Musical Glasses: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This set of musical glasses was made by an unknown maker in the United States, around 1800-1850. This instrument, also known as a glass harp, is comprised of 24 upright wine glasses tuned to various pitches, set in a rosewood veneer box. It is played by running moistened or chalked fingers around the rim of the glasses. Tuning can be adjusted by adding water to the glasses.

Musical glasses were popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1761, Mrs. Ford [Ann Ford Thicknesse] published a pamphlet entitled: Instructions for playing on the musical glasses : so that any person, who has the least knowledge of music, or a good ear, may be able to perform in a few days, if not in a few hours : with clear and proper directions how to provide a compleat set of well-tuned glasses at a very moderate expense.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1800 - 1850
• Object Name: musical glasses
• Physical Description: rosewood (overall material)
• Physical Description: glass (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 35 3/4 in x 35 3/4 in x 21 1/8 in; 90.805 cm x 90.805 cm x 53.6575 cm
• place made: United States
• ID Number: MI.315752
• accession number: 65928
• catalog number: 315752
• Credit Line: Gift of Hugo Worch
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.