Lyre Bowl in Walnut

Description

Made in 2016, this beautiful walnut lyre bowl with 17 strings has been living and working with a client in Sussex. Life has its ups and downs and she is now offering it for sale, an opportunity to acquire an exceptional bowl at 33% off new price.

The dark heart of a walnut tree is surrounded by a band of white sapwood. This bowl shows a rich variety of both dark and light wood. The underside has been carved with a honeycomb pattern, which only two or three bowls ever had. Joe Hornby, the maker, developed this way of fitting honeycomb onto radial curved surfaces, giving an extra warmth to the image, but taking many extra hours. The walnut tree was growing near our workshop in Devon. The nature of the walnut tree is, wise elder, warmly supportive, reassuringly steady. Like a true elder in human society, the Walnut is also close to the gate of death, understands the spiritual without fear, and can act as a guide for those enquiring into its nature.

As with all our large lyre bowls, the tuning can be set either to the gong sound, where a single strum of all strings produces rich harmonies, or to the melody sound, where you can pick out tunes on all seven notes of the scale. in this tuning the 17 strings give you well over two octaves.  I do not have a recording of this bowl available, but the sound below is from a very similar one.

If you wish to buy this bowl off this site, it will be shipped direct from the present owner, who took all these photos in August 2026. Your right of return is limited to genuine problems with the bowl, which appears to me to be in mint condition. I can not offer the usual full satisfaction guarantees as it has not been restored here. Nor does it need it. It comes complete with tuner, manuals and everything it was supplied with. The case also seems to be in mint condition. I saw and played this bowl just a couple of years ago and I’m confident that it will bring you love and satisfaction.