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Scan 262
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 248. See the scan on archive.org.
1and the name is stamped on the stick. The illustration of the Stentor is from one of this make which I happen to have beside me, and that of the Tourte head is drawn from memory.
3Although there have been many bow makers besides those already mentioned, the only other who has been considered to be of first-class excellence belongs to this country, and may as well be referred to here. John Dodd, called also the English Tourte, was born in 1752, five years after his greater French brother, and, curiously enough, he lived to within a year of the same age. He appears to have passed a great portion of his life in very straitened circumstances, probably due to his drinking habits, which were pronounced. His bows are remarkable for their magnificent wood and workmanship, and are exceedingly light and graceful. If the statement to be found below is correct, he must, though a little man, have been a niggard of no mean proportions. His bows enjoyed a European reputation, although some of them are said to be too short, which may have originated, not from any want of judgment, but from poverty, and consequent inability to reject wood which could not yield him sound bows of full length. As a supplement to such details regarding this maker as are to be found in the works of Forster, Pearce, and others, I may be allowed to transcribe the following account, furnished to Vidal by Dr. Sellé, of Richmond, who was acquainted with Dodd for forty years. "I first knew John Dodd at Kew, when I was twelve years of age. At that time he made me a violin bow, remarkable for its length and elegance. He was patronised by an eminent professor of this town
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