Presents for an enthusiastic harpist

I had some lovely Christmas presents this year and with my new hobby set to continue it has made present buying a little easier for some this year. I got a book from Dad with 76 Disney tunes in it, all of them suitable for lever harp. I have worked my way through a few of them already and will get a few of them up to standard soon.

Mum gave me a miniature harp for the dolls house (one of my other hobbies, when I can fit it in) which will go with the growing collection of 1/12th size musical instruments that I have.

A few weeks ago Caroline, my co-conductor at Palace Band gave me a few postcards featuring harpists. She used to collect musical postcards and gave me one back in February (the long lost ancestor?). It's not just the pictures but the writing on the back that interest me. This postcard is 'Lady with a Harp' by Thomas Sully and hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The lady is Eliza Ridgely who, according to Wikipedia, was just 15 at the time. The postcard is addressed to a Miss A Warwick and is from her mother, sent in October 1953, who lets her know the portrait is of her great-great grandmother. I would love to think that Miss A Warwick, possibly under a different name by now, might still be around and could shed some more light on her long lost ancestor.

A while back Dad and Sue had a holiday in Ireland and visited the Waterford Crystal factory. The harp is one of the many symbols of Ireland and for my birthday I got a lovely crystal harp (photo to follow).