
In the 1930s, Lyon & Healy was the first retailer in the world to sell upright pianos, a "vertical" piano designed to take up less space in newer, smaller homes, and to be sold for far less than the traditional grand piano. Lyon & Healy also produces one of the most ornate and elaborate harps in the world, the Louis XV, which includes carvings of leaves, flowers, scrolls, and shells along its neck and kneeblock, as well the soundboard edges.īy the 1900s, Lyon & Healy was one of the largest music publishers in the world, and was producing violins, pianos, organs, and other instruments. It is 74 inches tall, or 187 cm, and weighs about 37kg or 81 pounds. In many orchestras, patrons may see the harpist playing a gold version of this harp. It has 47 strings, highly decorative floral carving on the top of the column, base, and feet, and has a fleur de lis pattern at the bottom of the column. In 1895, Lyon & Healy introduced the Style 23 Harp, which is still one of the most popular and recognizable designs in the world.

Some have suggested their work was based on Sébastien Érard's harps. Noticing that they were servicing a number of harps for repair, Lyon & Healy decided to research the development of a North American harp. Previously, most harps in North America had been made in France, England, Ireland, or Italy by smaller groups of craftsmen. Originally, Lyon & Healy had been sent to Chicago to start a sheet music shop for the Boston music publisher, Oliver Ditson, but by the mid-1870s, they had branched into making musical instruments, including harps-the instrument for which they are best known today. The company was founded by two men originally from Boston, George W. More recently, in 2003, Lyon & Healy also began the manufacture of electroacoustic harps. In addition, Lyon & Healy has also made more affordable, smaller versions of the concert harp, known as folk harps (based on traditional Irish instruments) and lever harps (which use levers to change the pitch of the string rather than pedals), which have helped to popularize the instrument. Lyon & Healy harps are among the most widely-played in the world by professional musicians, in part because Lyon & Healy has remained one of the few manufacturers of high-quality harps for orchestras, also known as "concert harps" or " pedal harps", in the world. Lyon & Healy has its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, USA, which, in addition to being the location of the production of its harps, also contains a showroom, concert hall, and recording studios.


Lyon & Healy (founded in 1864), built its first harp in 1889 and is one of the few major harp manufacturers in the world, along with Salvi of Italy and Aoyama Harp Company of Japan.
