Scan 394
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1909
2 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 324. See the scan on archive.org.
1During his early years he was much esteemed as a maker of Viols, many of which have all the marks of careful work upon them. On all of these instruments will be found his name, surrounded with a design in purfling, under the finger-board, or his monogram executed in purfling. The same trade token will be found in his Violoncellos. All endeavours to discover any existing English Violoncello, or record of one, anterior to Barak Norman, have failed, and, consequently, it may be assumed that he was the first maker of that instrument in England. Here, again, is evidence of his partiality for the form of Maggini, as he copied this maker in nearly all his Violoncellos. All the Violoncellos of Barak Norman have bellies of good quality; the modelling is executed skilfully, due care having been observed in leaving sufficient wood. His Tenors are fine instruments. Many of these were made years before he began the Violoncellos—a fact which satisfactorily accounts for the marked difference in form peculiar to them. The build is higher, and the sound-hole German in character; the varnish is very dark. About the year 1715 Barak Norman entered into partnership with Nathaniel Cross, carrying on the joint business at the sign of the Bass Viol, St. Paul's Churchyard. In a Viol da Gamba which belonged to Walter Brooksbank, Esq., of Windermere, is a label in the handwriting of Nathaniel Cross, in which he adds the power of speech to the qualities of the quaint
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