String instrument

This instrument, the Apollo Lyre, is actually a guitar hybrid. It has been designed to resemble a lyre, with its lyre-shaped box and extrusions, however it has the neck, strings and frets of a guitar.

The instrument derives its name from the Ancient Greek tradition, in which Apollo was the god of music and a master of the lyre. Greek myth tells that the god Hermes created the lyre from a slaughtered cow stolen from Apollo’s sacred herd. The cow’s intestines formed the strings. Apollo discovered the theft and Hermes gave him the instrument.

In the early 19th century a number of attempts were made to embellish traditional instruments. Variants of guitars shaped liked ancient lyres, such as this object, became especially popular. Instruments such as this would primarily have been played by educated ladies as an accompaniment to singing during elaborate social gatherings. Unlike the traditional guitar, this Apollo lyre would have been played upright.

This instrument was made by Yaniewicz and Company in Liverpool around 1800 when neo-Classicism was in vogue. The arms are intended to imitate the classical lyre’s shape and are ornamented with gilded beadwork, whilst the front is decorated with a repetitive pattern featuring gilded faces intertwined with leaves. On the top of the guitar neck there is a gilded Grecian female head which is surrounded by a sunburst in an antique style.

The front of the lyre is made from spruce, and the back from sycamore. The finger-board is ebony with fifteen frets and a circular sound-hole. The seven strings are attached to pegs made from African hardwood, possibly cocus. To access these pegs for re-stringing, the golden sunburst head at the top is hinged.

The Apollo Lyre was donated to RAMM in 1928 by Mr Steer.