1868.0709.47
Athlone
Copper alloy harp peg, perforated at the bottom, circular section shank widening towards head of square section decorated in relief.
Length: 7.4 cm
Catalogue number 1868.0709.48
Athlone
Copper alloy harp peg, perforated at the bottom, circular section widening towards head of quatrefoil shape incised with a cross.
Length 7.9 cm
Catalogue number 1868.0709.49
Meath
Copper alloy harp peg, perforated at bottom, circular section shank widening towards square section head — a lozenge with square sides.
Length 9.2 cm
Catalogue number 1854.0714.173
Found/Acquired: Republic of Ireland, Offaly, Oakly Park.
Harp–peg; bronze; rectangular head
Length 7.6 cm
Catalogue number 1854.0714.172
Found/Acquired: Republic of Ireland, Offaly, Dowris, Le Porte
Harp–peg; bronze, rectangular head
Length 9.2 cm
Catalogue number 1854.0714.171
Found/Acquired: Republic of Ireland, Offaly, Dowris, Le Porte
Harp–peg bronze, pierced end only
Length 3.4 cm
Catalogue number 1854.0714.170
Found/Acquired: Republic of Ireland, Offaly, Dowris, Le Porte
Harp–peg, bronze, rectangular head
Length 8.8 cm
Catalogue number 1854.0714.169
Found/Acquired: Republic of Ireland, Offaly, Dowris, Le Porte
Harp–peg; bronze, rectangular head
Length 9.4 cm
Catalogue number 1853.1015.2
Found/Acquired: Republic of Ireland
Harp–peg, bronze, rectangular head; fairly corroded
Length 10 cm

Note; The British Museum catalogue now seems to have included two of the previously unspecified pegs in with further information and are now in the list above. This leaves one more peg which simply has the following description.

Catalogue number OA.7278
ex–collection of Dr Neligun
harp–peg; bronze

Canada

A Descriptive Catalogue of Some Ancient Irish Metalwork in the Collections of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Vol 106 (1976), p 88 and Fig 33.

85. Harp peg
Top decorated with cross inside diamond panel.
Each face has two longitudinal, pendant V–grooves.
head defined by double transverse grooves.
Tip, below string hole, is lightly grooved.
Condition excellent. L [length] 8.8 [cm]; W [weight] 21.8 [grams]
Found in Dublin, 1840. Sturge (ex–Bateman collection). 918.33.89

England

Lincolnshire UK Detector Finds Database, ref UKDFD 1464, 12 December 2005
A cast copper alloy string instrument peg, probably from a harp.
The tip of the circular end is 5mm diameter and has a transverse 2mm diameter hole drilled through it.
The peg tapers up to a maximum of 7mm diameter before merging into a short head of square cross section.
The head has incised lines, and tapers from 8mm at its base to 6mm at the top of the peg.
Circa: 1500–1600
Size: 112mm x 8mm
Blackfriars Portable Antiquities Scheme, Museum of London, Acc No 4573/6 found around 2004
Cast copper alloy harp peg, dating to the late medieval period.
The harp peg has a small perforation diameter 1.5mm at the narrow end which is circular in beginning of the tip end where it flares out slightly expanding to the square head.
The square head tapers in slightly to the tip and has slightly raised edge. The head is decorated with line running around the centre of the square from two compartments on each of the four sides which all have incised lines inside them.
Circa: 1500–1600
Length: 102mm
Width: 7mm
Weight: 28.2 grams

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by contacting us at editor@wirestrungharp.com.

Creative Commons License