Viola da Gamba

March 5, 2019 by Alan Burke

Viola da Gamba

The Dipper workshop undertakes some of the most difficult and time-consuming restoration offered in the world today. Past restorations have included work that is now in the world’s major musical instrument museums and instruments that are being played by the world’s best professional musicians. Occasionally copies are made of instruments or bows that have been restored in the shop. A Dipper restoration is a complete work, that does not try and hide faults and problems. Any issues such as wood worm damage, shrinkage and poorly repaired cracks and badly fitted patches are re-done as part of the process of restoration so that the instrument, once restored follows the intent and condition that was given to it by the maker while it was new. Of course, retaining the marks of history, the fair wear and tear, patina, and sound that lend these precious instruments their allure.
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Hare Violin Restoration

February 28, 2019 by Alan Burke

Hare Violin Restoration

This violin was made by Edward Pamphilon in collaboration with John Hare whose label it bears. John Hare’s shop was in Mason’s Yard near the Royal Exchange, London.
These makers were active during the reign of Charles II, 1660-1685 and this violin is typical of the revival of violin making in England during the Restoration. It also carries the brand of “T Smith”, a 19th century London music seller. The instrument was built on the back with the ribs being inset into a channel that runs around the perimeter of the back. The violin did not have a neck and scroll when it was acquired. Andrew Dipper made a new neck and scroll, which was inset into the ribs in the traditional manner of English making, the so called “through neck”. Andrew Dipper also copied the pegs, tailpiece and bridge from historic paintings so that the instrument truly represented the state of the art of violin making in London in the last quarter of the 1600’s. The instrument is now the main performance instrument of a very accomplished baroque music professional.
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Early 18th Century Italian Violin Concerto Bow Reproduction

February 28, 2019 by Alan Burke

Early 18th Century Italian Violin Concerto Bow Reproduction

Museum collections offer a good resource for accurate reconstruction of historic bows. This violin bow, which is part of the collections of the National Music Museum (NMM) in Vermillion S.D., was copied for a client in 2008. The museum bow did not have its original clip-in frog and had been fitted with a later boxwood frog and adapted for a screw mechanism, but there was enough information in the original to reconstruct a copy. The new Dipper bow, with its clip in frog, made from a choice piece of Sonora desert ironwood, is one of the clients best loved bows and has great balance, weight and articulation.
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The Stradivari Viola D’Amore, pt 3

January 3, 2014 by Alan Burke

Andrew Dipper Viola D’Amore Front

I started building the instrument in 2001, but because of the restoration demands of the workshop it was not finished until 2008. The wood for the instrument came from three sources. For the belly I chose a very old piece of Baltic spruce that came from England. It was once part of a cupboard shelf in an eighteenth century house. I chose it because of its age and for its perfect grain.

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The Stradivari Viola D’Amore, pt 2

November 15, 2013 by Alan Burke

The first question I had to ask concerning these paper patterns was regarding their authenticity. Were they actual material from the Stradivari shop, or were they additions to the collection from later makers such as Bergonzi, Guadagnini or Ceruti?

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The Stradivari Viola D’Amore, pt 1

August 27, 2013 by Alan Burke

Andrew Dipper DVA257 viola d’amore front

Andrew Dipper viola d’amore scroll

Andrew Dipper viola d’amore back

In 1976 as part of my work translating Simone Sacconi’s book, The “Secrets” of Stradivari into English I was asked to review the holdings of the Ala Ponzone collection of Stradivarian material in Cremona. This collection consists of the residue of forms and patterns that were once part of the workshop materials of Antonio Stradivari. Included in this material are a number of forms and patterns for viola d’amore type instruments. Some of these are demonstrative of advances in the design of a novel instrument based on the format of a viola d’amore.

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Viola da Gamba

Viola da Gamba

Hare Violin Restoration

Hare Violin Restoration

Early 18th Century Italian Violin Concerto Bow Reproduction

Early 18th Century Italian Violin Concerto Bow Reproduction

The Stradivari Viola D’Amore, pt 3

The Stradivari Viola D’Amore, pt 2

The Stradivari Viola D’Amore, pt 1

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