Scan 361
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1884
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 281. See the scan on archive.org.
1settled in London as an assistant to Rayman, who would impart to him the style of foreign work.
3The semi-Italian character pervading the instruments made in England at this period seems to have culminated in the productions of Barak Norman, whose best works bear even a more marked Brescian character than those of Rayman. The model varies very much, sometimes being high, at other times very flat; in the latter case the results are instruments of the Maggini type. Barak Norman frequently double-purfled his instruments, and inserted a device in the purfling, evidently following Maggini in these particulars. With Barak Norman ends the list of English copyists of the Brescian makers.
5We now arrive at the copyists of Jacob Stainer and the Amatis, a class of makers who possessed great abilities, and knew how to use them. The first name to be mentioned is Benjamin Banks, of Salisbury, who may with propriety be termed the English Amati. He was the first English maker who recognised the superior form of Amati's model over that of Stainer, and devoted all his energies to a successful imitation. Too much praise could not be lavished on Banks for the example which he selected for himself and his fellow makers.
7Next follow the names of Forster, Duke, Hill, Wamsley, Betts, Gilkes, Hart, and Kennedy, together with those of Panormo, Fendt, and Lott, who although not born in England, passed the greater part of their lives here, and therefore require to be classed
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