Engraved Dome for Wordsworth Harp

Description

These special domes, created to house the Wordsworth Harp Needlecase, are hand-blown in Germany before being hand-engraved with my hand-written text taken from two Wordsworth poems. The first extract comes from ‘On Seeing a Needlecase in the Form of a Harp’, the poem which Wordsworth wrote about the original harp needlecase, created by Edith Southey.

Frowns are on every Muse’s face,

Reproaches from their lips are sent,

That mimicry should thus disgrace

The noble instrument.

A very Harp in all but size!

Needles for strings in apt gradation!

Minerva’s self would stigmatize

The unclassic profanation.

This is followed by an extract from “To the Small Celandine’, which inspired my version of the harp design which features Wordsworth’s favoured wild flower, the delicate celandine.  The engraved text is finished with an impression of Wordsworth’s signature.

Pansies, lilies, kingcups, daisies,

Let them live upon their praises;

Long as there’s a sun that sets,

Primroses will have their glory;

Long as there are violets,

They will have a place in story.

There’s a flower that shall be mine,

‘Tis the little celandine.

The dome includes a hand-turned  base in sheesham wood, which is lined with English wool baize.  The baize conceals a magnet set into the centre of the base.  When the harp is placed inside the dome, the pins in the harp’s base grip to this magnet, holding it steady.

Please be aware that wood colours will vary as this is a natural product. The hand-engraving will also vary due to the nature of its production.