Quote:
Originally Posted by Anselm Hauke
i´ve never seen or heard of w.booth until i´ve seen the one mentioned in my first post last week.
but now, one week later i met somebody who once owned another one.
he showed me pics, and it looked very much like the one at gallerystrings.
(he said it was not the same one)
gamba-model with a scroll very different to the one in post#1
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Just when you think you know all the British makes, a Bass pops up from a maker previously unknown for Basses.
The Famous Bow maker Samuel Allen from the Hill dynasty made only one known Bass currently owned by a prominent Jazz player. One day a man shows up here to try Basses and pulls out a 3/4 Tirol looking Bass with English wood and Varnish bearing a handwritten English label. When I bought my last English Bass believed to be a Fendt, we found
Stamps from John Hart inside whom before now was not known to have made any Basses on his own as his son-in-law William Valentine is credited with making his Basses some decades after this one was made.
England was home to some of the best makers producing Basses in all of Europe between about 1775-1875 and in that 100 years, no other country that I know of made as many great Orchestral Double Basses as witnessed today in the worlds Orchestras.
My
'Mystery Bass' which is still in restoration was guessed at first to be Bohemian/Germanic or maybe Italian until it was opened up and examined better. Then, when pictures were sent to 5 of London's tops Shops/Dealers they all confirmed that it was of English origin as did Biase and myself believe. The wood, varnish and most importantly the scars and remnants of the original interior all pointed to 17th-18th century English Gamba making convincing us that our suspect was English indeed.
Although Northern England is at the top of most Londoners lists, we have yet to see a Bass this fine in design and make from anywhere but Olde London where it all started by a Tirolean named Jacob Rayman in the early 17th century with the first known English Violin followed shortly after by Thomas Urquhart, Barak Norman and John Hare. The only Basses that might be seen from this period of London are that of the Viol/Gamba type and not true Double Basses. As the British copied Stainer in the beginning by often exaggerating the high arching it is not far fetched to believe they made early Double Basses exaggerated in size from the German and Italian examples as seen by visiting Musicians from the Continent.
Maybe tomorrow an English Bass will pop up by yet another maker unknown until now.