Books › British Violin Makers, 1920 › scan 168
Scan 168
British Violin Makers, 1920
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 134. See the scan on archive.org.
1prematurely ended his days on the roadside. He ended them in the workhouse as it was.
3He was a pupil of his father, the Edward Dodd previously noticed, and he improved so much upon the work of his father, and upon the work of everybody else in England in those days, that his bows have maintained an undiminished reputation down to the present time. His method of cutting his bows was primitive, and it has not been adopted by any great bow maker since his time. He cut the bow in a curve out of a block, and thus dispensed with the usual plan of cutting it straight and bending by heat. In his case, a roundabout way became a shorter cut. I have seen a fair number of Dodd bows, and I am convinced that all I have seen were cut in this manner.
5Dodd's name was stamped on all sorts of bows—some of them wretched enough—in the middle of last century, and his fame has suffered much in consequence. But his work has suffered more than his fame, for there are hundreds of mongrel "Dodds" about, some with genuine heels, others with genuine heads, and not a few patched up in divers ways. The owner of a genuine Dodd bow, of anything like full length, made in his best style, and in good preservation, has a treasure he can well be proud of.
7DODD, EDWARD & THOMAS, London: 1830-43. Pupils of Bernhard Fendt. Thomas died at an early age, and Edward was accidentally drowned, in 1843.
9DODD, THOMAS, London: 1786-1823. He was a son of Edward Dodd, of Sheffield, previously noticed. He did not make many instruments himself, but employed very clever workmen to do so for him. He was first of all a bow maker in Blue Bell Alley, Mint Street, Southwark, and became a violin maker and dealer in 1798, opening a shop in New Street, Covent Garden, which he removed in 1809 to St. Martin's Lane. Later on he added another sail to his craft, and became a harp and pianoforte maker. The instruments which have his label are mostly the work of
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