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Scan 263
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 249. See the scan on archive.org.
1(Richmond), Mr. Richard Platt. This gentleman and I have largely contributed to support him, not only by purchasing his bows, but also by helping him when he lacked the common necessaries of life. We visited him at the Richmond Workhouse, where he died of bronchitis on the 4th October, 1839, at the age of eighty-seven. He was buried at Kew (not at Richmond, as Forster says in his work). In his person he was very small, and waddled rather than walked; was negligent in his attire, wearing an old, thread-bare coat of the most miserable description, smalls, and a broad-brimmed hat. His habits were very regular in their irregularity of visiting the public-house four times a day (some would not think that often) for his favourite drink called 'pearl.' He would never consent to take an apprentice, declaring that he did not wish to teach anyone his method of making bows, and we have it from a good source that he refused £1000 which was offered to him if he would make known his secret. On his death bed he was asked of what religion he was, Catholic or Protestant, and he replied, 'A little of both.'" These are miserable details regarding our greatest bow maker, and, as the sum total of a forty years' acquaintance, I think they might almost as well have been spared. Dodd's bows sell in the present day at various prices, according to their style and condition, but they rarely exceed £2 or £3, except when they happen to get into the hands of some greedy curiosity dealer.
3In Fig. 21 the reader will find an illustration of a bow of very early construction. It is from the Canino Vase to which I referred in the opening chapter of this
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