JAMES W. BRIGGS

IN FOCUS

A close look at the work of great and unusual makers

James W. Briggs was born in Wakefield in 1855. He apprenticed as a violin maker in Manchester with William Tarr, famed for his numerous basses. Briggs later established his own workshop in Wakefield and his business received a boost in 1890 when he received a gold medal for craftsmanship at the Leeds Exhibition.

In 1893 he formally relocated to prosperous Glasgow, where he remained until his death in 1935. His first shop was at 97 Cambridge Street, later moving to 122 Sauchiehall Street. His clientele included many prominent musicians of the day such as William Primrose, Fritz Kreisler, J. Scott Skinner and Pablo Casals.

Apart from making, restoring and dealing in classic instruments, the Briggs business produced many fine violins, large-bodied violas, and cellos on various patterns in addition to making a number of highly prized double basses and clarsachs (Celtic harps), many being exported to the US at the outset of the 1930s folk revival.

During a trip to Saxony in 1897 Briggs became acquainted with a young trainee violin maker, Philip Schreiber, who was to become his lifelong collaborator. Schreiber had a significant hand in the production of around 300 instruments. Briggs’s son Harry also trained in Germany and became active in the workshop from 1899.

FORM AND CONSTRUCTION

Briggs principally worked on two violin patterns: one based on a stylised late Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ form and the other a mid-period Stradivari pattern, as in the 1909 violin shown here.

Being typical of Briggs’s output, the instrument is made with elegantly formed edgework and well-sited, cleanly cut f-holes. The arching in both plates rises to a height of around 16mm.

RIBS

The use of external moulds was an innovation that Schreiber introduced to the Glasgow workshop. This efficient and accurate method of rib construction allows the plates and rib garland to be made and stored independently. The spruce linings and blocks are generally characteristic of Briggs work.

MATERIALS

The fronts of Briggs instruments often appear a little darker than the backs and sides, most probably the result of the maker’s use of recycled spruce or Douglas fir salvaged from the refurbishments of Glasgow Cathedral. Briggs frequently travelled to Germany on wood-buying trips, often selecting highly flamed wedges of maple.

However, this example is more modestly figured but nonetheless a handsome cut.

SCROLL

The head is typical of the shop. It is on the Stradivari style, being deep and cleanly worked, the volute finished with a relatively delicate chamfer, creating a narrow terminus into the eye.

VARNISH

Briggs regularly advertised in The Strad promoting the sale of ‘Whitelaw’s Amber varnish’. However, it appears unlikely this concoction was ever applied to his own instruments. Rather, as with this violin, he used a fine, warmly coloured oil-based varnish, thinly and evenly applied. Like other Scottish violin makers of the day, Briggs seems to have rejected the fashion towards antique-style finishes.

DAVID RATTRAY

Thanks to Philip Schreiber’s daughter Florence and grandson Philip, for glass plate positive

Label details of an 1888 Briggs violin made in Wakefield. The inscription (below) confirms an unexpected lumberjack, no less than Prime Minister William Gladstone

1909 VIOLIN PHOTOS DAVID RATTRAY. 1888 VIOLIN PHOTOS COURTESY TIM TOFT

Briggs (left) with former teacher William Tarr at Puttick & Simpson’s auction room, London, c.1890

Briggs (right) and Schreiber at the Sauchiehall Street shop