Benjamin Hebbert Violins

Benjamin Hebbert www.hebberts.com
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museum services

Over many years I have enjoyed close connection with museums and institutions around the world, and have played significant roles in either acquiring instruments on their behalf, or other consultation services. In particular I have significant conservation experience, sufficient that for some years I taught on the postgraduate conservations courses at West Dean College. There are many highlights of my involvement with museums, the most recent being my advisory role on the acquisition of the legendary Ex-Amaryllis Fleming piccolo-cello by the Brothers Amati for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Recently I have had great pleasure in my relationships with the V&A, The British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Bowes Museum, Ashmolean Museum, The Bate Collection, Museo del Violino, Musée de la Musique, Metropolitan Museum of Art, America’s National Music Museum, Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music Museums. Some of the highlights – of every sort – are given below. 

SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS

BROTHERS AMATI

Violoncello Piccolo by the Brothers Amati, c.1620-30, Ex-Amaryllis Fleming.
Our extensive forensic condition reporting, provenance research and strategic advice concerning the balance between conservation and performance was pivotal as an independent third-party for the acquisition of the Ex-Amaryllis Fleming Amati for a major international museum. It will form part of a core playing collection where it will continue to be heard for generations to come. 

Brothers Amati www.hebberts.com
Merlin Silver Swan www.hebberts.com

THE BOWES MUSEUM

The Magic of the Silver Swan.
In 2023 the Bowes Museum held a landmark exhibition centred around their most iconic object, the life-sized automaton silver swan made by the “ingenious mechanick” John Joseph Merlin. His inventiveness was legendary in the late eighteenth-century, and directly inspired Charles Babbage’s invention of the ‘difference engine’ celebrated as the first computer. Amongst Merlin’s other inventions were the roller skates, which he debuted whilst playing a violin of his own making, ending with such famously predictable results that they have become a sketch in Horrible Histories. His interest in improving violins led to unusual designs and his claims as “Cremona Emulus” to demonstrate his interests. I was delighted to support the exhibition and the museum with sourcing and arranging the loan of a trio of violin, viola, and cello made by Merlin. The exhibition was opened by Mischa Maisky, who performed Saint Säens’ The Swan, and throughout the exhibition we were able to support performance opportunities for the museum. Our research blog, written when we first acquired the Merlin violin formed an important source for the museum exhibition catalogue. Read on.

THE BOWES MUSEUM

The Magic of the Silver Swan.
In 2023 the Bowes Museum held a landmark exhibition centred around their most iconic object, the life-sized automaton silver swan made by the “ingenious mechanick” John Joseph Merlin. His inventiveness was legendary in the late eighteenth-century, and directly inspired Charles Babbage’s invention of the ‘difference engine’ celebrated as the first computer. Amongst Merlin’s other inventions were the roller skates, which he debuted whilst playing a violin of his own making, ending with such famously predictable results that they have become a sketch in Horrible Histories. His interest in improving violins led to unusual designs and his claims as “Cremona Emulus” to demonstrate his interests. I was delighted to support the exhibition and the museum with sourcing and arranging the loan of a trio of violin, viola, and cello made by Merlin. The exhibition was opened by Mischa Maisky, who performed Saint Säens’ The Swan, and throughout the exhibition we were able to support performance opportunities for the museum. Our research blog, written when we first acquired the Merlin violin formed an important source for the museum exhibition catalogue. Read on.

Merlin Silver Swan www.hebberts.com

JACOB STAINER

A tenor viola, Absam, 1660.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has three Stradivari violins, good cellos but prior to this acquisition no violas of any note to form a string quartet for performance within the museum setting. By finding a suitable viola to fill their requirement it has transformed the musical potential of their playing collection. Jacob Stainer is the most significant violin maker working outside of Italy contemporaneous to the golden-period of Cremonese violin making. This is one of the finest and most significant examples of this maker’s work, but as a tenor viola with the added problem of deep ribs it was unmanageable as a playing instrument for regular professional use. With this in mind it satisfies the objectives of the museum collection, and it allows it an extended playing life under controlled conditions that are both suitable for its remarkable state of preservation and suitable to save the arms of musicians who would otherwise suffer from sustained use.

WILLIAM VOLLER

Bronze statuette of Antonio Stradivari, London, 1894.
The brothers William, Alfred and Charles Voller were all capable artists beyond their work as violin makers, and we have watercolour paintings in our archives by each of the three brothers, however William was the most capable artist. A number of still-life paintings, invariably of violin-related subjects survive by him, and as a sculptor he produced a portrait bust in bronze of the cellist Alfredo Piatti and another of Stradivari based on the French 1868 Edouard Hamman engraving. Over the years this has become the iconic image of Stradivari, appearing in the 1937 Stradivari Centenary Exhibition and latterly in an iconic life-size sculpture sitting on a bench in the middle of Cremona. We were delighted to make this available to the Museo del Violino in Cremona for their exhibition on the iconography of Antonio Stradivari, where it is on temporary display along with the famous Edgar Bundy paintings imagining his workshop, and the eighteenth century caricatures that appear to be of Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri

WILLIAM VOLLER

Bronze statuette of Antonio Stradivari, London, 1894.
The brothers William, Alfred and Charles Voller were all capable artists beyond their work as violin makers, and we have watercolour paintings in our archives by each of the three brothers, however William was the most capable artist. A number of still-life paintings, invariably of violin-related subjects survive by him, and as a sculptor he produced a portrait bust in bronze of the cellist Alfredo Piatti and another of Stradivari based on the French 1868 Edouard Hamman engraving. Over the years this has become the iconic image of Stradivari, appearing in the 1937 Stradivari Centenary Exhibition and latterly in an iconic life-size sculpture sitting on a bench in the middle of Cremona. We were delighted to make this available to the Museo del Violino in Cremona for their exhibition on the iconography of Antonio Stradivari, where it is on temporary display along with the famous Edgar Bundy paintings imagining his workshop, and the eighteenth century caricatures that appear to be of Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri

RALPH AGUTTER

The King James II Violin, London, circa 1685.
I was thrilled to be consulted for the re-hanging of the British Galleries of the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2022, which meant selecting suitable musical instruments for the exhibition and providing the necessary conservation work to stabilise them for display. I suspect that Ralph Agutter’s violin was made during a period of competition between the makers working on the Strand, near the royal court for the post of Instrument Maker in Ordinary to the King – a post created to stem the corruption of musicians in the King’s employment. Ultimately the post was given to John Shaw, and Agutter carried on his business, working between London, Edinburgh and his ancestral home in Newcastle. The violin has always been a great favourite of mine, so the opportunity to handle it as a conservator was one of the highlights of my year.

MORE HIGHLIGHTS

KOERNER HALL

Consultation services for a public instrument collection. We provided valuations,...

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