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Scan 291
British Violin Makers, 1920
9 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 235. See the scan on archive.org.
1VIOLIN AND BOW MAKERS
3The workmanship is finished with extreme care and delicacy, and if the fiddle had been covered with the right varnish it would easily pass as an old "Italian." The varnish is evidently a spirit one, very thinly laid on, of a dark reddish-brown tint: it has not penetrated any distance into the wood, and it is not in sufficient thickness to materially affect the tone. The tone is moderately powerful, and wonderfully clear, bright, and mellow, very suitable for solo work in small halls and drawing-rooms. Mr. Honeyman says that Stirrat was "described as a delicate-looking man, with curly hair and thin white hands," and that he died "at an early age, just when he promised to become a greater maker than his master" (Matthew Hardie). That nature had endowed him with some of her choicest gifts is very evident from the few instruments of his make that still remain. It is not certain that he used a label. In the violins I have seen he inscribed his name, place, and date on the bare wood with a hard pencil. I am indebted to the courtesy of Dr. Raimondi Young for the following facsimile of the inscription in his violin.
5Stirrat Fecit
6Edinb 1811
8STONEMAN, H., Exeter: contemporary. Born in the parish of Zeal Monachorum, in the county of Devon, March 27, 1856, and now working as a professional maker, repairer, and dealer, at 3 Union Terrace, St. Sidwells, Exeter. He was apprenticed to the joinery trade, and worked for an ecclesiastical building firm in Exeter for about twenty-four years, for the last five of which he was their foreman. During
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