Books › British violin-makers classical and modern; being a biographical and critical dictionary of British makers of the violin from the foundation of the classical school to the end of the nineteenth century, 1904 › scan 127
Scan 127
British violin-makers classical and modern; being a biographical and critical dictionary of British makers of the violin from the foundation of the classical school to the end of the nineteenth century, 1904
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1He worked on an original model, with plates rather highly arched. The wood is usually of good quality, though sometimes poor and plain in figure. The varnish is a spirit one, hard and dry, but thinly laid on. Colour: dark yellow to dark brown. The tone is not over strong, but it is clear, sweet, and penetrating. He left many of his instruments too thin in wood, and these have not improved with age and use. Label:—
3CHAS. CRAMOND,
4MAKER,
5ABERDEEN, 1815
7CRASKE, GEORGE, Bath, Birmingham, Stockport, and elsewhere; about 1791–1889. Craske, although his father was a foreigner, was of English extraction, so he once told my grandfather, who was a fiddle enthusiast. He said that an ancestor of his named Cross had settled in Russia, and afterwards in Germany, and the present form of the name was due to these migrations. Mr. George Crompton, who was intimately acquainted with this wonderful man, does not say anything about the matter in his sketch of him in the June number of The Strad, 1893. However, on the strength of this statement, I venture to include him here as a British maker of British blood. He was not an Anglo-German or French, but a thorough Britisher in character and sentiment. And so is his work. Out of the three thousand odd instruments that he is said to have made, I have seen only about a dozen—that is to say, only about a dozen that I knew to be his work. But very many of his instruments have a forged label in them, and as he made very fair imitations of Joseph Guarnerius and other Italians, his work is not always recognised. I cannot say that there is anything about Craske's work to excite ecstatic utterance. However clever the workmanship may be—and in much of his work we may concede that it is clever—the tone will never give him a seat amongst the mighty: it is too hard and metallic. I have carefully tried the specimens which from time to time have been brought to my notice, and I must honestly say that I have
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