Lockey Hill with branding

Typical late C18th Lockey Hill violin with brands to the back, below the button. "Longman & Broderip, No. 26 Cheapside, No 13. Hay-Market, London".

Delightful original painted purfling.

Lovely one-piece back.

Amber varnish with some retouch.

Good quality new neck/neck graft.

Some old restored woodworm and replacement wood - all firm. Otherwise, terrific condition.

Glorious scroll.

New set-up with professionally cut bridge, ebony and rosewood fittings and Evah Pirazzi strings.

LOB: 351mm

Lockey Hill

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 recognisable. On occasion he used deeper golden or red varnishes, and many of his instruments bear a small notch in the inner edge of the back in the upper and lower bouts, which was filled in with maple. Other makers for the firm of Longman employed this technique, but its function is unknown.

Lockey Hill worked steadily through the 1790s, and after 1785 instruments bearing his own label are more common. His son Henry Lockey was a respected maker in his own right and took over Hill's shop after his death in 1810.