Lockey Hill Violin c1770
Client:
Year:
Late C18th English violin by Lockey Hill.
Varnish below back button has been altered - it would likely have read "Longman & Broderip etc or William Hall Birmingham".
Original neck/scroll - neck built-up at root for modern playing.
Delightful scroll, very distinctive.
Painted purfling worn in some areas.
Glorious tightly flamed two-piece maple back.
One piece bottom rib.
Golden amber varnish.
Magnificent condition.
LOB: 354mm
Set-up with boxwood fittings, a bridge by Ealing strings and Evah Pirazzi strings.
Lockey Hill
(1756 – 1810)
Joseph Hill's fifth and most distinguished violin-making son Lockey Hill was born in 1756. He produced a great many trade instruments, often for the firms of Longman & Co. or Longman & Broderip. These instruments approximate the level of his father's lesser work, with a thin varnish and painted purfling, and vaguely follow Stainer and Amati models, though the differences between the two are barley recognizable. On occasion he used deeper golden or red varnishes.
Lockey Hill worked steadily through the 1770s, and after 1785 instruments bearing his own label are more common. He was arrested in 1795 and tried for horse stealing, a capital offence. He was found guilty and hanged. His son Henry Lockey was a respected maker in his own right and took over Hill's shop after his death.
