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Scan 326
British Violin Makers, 1920
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 262. See the scan on archive.org.
1BERRY, PETER, Kirkcaldy, N.B., where he was born in 1879. He works on an original model, and has made a number of instruments of beautiful workmanship. The design of his scroll is original, and the button is cut in the form of a shoe. The material is excellent, and the varnish, which is an oil one of a dark golden brown tint, is of good quality. The tone is moderately powerful, of a reedy quality, even, and very responsive. The maker is a talented amateur.
3BIRCH, THOMAS, Hereford; c. 1850. Average ability.
5BIRD, RICHMOND HENRY, Liverpool. He was born at Walsall, Staffordshire, in 1869, and has been employed for the last six years by the Messrs. Rushworth and Dreaper to do their violin repairs, and to make their high-class instruments to order. Up to the present (1919) he has made a hundred violins, nine violas, and eighteen violoncellos, following usually the Stradivari or Guarneri model. The workmanship is beautiful, every detail of the work both inside and outside being finished with the utmost accuracy, and pointing unmistakably to the master mind and the cunning hand. Particular attention is paid to the graduation of the thicknesses of the plates, the maker being of the opinion that the secret of the Italian masters lies in that part of the work. Mr. Bird maintains that after long meditation and innumerable experiments he has finally unravelled the mystery of the Italian tone, and affirms confidently that he can reproduce accurately the tone of any particular instrument of the classical period. That is a bold claim to advance, and will probably evoke rebuke if not ridicule from the critics. But whatever theory (or "fad," as some would call it) this maker may hold, and whatever the critics may say, it is certain that he is in the front rank of modern British violin makers, and that his work will bear comparison with the best that has been produced in modern times. He is certainly right in his funda-
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