When the musician and restorer Mike Parker finally tracked down the harp, it was broken and stained, a shadow of its old self when it was played by a beloved relative of Jane Austen.
But after careful restoration the instrument began to sing sweetly again and this weekend was played in the apt surroundings of Chawton, the Hampshire village where Austen lived and worked.
The 250-year-old instrument was once owned by the novelist’s cousin Eliza, whose vivacious character is believed to have been the inspiration for harp-playing Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park.
“It’s not in perfect condition, but the incredible thing is the fact it has survived,” said Parker, who found the harp in Belgium. “When I got it, it was pretty derelict, it was grotty. It had 150 years of nicotine on it.
“The neck had been badly broken, it needed to be fixed. Once I got it tuned and up to pitch, what came out of it was this beautiful, lovely little sound.
“It was a voice from the past. I heard a sound that modern instruments just don’t have. It sang when the world was different.”
The Holtzman harp was made in Paris in 1777 where Eliza, who had married a captain in the French army, Jean-François Capot de Feuillide, began to play it.
As the French Revolution unfolded, Eliza and her husband fled to England via Belgium, where her harp stayed. Her husband returned to Paris and was guillotined after he was found guilty of supporting the monarchy.
Eliza went on to marry Austen’s brother Henry and, though her cherished Holtzman remained in Belgium, she continued to play.
In Mansfield Park, Austen wrote of Mary Crawford: “The harp arrived, and rather added to her beauty, wit, and good-humour; for she played with the greatest obligingness, with an expression and taste which were peculiarly becoming.”
Parker stumbled across the harp’s existence while he was researching Eliza’s collection of manuscripts. He was tipped off that Eliza’s harp had survived and was being offered for sale by one of her descendants. He travelled to Belgium and bought it.
“Eliza was a really interesting character,” he said. “I was familiar with her partially because of the Jane Austen connection, but I didn’t know much about her or her circumstances so I have ended up doing a lot of work on her. I have a lot of respect for her.”
He said Eliza’s harp was quite small. “It plays two octaves lighter. It produces a very bright, silvery sound,” he said. “It’s a more gentle sound, it wasn’t meant to be played in a large room, but in salons, it was for at-home entertainment, something you might hear in French drawing rooms.”
Parker’s recital took place at Chawton village hall – with a pheasant squawking along at one point – and raised money for the brain injury charity Headway.
After the performance, he said: “It was nerve-racking, especially in the hot weather. Just before I started, one of the strings needed retuning because of the humidity but it was a lovely night.
“It went really well. People were interested in Eliza, who usually gets overshadowed by Jane Austen, so it was nice to shine a light on her.”
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