Books › John Askew, the Stanhope violin maker, 1914 › scan 41
Scan 41
John Askew, the Stanhope violin maker, 1914
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 23. See the scan on archive.org.
1smart performers Benson and Roddam on their choice instruments the violin.
3Askew studied Hart's book on the violin and evidence shews that it was a well read book. The older people of Stanhope who knew the schoolmaster and his friend Askew remember seeing them handling and turning over a neck, scroll, or belly to see if they were correct and then scraping and cutting a few seconds and then the pieces of wood were subject to the eye to see if they were symetrical and true.
5Askew in his early days of fiddle making had moderate tools and his shoemaker's shop was his workshop, yet by feeling with his hands and using his eyes, his pocket or cobbling knife or a sharp razor he shaped up the various parts of the instrument he was making with considerable accuracy. It was a labour of love, and he was a born genius hence the excellency of his work. When genius was there what matter about tools. We have it said by a well known London violin maker that a genius could make a fiddle with his knife and fork.
7Our Stanhope violin maker like the Cremonese makers was particular about the
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