W.E. Hill & Sons

The Firms Under William Ebsworth Hill

The company was named after and founded by William Ebsworth Hill; “Hill” came from his father’s name, and “Ebsworth” was his mother’s family name. He was not the progenitor of the Hill dynasty, nor was he the first violin maker in the family, but he was the most important one. As early as 1660, Samuel Pypes mentioned a violin maker named Joseph Hill from London. This makes the violin maker Joseph Hill I the progenitor, but others maintain that Joseph Hill II, born in 1715, is the oldest violin maker of the Hill dynasty.

W.E. Hill laid the foundation for the firm W. E. Hill & Sons in a small room on St. George Road in Southwark, London. There, in 1851, he built his first instrument. His niece worked for him as a maid. William married Eveline Tyrrell in 1857 and moved to Waterloo Bridge Road. Initially, he still listed his occupation as instrument maker; he then moved to seven other addresses before opening his own shop and workshop on Wardour Street in 1880. For the first time, he referred to himself as a violin and bow maker. It was “Dark, very dark … but the light was good enough for Mr. Hill; a greater glare came from those hundreds of old brown fiddles with which the very modest establishment was hung …” according to H. R. Haweis in 1905. It later turned out that among those “old fiddles” were Guadagninis and other old Cremonese instruments.

William Ebsworth Hill built very few new violins. Hart wrote in 1875 that W.E. Hill had indeed built instruments in his younger years, but that he had discovered that making new ones was not really worth the effort and had therefore turned his attention to repairing and dealing in old instruments. According to Hart, he already enjoyed the full confidence of the British violin world in that field.

Over the next ten years, the English market was flooded with antique Italian instruments and mass-produced instruments from Mirecourt and Markneukirchen. Despite this new development, the firm did not completely abandon the craft of instrument making. However, it did require a new impetus. Williams’ son Alfred left for Mirecourt, France, in 1878 to continue his apprenticeship with the violin maker J.J. Martin.

By 1881, Alfred Hill was back on Wardour Street. Not only had he thoroughly mastered his craft in Mirecourt, but he had also made many connections there. W. Ebsworth Hill & Sons now also focused on importing French instruments, new accessories such as chin rests and violin cases, and, after some time, German instruments as well. His two brothers, Arthur and William Henry, became experts in antique instruments.

In the mid-1880s, playing the violin began to become a real craze in London. By 1890, there were nine magazines devoted exclusively to violin playing, violinists, and their instruments. Schools where anyone could learn to play the violin sprang up like mushrooms. One newspaper noted a change in the London streetscape: a “mob of walking violin cases” had appeared in the city center. For beginners, Hill & Sons sold simple German violins; slightly more expensive ones from Mirecourt; and for the true enthusiast, the firm offered a rotating selection of old Italian and French instruments. The price of the latter category rose dramatically.

It was tempting to make a lot of money from forgeries. Research by “The Stad,” the authoritative magazine for musicians and violin makers, shows that Hill also succumbed to this temptation. In 1890, the magazine devoted a series of articles to a violin that Hill had sold as a Stradivari, but which had been assembled in the firm’s workshop from various parts made by other luthiers. A Guarneri, appraised by Arthur Hill, also turned out not to be genuine. The lawsuits and publications surrounding these issues did the Hills no favors.

The growing appreciation for fine instruments in England drew many French and Italian violin makers to London. The firm Hill & Sons faced stiff competition from Paul Bailly, Charles Boullangier, and the Chanot brothers, who all settled in the city. Their neighbors across the street, the Voller brothers, were also competitors. They had a dubious reputation for being excellent but fraudulent copyists of old French and Italian master instruments. The relationship between the Vollers and Hill deteriorated when William E. Hill, while at the Hamma firm in Hamburg, exposed three of the six Stradivari violins offered there as being made by the Vollers. However, the work of “the Vollers” was so good that Hill had to continue to regard them as serious competitors.

Not only did the trade in antique instruments demand the attention of W.E. Hill and his sons, but the workshop on Wardour Street, where their finest instruments were built, also grew and regained a prominent position in London. Starting in 1862, the firm had participated in major national and international exhibitions, where they won nothing but gold medals. Changing tastes, however, called for luthiers other than those available in England. In 1884, the first violin makers from outside the family were recruited; these were French makers from Mirecourt. Alfred Hill had met many skilled makers during his apprenticeship with J.J. Martin in Mirecourt. Délunet, his former colleague at Martin’s, would become the first of the twelve French luthiers whom Hill brought to London over the years, starting in 1884. All were luthiers with a proven track record. They were also hard workers; Desmond Hill noted that Langonet could make one violin a day—a pace unmatched by English standards. At exhibitions in 1894 and later, Hill instruments continued to win awards.

The company led by William Henry, Arthur, Alfred, and Walter Hill

W. Ebsworth Hill passed away in 1895. He had established the firm’s international reputation and had been a leading expert in his own right. His four sons—William Henry, Arthur, Alfred, and Walter—continued to run the firm together. The name, however, remained W.E. Hill & Sons, and just before their father’s death , they were still permitted to call themselves “The sole violin & bow makers to Her Majesty the Queen.” With renewed energy, the Hills devoted themselves entirely to building even greater renown. After the negative publicity, this was sorely needed. It was customary for leading violin makers and dealers to have catalogs printed featuring their offerings: stringed instruments, bows, cases, and strings in every conceivable category. W. E. Hill & Sons did the same, but in addition, the firm also published beautifully bound volumes on research they commissioned from others regarding the great names in violin making. For example, Carlo Lozzi conducted research for Hill on Caspar da Salo, and Hill himself wrote a lengthy article on Stradivari’s “Le Messie” violin. The brothers themselves authored the book on Gio. Paolo Maggini. Five other publications followed.

The most influential book was undoubtedly the 1902 biography of Antonio Stradivari. All of the publications demonstrated a deep knowledge of the subject matter. This knowledge became the global standard. Another way to increase their visibility was through the countless advertisements and articles about the Hill company in London newspapers. Hill’s activities were a frequently discussed topic in the *Violin Times*. They made a name for themselves in musical circles by donating a violin, a bow, and a violin case each year from 1894 to 1918 to the top graduating student at the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College, and Guildhall. Trade journals devoted considerable attention to this generous gesture year after year. Hill undertook similar initiatives not only in England but also in France. For example, between 1908 and 1910, they provided prizes for the top students at the violin-making school in Mirecourt.

The Hills had made a name for themselves primarily through three aspects of their work: their new instruments, their collection of antique master instruments for sale, and their expertise in repairing top-of-the-line Italian instruments. They devoted less attention to the production of their bows. Nevertheless, the Hill company held a significant share of the English market. Beginning in 1905, their catalog was also published in the United States and Canada, and their bows were listed there as well. For their stringed instruments, the Hills had brought French makers from Mirecourt to London, but their confidence in British expertise was such that they employed exclusively English bow makers. Between 1880 and 1984, there were 31 such makers, many of whom left a personal mark on the bow. James Tubbs even had his own brand mark: W.E. Hill.

Efforts to bring the company to the attention of a broad audience were successful; the company grew rapidly. The offices, store, and showrooms remained on New Bond Street, and in 1910, the company expanded with a large new workshop in Hanwell, Middlesex. The next step in the company’s expansion was the import of pianos, pianolas, various other instruments, gramophones, and records. Including members of the Hill family, the company employed a total of 41 highly qualified violin makers and 31 bow makers. The number of people who benefited from the firm directly and indirectly is estimated to be many times that figure. Not everyone appreciated the Hill firm. In 1890, Moya and Piper wrote extremely critically about the Hills: “some of the early members of the family were very skilled makers.” They made no mention of the others, nor did they say anything about the firm’s new instruments. Only their knowledge of old instruments did they leave unchallenged. The facts they published about Hill’s Stradivari monograph were painful: the majority were not by Hill, but collected by George Hart. Nor were the facts about Maggini provided by the brothers themselves. Those had been collected by Prof. Berenzi, and the book’s compilation was in fact the work of Lady Huggins. The firm has always maintained control over the family information that was made public. For example, the family has long and successfully kept the unsavory history of their relative Lockey Hill out of the official records.

Lockey Hill was a skilled violin maker, but was sentenced to death in 1795 following a series of horse thefts. According to the family’s account, Lockey had gone to work outside London that year and did not die until 1810. They kept his conviction a secret. The last two members of the Hill dynasty died just over a year apart: Arthur Frederik in 1939 and Alfred Ebsworth in 1940. But the firm had already been gradually taken over by Elbert Elgar Philips as early as 1936. Lagonet and Delunet continued to assist him as the firm’s senior partners. In mid-1970, “Havenfields” in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, was purchased, and the Hanwell workshop was relocated there. The new owners and executives of W. E. Hill & Sons were Stefan-Peter Greiner, Simon Morris, Steven Smith, Derek Wilson, and Robert Brewer Young. In 1992, “Havenfields” was sold off again.

Instruments and Bows by W.E. Hill

W.E. Hill & Sons built instruments until 1883 without keeping a record of them. It was not until that year that a violin bearing the serial number 1 was registered, followed by six others in the same year. It is impossible to determine who built these instruments. Presumably, it was not William Ebsworth himself, as they differ too greatly from his earlier known instruments. Alfred Hill, Joseph Prunier, and Charles Lagonet are the only ones who could have made them. It was a series based primarily on 11 existing Stradivari violins, ranging from his early “Tuscan” from 1690 to the “Red” from 1722. The series comprised 326 violins, the last of which was built in 1935. Nicolò Amati, Carlo Bergonzi, Guarneri del Gesù, Pietro Guarneri, and Maggini were other models that Hill used as references. These were “prime” quality instruments; in addition, Hill also began producing “workshop” quality instruments in 1892. A total of 125 of these were built. Some were made in Hanwell; others, as Basford and Toft surmise, were made at the homes of violin makers who worked according to Hill’s specified measurements.

Hill built violas based on models by Stradivari, da Salo, and Maggini, but he did not produce cellos of his own design. Only about ten very fine Stradivari copies of his “forma B” model were built, most of them by Charles Lagonet. In addition to classical models, Hill also sold “modern” violins. These were copies of instruments by the French violin maker J. B. Vuillaume. Immediately after the arrival of the first French luthier, Hill adopted the French method of work: one person made the body, another the neck and scroll, and a third handled the finishing. In general, the number of stringed instruments built in their own workshops between 1880 and 1940 is estimated at just over 500. The Hill firm had an impeccable reputation in the field of bows. As a result, they largely dominated the English market. The total number of bows that left the workshops is estimated at just under a thousand. Great makers such as James Tubbs ensured that their work was on par with that of the French.

Until World War II, just like the violin makers at the firm, the bow makers in Hanwell each produced a single component; afterward, they were trained to make the entire bow on their own. Like many violin makers, they were often paid by the piece; it was only later that they were employed on a permanent basis. In order of quality, the bows were stamped with the following marks: W. E. Hill (all made by James Tubbs), W. E. Hill & Sons, W. E. H & S, Hill & Sons England, H & S, Hill, with the first stamp usually reserved for the best bows and the last for the lower-quality ones. Hill also produced unstamped bows for other manufacturers. Bows of inferior quality were never produced. Most employees considered it a great company to learn the trade, but not the best place to work. Wages were low; Hill offered no retirement plan and few days off. In the event of illness, initially no pay was provided; later, only half the salary was paid. Being five minutes late to work meant a fifteen-minute pay deduction. Staff members were given a contract containing many “thou shalt not” clauses, and to prevent competition, they were not allowed to make bow strings outside of working hours. W.E. opened his first workshop on Wardour Street in 1880; in 1887, he moved to 38 New Bond Street and established a large workshop in Hanwell; ten years later, they moved to 140 New Bond Street. The Hanwell facility was expanded in 1904 and did not close until 1972. From 1715 to 1940, the Hill family included 12 members who were involved in violin making in one way or another—11 men and 1 woman, Emily Laura Hill, the only daughter of W.E. Hill, who worked for her father for an extended period. Until around 1908, she did much of the varnishing on instruments built in Hanwell.

The Work and Influence of W. E. Hill & Sons

The Hills were extremely thorough in their work; detailed records were kept for every violin that left the workshop. The Hill archive contains 58 different violin molds and templates, including 33 Stradivari models and 12 viola molds, all intended for making copies. These were precise reconstructions of the originals—mostly instruments that had been repaired by Hill or that had come into their possession for sale.  Toft and Basford have examined a large number of Hill’s instruments. In addition to the precise copies of the originals, they observed features that were common to many instruments. For example, they found visible compass lines used to mark the thicknesses of the ribs. The Hills fitted the ribs with “studs”—small square support plates that were glued over the seams. No tool marks were visible anywhere else.

For many Stradivari copies, the Hills selected wood that matched the original; they rarely deviated from this standard for their “prime” quality instruments. The finish on all the instruments examined was executed with great care. The varnish often had a luminous quality due to the pink undercoat that had been applied. The scroll was an exact replica of the original; only instruments not intended as such exhibited characteristics of scrolls from different Stradivari periods. The first lesson many new bow makers received at Hill’s was “from now on, train your eye down from 30 feet to 30 inches” and “Just 100% good is good enough.” The first task assigned to new bow makers was performing minor repairs; subsequently, under strict supervision, they were taught how to hair the bows before eventually being allowed to perform rough preparatory work. Training to become a bow maker at Hill could take up to two years. After their probationary period, most were assigned a number and were allowed to apply a mark to the end plate, beneath the hair.

The bows they produced for the company were often exact replicas of those made by well-known French bow makers. Hill had also had drawings and molds made for these. Hill had access to the finest pernambuco wood available. Around 1890, Alfred Hill developed a signature style based on the Tourte violin bow and the Voirin cello bow, thereby unifying the individual makers under a high-quality Hill standard. Most Hill bows differ from their originals in that they feature a silver or gold ferrule instead of an ivory one. Among the many outstanding bow makers, James Tubbs was perhaps the most distinctive. He worked for Hill on a freelance basis from 1858 to 1870; Tubbs’ chaotic work style and inconsistent production were completely at odds with W.E. Hill, who sought uniformity, predictability, and neatness. Hill therefore paid Tubbs on a per-piece basis. To ensure consistent wood quality, the pernambuco came from Hill’s own stock.

His relationship with W.E. Hill gradually deteriorated, not least because of Tubbs’s unfriendly nature. When Tubbs, after leaving following an argument, came across one of his own canes bearing Hill’s stamp, he burned Hill’s name right over it. Later, he was dubbed the “English Tourte.” Tubbs made well over a thousand bows, hundreds of which were for Hill. The Hill instruments were sold exclusively in Hill’s store, while the bows could also be purchased from Wurlitzer and other makers. For many employees, their experience at Hill was sufficient to allow them to successfully start their own businesses after a few years. Having worked at Hill was almost synonymous with professional expertise. Mougenot, who had been employed at Hill for less than a year, wrote in his 1899 catalog that he had worked in London, but a year later he referred to himself as “ex-ouvrier des Maisons Hill Frères.” Hill tried, in a sense, to prevent this by keeping operations strictly separate until World War II; Stagg called this “divide and conquer.” The name Hill has become a byword that transcends their instruments and bows. It stands for the pinnacle of violin making in England. Henley referred to Hill on New Bond Street as “Mount Parnassus of the art of violin making.”

Sources

Stagg J.W., 2015, Bowmaking, Bradley.

Heron-Allen, 1902, Violinmaking as it is and was, Londen.

Milnes and Wilson, 2016, The Hill Bow Makers 1880-1962.

Baker T., Dilworth T. en Fairfax A., 2001 The British Violin, Londen.

Plowright D.G., 1934, Dictionary of British bowmakers, Londen.

Tarisio, Cozio Archive, accessed 2021.

Vosges Archives, part of the National Archives, visited in 2021.