Palestrina Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 I am doing some research at the moment for a thesis. An article I read in a local newspaper (outside the UK!) refers to a violin maker who ordered wood from Hill and Son for an instrument he was making. I assumed that the article was referring to Hill and Son the organbuilders. Organ builders, after all, are known for stocking large quantites of seasoned wood. Does anyone know of any other Hill and Son companies operating in London? I guess what would be ideal would be to find out what woods Hill and Son stocked around 1923, and which of these would have been suitable for violin making. Does anyone have access to records which could shed some light on this? I tried BIOS but to be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing. Are the order books of Hill and Son from this period archived anywhere? Why all this fuss? I'm trying to locate the violin and the type of wood used may help to identify it, in absence of a maker's mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pcnd5584 Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 I am doing some research at the moment for a thesis. An article I read in a local newspaper (outside the UK!) refers to a violin maker who ordered wood from Hill and Son for an instrument he was making. I assumed that the article was referring to Hill and Son the organbuilders. Organ builders, after all, are known for stocking large quantites of seasoned wood. Does anyone know of any other Hill and Son companies operating in London? I guess what would be ideal would be to find out what woods Hill and Son stocked around 1923, and which of these would have been suitable for violin making. Does anyone have access to records which could shed some light on this? I tried BIOS but to be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing. Are the order books of Hill and Son from this period archived anywhere? Why all this fuss? I'm trying to locate the violin and the type of wood used may help to identify it, in absence of a maker's mark. Probably not. You may like to check out the following (with the usual caveat on the veracity of some of the information provided by Wikipedia): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.E._Hill_&_Sons http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/jones/003021.shtml http://www.violinsetc.biz/instruments/wm_hill_violin.html I hope that this is helpful to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john carter Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 I am doing some research at the moment for a thesis. An article I read in a local newspaper (outside the UK!) refers to a violin maker who ordered wood from Hill and Son for an instrument he was making. I assumed that the article was referring to Hill and Son the organbuilders. Organ builders, after all, are known for stocking large quantites of seasoned wood. Does anyone know of any other Hill and Son companies operating in London? I guess what would be ideal would be to find out what woods Hill and Son stocked around 1923, and which of these would have been suitable for violin making. Does anyone have access to records which could shed some light on this? I tried BIOS but to be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing. Are the order books of Hill and Son from this period archived anywhere? Why all this fuss? I'm trying to locate the violin and the type of wood used may help to identify it, in absence of a maker's mark. There was a W.E. Hill and Sons, a very high class violin maker, at 38 Bond Street in London, who repaired a cello for me in the 1960s, but they are no longer in the premises they then occupied. I'm sorry I have no further information to hand, but will PM you if I find anything in my papers. JC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Newnham Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 I am doing some research at the moment for a thesis. An article I read in a local newspaper (outside the UK!) refers to a violin maker who ordered wood from Hill and Son for an instrument he was making. I assumed that the article was referring to Hill and Son the organbuilders. Organ builders, after all, are known for stocking large quantites of seasoned wood. Does anyone know of any other Hill and Son companies operating in London? I guess what would be ideal would be to find out what woods Hill and Son stocked around 1923, and which of these would have been suitable for violin making. Does anyone have access to records which could shed some light on this? I tried BIOS but to be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing. Are the order books of Hill and Son from this period archived anywhere? Why all this fuss? I'm trying to locate the violin and the type of wood used may help to identify it, in absence of a maker's mark. Hi The Hill order books, etc are held at the British Organ Archive (BOA) in Birmingham - there's a contact somewhere on the BIOS web site. The Dictionary of British Organ Builders lists a number of gentlement with the surname "Hill" who have been involved in organ building - see http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ESearch.cgi? However, my guess would be that it's a different firm, specialising in tonewoods for stringed instruments rather than organ builders. Maybe there are trade directories around that would help. Every Blessing Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Fowler Posted September 5, 2008 Share Posted September 5, 2008 I am doing some research at the moment for a thesis. An article I read in a local newspaper (outside the UK!) refers to a violin maker who ordered wood from Hill and Son for an instrument he was making. I assumed that the article was referring to Hill and Son the organbuilders. Organ builders, after all, are known for stocking large quantites of seasoned wood. Does anyone know of any other Hill and Son companies operating in London? I guess what would be ideal would be to find out what woods Hill and Son stocked around 1923, and which of these would have been suitable for violin making. Does anyone have access to records which could shed some light on this? I tried BIOS but to be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing. Are the order books of Hill and Son from this period archived anywhere? Why all this fuss? I'm trying to locate the violin and the type of wood used may help to identify it, in absence of a maker's mark. Try contacting David Hill, (Of the famous violin maker's family and a craftsman himself) at: Granary Barn, Taylors Lane, Little Missenden, BucksHP7 0QZ Good luck, FF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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