Books › the history of the violin, 1864 › scan 370
Scan 370
the history of the violin, 1864
4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 348. See the scan on archive.org.
1wood's pianoforte manufactory, where he continued until the 3rd July, 1856, on which day he died through his own act and deed by swallowing poison, and was buried at the Victoria Cemetery, Bethnal Green, on the 9th of the same month. It is not known whether any instruments were made by him on his own account, but he forwarded many of those of his employer, and in one instance only did he make a first-class instrument all through, which was a violin; but he was fully capable to execute work of the highest finish. He was not related to James and Thomas Pearce before noticed.
3It will now be requisite to retrace a few years to give the particulars of Samuel Gilkes, who was born in 1787, at a village named Morton Pinkney, near to Blisworth, Northamptonshire, and was sent to London to learn fiddle-making of the elder Charles Harriss alluded to in a former part of this work, and completed his term of apprenticeship about 1809-10. In the course of the latter year he became journeyman to William Forster (3), and at length, being initiated into the style of work of his employer, we find, by the remark B and G in his list of instruments made, that Gilkes assisted in making the violoncello No. 38, which appears to be the first instrument he had joined with others in making, and continued to do so during the whole of his engagement, which lasted for nine or ten years, sometimes alone, at others assisting, but always under the surveillance of his superior, who minutely examined the gauging before the instruments were put together. It will be well to take special notice of the year 1810, for, after he had commenced business on his own behalf, at 34, James Street, Buckingham Gate, Westminster, a report was freely propagated by some one that Gilkes was the pupil of Old Forster (2), and, strange to relate, it went so far as
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