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Scan 272
British Violin Makers, 1920
2 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 218. See the scan on archive.org.
1maker in an interesting article published in the "Museum Bulletin" of the National Museum of Science and Art, Dublin, for July, 1911, by one of the Assistant Keepers, Mr. A. McGoogan. The article is the result of a very painstaking research, and the violin world is greatly indebted to Mr. McGoogan for this timely and valuable contribution to the literature of the leading instrument. I reproduce here a large portion of the article for the benefit of those who take more than a passing interest in the history of British violin makers: that will be more satisfactory and more honest than if I were to paraphrase or condense it and claim any credit for myself. Mr. McGoogan writes: "It is a pity that research, which has done so much towards illuminating the history of the Irish harpsichord and pianoforte makers of the eighteenth century, has done so little to place the life-story of Thomas Perry, the great violin maker of the same period, on a firm foundation. At present there is nothing better to rely upon than the unscientific records of tradition. Even the country of Perry's origin is not known for certain. Guesswork has assigned his birth to the year 1767, but circumstances show that he must have been born at least ten years earlier. It is said that, like Molyneux, his Dublin predecessor in the art of violin making, he was of Huguenot descent. It is also stated that he was related to Claude Pierray, a noted violin maker who flourished in Paris. . . . Allied with the tradition that associates him with Claude Pierray of Paris is another of a contradictory order which would have us believe that Thomas Perry was originally a pupil of Duke, the London maker. The only foundation for this assertion lies in the fact that Perry's earlier violins, the instruments he made before coming to Ireland, are distinctly of the contemporary English type. According to the traditional account (which is unassociated with any particular date), Thomas Perry, on first coming to Dublin, set up in business in a house near Christ Churchyard, in a locality long since altered beyond recognition. Be that as it may, the first definite trace of Perry in Ireland at a
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