In Focus: A c.1850 double bass by George Craske

Few figures in British violin making history arouse more divergent opinions than George Craske. Endorsements from players generally outweigh the purists’ reproaches of Craske’s methods and standards. A consensus is still elusive more than a century after his death. Most mortals, however, would prefer that posterity judge them by their best work, a daunting prospect in Craske’s case, considering his prodigious output.

After an early career in the London workshops of Dodd, Clementi and ‘Young’ Forster, Craske settled in the Midlands and struck fortune with a well-timed investment in the Manchester Corporation. Once financially independent, he continued building bowed instruments at an almost feverish pace in relative seclusion…