The Style 23 Bronze highlights the embellished floral carving at the crown, top of the column, base and feet with rich, reflective bronze and walnut finish. Sweeping organic decoration accents the extended Sitka Spruce soundboard, which also features a double Rosewood inlay along the edges.

The Heirloom Pedal Harp That Commands Every Room It Enters

There are instruments you play. And then there are instruments you live with — masterworks that enrich every space they occupy, acoustically and aesthetically, for a lifetime and beyond. The Lyon & Healy Style 23 Bronze is unambiguously the latter.

Of the entire professional pedal harp range, the Style 23 Bronze is the instrument our harp specialist Oren at Vermont Violins return to most readily when a customer asks, "If you had to choose one?" It occupies a singular position in the Lyon & Healy lineup: more expressive than a natural-finish instrument, more intimate than the fully gilded models, and — in the judgment of many seasoned harpists — more visually striking than either.

The Design: Where Walnut Meets Bronze

The Style 23 Bronze is built on a solid walnut frame — a rich, dark chocolate wood that carries natural figuring and warmth in its grain. Against this, Lyon & Healy's craftspeople apply bronze leaf accents at the crown, at the capital (top of the column), and across the base and feet. The interplay between the organic depth of the walnut and the warm, reflective luminosity of the bronze is not merely decorative — it is genuinely architectural.

The column is deeply fluted — a classical motif executed with precision, carved and finished by hand in Lyon & Healy's Chicago workshop. Full carved ornamentation appears at the crown and base. The extended Sitka spruce soundboard features embellished floral carving at key decorative points, with a double rosewood inlay running along its edges — a refined border detail that underscores the harp's commitment to visual coherence from every angle.

This is not gilded. That distinction is important: the Style 23 Bronze sits between Lyon & Healy's natural-wood professional models and the fully gilded instruments at the very top of the range. It is, in the truest sense, a harp for players who want the luxury aesthetic without the gilded formality — warmer, richer, and more at home in a wide range of settings, from a professional concert stage to a well-appointed private residence.

The Sound: 47 Strings of Orchestral Authority

The Lyon & Healy Style 23 Bronze is a full professional pedal harp — 47 strings spanning the complete concert range, with high-tension stringing as standard across the professional line.

The soundboard is crafted from Pacific Northwest Sitka spruce — the same tonewoods chosen by luthiers for the finest acoustic instruments in the world. Sitka spruce offers an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, wide dynamic range, and a tonal character that projects with authority in large concert halls while remaining nuanced and expressive in chamber settings. The result is a sound that is, in the words of our specialists, "luscious" — room-filling in the most beautiful sense, with a sustain and harmonic richness that defines what a professional pedal harp should sound like.

At 74 inches tall with a soundboard width of approximately 25 inches, this is a grand concert instrument in every dimension. It will not disappear into a room. It will define it.

Made in Chicago — A Legacy of American Craftsmanship

Lyon & Healy has been manufacturing professional pedal harps in Chicago, Illinois since 1864 — a continuous tradition of American instrument-making that spans more than 160 years. Every Style 23 Bronze is built by hand in that same Chicago workshop, by craftspeople who have dedicated their careers to the art of harp construction.

This is not a production instrument assembled from off-the-shelf components. It is a hand-finished, individually inspected work of functional art — available in a single, definitive color arrangement: walnut and bronze. There are no inferior variants or alternative configurations. The Style 23 Bronze is a singular vision, realized without compromise.

An Investment Built to Outlast Its First Owner

Professional pedal harps of this caliber are routinely passed down across generations. We have seen Lyon & Healy instruments from the mid-20th century — properly maintained — perform at a level indistinguishable from new. The Style 23 Bronze is built to that same standard.

Customers at Vermont Violins purchase this instrument for two reasons that are not mutually exclusive: because they need a professional harp of the highest order, and because they understand that at $53,900, they are acquiring something that will appreciate — or at minimum hold — its value in a way that few consumer purchases ever do.

It is, as Oren describes it, an absolute investment. One that pays musical, aesthetic, and financial dividends for decades.

Who Is the Style 23 Bronze For?

This instrument is for the professional orchestral harpist seeking a lifelong concert instrument. For the advanced student stepping into their first professional pedal harp. For the discerning collector who understands that the finest things are worth acquiring once, properly. And for anyone who has ever walked into a room where a Lyon & Healy pedal harp was playing — and felt the air change.

If you are looking for the ultimate harp — a concert-grade, artisan-crafted, heirloom-quality pedal instrument that will define your musical life and your living space for generations — the Lyon & Healy Style 23 Bronze is the best choice.