I served my apprenticeship at J. P. Guivier & Co. Ltd. London W.1. Looking back now at my good fortune in securing what, even at that time, was becoming a rare event namely a paid apprenticeship as a violin repairer/restorer, to be taught by craftsmen that had in turn been taught by craftsmen in an uninterrupted line back to Thomas Dodd’s day was indeed good fortune. On My arrival at J.P.Guivier the workshop foreman (and that was his title) was Roger Dawson. Roger had taken over the running the workshop after Glen Collins (later of Newark Violin Making School fame and the nephew of William Luff) had left. Roger had served his apprenticeship some years previously at Edward Withers of Wardour Street being taught by Mr Stanley Withers, the proprietor, and Mr Albert Jones formerly of Hart and Son who worked there. Stan (as he was Known) had in turn been taught by his elderly uncle Edward Withers who in turn had been taught by John Lott and his farther, also Edward Withers, who had worked with John Lott Jnr he having been taught by his farther John Lott Snr. In fact there is a quartet of instruments made by John Lott Jnr for the Withers Family in existence somewhere and up to the time when Edward Withers was still run by the Withers Family there were numerous artefacts originating from J. F. Lott’s time. Alan Wilks, the then proprietor of J.P. Guivier had himself been taught formally by The Voigt Family as a restorer thus introducing me to the German tradition of violin making and repairing. Mr Banks, also a former employee of Hart & Son had a frequent presence in the workshop and was a source of knowledge and inspiration whose style of work was a mixture of all that is best of the English and French tradition, very similar to the workshop’s style under Roger Dawson’s leadership. Such was the level of respect shown to Roger Dawson by Alan Wilks that all workshop matters were entirely left to Roger’s judgement, the more remarkable as Roger Dawson was very much his junior. The pay was low, the hours were long, 42 per week, and holidays were 2 weeks a year, just as well as I didn’t earn enough to take them. However there is no better way to acquire skills, no job was ‘academic’, all work had to be in the style of the ‘House’, all work had to be to the accepted standard from day one of my apprenticeship. In the time honoured manner my apprenticeship started with a list of tools and equipment to make, starting with me being presented with 4 new knife blades of different widths and enough old violin finger boards with to make the handles. The next ’gift’ was a new oil sharpening stone (as no one wanted my inexperienced hands putting a hollow in any of the other workshop ones) and an old elm seat from a stick chair with which to make the wooden box to house the stone. There were no machine tools in the workshop, this combined with the fact it was early August and a heat wave, plus old elm is a tough wood meant that the making of this oil stone box (with lid) was not only slow but physically hard work! It also was my introduction to plane and chisel sharpening which was frequently necessary. Once said box was finished it was back to the knife handles as I could now sharpen sufficiently well a plane iron to deal with ebony. As I remember I spent the first 2 weeks or so at J.P. Guivier making gauges, bridge patterns, forms and bits and pieces, becoming familiar with different woods and tools, producing an array of blisters and a little impromptu blood letting as well! It is quite possible that I may have got away with it lightly compared with some. As I recall Roger Dawson told me his apprenticeship started with him having to make his own work bench, by hand using a large piece of lime wood for the top and Alan Wilk’s apprenticeship commenced with 2 weeks making and fitting violin sound posts. J. P. Guivier for the most part dealt with rather better musical instruments but they also had contracts to supply instruments to various education Authorities. All these instruments came through the workshop to be fitted up properly, this to the company's credit. In the case of v’cellos this meant adjusting pegs, adjusting nuts, fitting adjusters, fitting new tail wires, fitting new bridges and adjusting the sound posts. It was to the junior members of staff that this work normally fell and was a very good introduction to working on instrument for young apprentices, so it was for me. After weeks of doing the same work repeatedly one acquires skills, physical strength and knowledge, becomes familiar with the smooth running of a commercial instrument workshop and from seeing the beautiful and complex restorations being performed by the skilled craftsmen that surrounded me, an idea what I would be expected to learn to do in time. At all times during my apprenticeship, more frequently in the early days, any work that fell short of the workshop foreman's standards was returned to my bench, this was done in good humour but any deficiency in my work I had to rectify, that was the house rule, the time it took to do was always secondary to achieving standards. As I recall my first 5 or 6 weeks actually working on instruments, dozens of v’cellos for various educational authorities, was mostly spent fitting new bridges, day after day, week after week until that years orders had been fulfilled. By the time this cello ‘bridge fest’ was over I could fit a reasonable cello bridge, could sharpen tools reasonably well and had secured my place as a member of staff for I had been on trial up until then. As it can be seen this form of training can never be reproduced in a college environment and it probably goes some way to explaining my affinity for the larger of the stringed instruments. At the end of this period something else happened, I started to work on instruments other than educational ones. There were hundreds and hundreds of stock instruments all over the premises all destined for sale in the shop and like the educational ones nothing was offered for sale until it had passed through the workshop. In all my time at J. P. Guivier the shop’s appetite for instruments was insatiable. It was on the least expensive of these instruments where I started adjusting or fitting new pegs with matching end pin, shooting fingerboards, adjusting or replacing nuts, cleaning, fitting bridges and sound posts, touching in varnish and generally presenting instruments for sale. Gradually the work I did became more advanced with the odd front off job on violins to repair minor cracks for example. The first largish repair job I did was on a cello. It was very kind of Roger Dawson to encourage my interest in cellos as that was where his inclinations lay plus he was something of a mean cellist aswell. It also lead to me taking cello lessons as I found working on these instruments, sometimes for months, and not being able to play them a little at the end, too much! It also lead to me getting heavily into debt buying an instrument and bow. As my proficiency increased so did the range of work and instruments value that was placed on my bench to do and the start of working on customers instruments. From time to time it was back to the educational orders often ‘encouraged’ by ‘The Boss’ with a bottle of Wood’s Old Navy Rum, this was especially welcomed around one Christmas time as the workshop’s heating was completely ineffectual! On reflection the rum was far better for the moral than the work and I have a hazy memory of an ‘uncertain’ journey home that Christmas Eve! In the final analysis speed is important in the commercial world. As a young apprentice working in a commercial setting one becomes very aware of what can seem the superhuman speed a skilled and experienced craftsman can work. Skill and speed develop hand in hand and so in time I became quicker and more skilled. When it comes to restoration Roger Dawson has obviously been a large influence on my style of work as was Mr Banks. Other influences being the high quality French restorations executed before the War that I frequently saw during my apprenticeship. Negative influences are too numerous to mention! Makers that have influenced my style are the what were referred to (in my youth) as the’ Modern Italian School'. Luthiers such as Rocca, Pressenda, Degani, Pedrazzini to name a few of the better makers, and naturally the huge number of beautiful Old English Instruments by the likes of Lott, Fendt, Dodd, Preston of York, Charles Harris, Kennedy (particularly his cellos), Morrison, Tobin and Panormo that were very much part of my apprenticeship. The neatness of the better French makers such as Paul Bailly, J.B.Vuillaume, Claudot and Charles Teress have also influenced my work. back to top |