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Scan 221
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 207. See the scan on archive.org.
1and Dutch doitkins, in place of farthings, and it became a general practice for the metropolitan tradesmen to issue their own tokens, until they were suppressed by enactment, and a regular coinage finally supplanted them. There was an Edward Pemberton in 1660 who made violins containing this date, but they appear to be extremely rare. He was formerly supposed to be the maker of the curious instrument shown in one of the cases at South Kensington, and which bears the initials "J. P." and the figures "1578." It is catalogued as having been presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Leicester. This theory has been exploded by Mr. Hart, who gives the above date of 1660, as that which is to be seen on Pemberton's violins. In the century following, viz., the eighteenth, a number of makers distinguished themselves, the chief of whom was, perhaps, Benjamin Banks, of Salisbury, who was born in 1727 and died in 1795. He is accorded the front rank among English makers, and was one of the first to eschew the Stainer model—which had taken such a hold on popular favour—and adopt that of Amati. That he showed his great intelligence in this departure all connoisseurs are agreed. The finest Stradivari instruments had by this time been made, but they were not generally known in this country, and they had just got into France about the time of Banks' death, or shortly before, when Viotti introduced the master to the notice of Paris. It is, indeed, thought that, had it not been for Viotti, Stradivari would have remained unknown there for a considerable time longer. Spain knew about him thirty years earlier, for about 1760 two musicians of
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