Books › The History of the Violin: And Other Instruments Played on with the Bow from the Remotest Times to the Present, Also, an Account of the Principal Makers, English and Foreign, with Numerous Illustrations, 1864 › scan 382
Scan 382
The History of the Violin: And Other Instruments Played on with the Bow from the Remotest Times to the Present, Also, an Account of the Principal Makers, English and Foreign, with Numerous Illustrations, 1864
17 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 360. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1put into the instruments made by him. His burial-place is supposed to be the parish church of Saint Thomas, Sarum. Although no trace can be obtained from whom he learned the trade, it may, as in many other instances with violin makers, be an innate love of the art which urged him onwards, so that he ultimately became one of England's best manufacturers. Too much cannot be said in praise of this justly celebrated maker of violins, violas, and violoncellos. The work of all the better class of instruments, both inside and out, is excellent; the tone good of all, but that of the violoncellos in particular is full, sonorous, and much esteemed by the professors. He mostly worked from the pattern of the Amati, both in model and outline; the style of finishing is very marked and decided, so that persons at all conversant with musical instruments of this class can easily tell the maker. Much anxiety seemed to be shown that he, as the maker, should be known; for many of his instruments have labels in various parts of them; also they are stamped upon in several places either with the name, or B. B., but no fixed plan of marking them seemed adhered to. One label used was—
3"Benjamin Banks,
4Fecit,
5Salisbury."
7Other printed labels have been used at various dates thus—
9"Made by Benj'n. Banks,
10Catherine Street, Salisbury, 1773."
12Another—
14"Benjamin Banks Musical Instrument Maker. In Catherine Street, Salisbury, 1780."
16And frequently they are stamped on the back or lower
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.