Scan 367
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1884
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 287. See the scan on archive.org.
1ENGLISH MAKERS.
3BARRETT, John, 1714. An average workman, who followed the model of Stainer. His shop bore the sign of the Harp and Crown. Barrett was one of the earliest copyists of Stainer, and in the chain of English makers is linked with Barak Norman and Nathaniel Cross. The wood is generally of a very good quality, the varnish yellow.
5BARTON, George, about 1810.
7BETTS, John, born 1755, at Stamford, Lincolnshire, died in 1823. Became a pupil of Richard Duke. He commenced business in one of the shops of the Royal Exchange, where he soon enjoyed considerable patronage. John Betts does not appear to have made a great number of instruments, but employed many workmen, into whose instruments he inserted his trade label. He was, perhaps, the earliest London dealer in Italian instruments. His quaintly-worded business card runs:
9"John Betts, Real Musical Instrument Maker, at the Violin and German Flute, No. 2, under the North Piazza of the Royal Exchange, makes in the neatest manner, Violins the patterns of Antonius Stradivarius, Hièronymus Amati, Jacobus Stainer, and Tyrols. Equal for the fine, full, mellow tone to those made in Cremona. Tenors, Violoncellos, Pentachords, &c., &c., &c."
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