George Craske

CRASKE, George Born 1795 Bury St Edmonds, died 1888 Bath UK. Born in Bury St. Edmonds and trained initially with William Forster jr. (‘Young’ Forster). Made instruments for Thomas Dodd and for the firm of Muzio Clementi. Left London and went to Bath, where he made the acquaintance of Sir Patrick Blake, an amateur player and collector who owned a Stradivari violin and an Amati violin. These were copied by Craske. Lived briefly in Leeds and Sheffield. Moved to Birmingham where he opened a shop on Snow Hill, remaining there about 20 years during which he repaired Paganini’s Guarneri del Gesù ‘Canone’ violin during the virtuoso’s English tour. Subsequently moved to Manchester, then Salford, and finally to Stockport where he retired to his workshop, allowing no visitors other than a close friend George Crompton. Returned to Bath and lived on the income from investments. On his death in 1888 hundreds of unsold and partly finished instruments had accumulated on the premises. According to Henley, ‘No man, unassisted, ever made as many instruments as Craske’. His output is calculated by him to have amounted to 2,050 violins, 300 violas, 250 cellos, and 20 double-basses. All the unsold instruments passed to Crompton, who then disposed of them to W. E. Hill & Sons, who finished and refitted them. These were sold with a special Hill label crediting Craske. Hills also published a short monograph on the maker to accompany the sales. Many of Craske’s instruments were left without heads, a part of the work he did not enjoy, apparently, and missing scrolls were manufactured by the Hills in these cases. Early work has a good clear varnish, but majority have a rather dull red coating. He used good materials, but sometimes the arching is excessively low, perhaps as a result of trying to make too many instruments from one log. Hill label: Made by George Craske / born 1795 died 1888 / and sold by / William E. Hill & Sons, London

Craske, although his father was a foreigner, was of English extraction, so he once told my grandfather, who was a fiddle enthusiast. He said that an ancestor of his named Cross had settled in Russia, and afterwards in Germany, and the present form of the name was due to these migrations. Mr. George Crompton, who was intimately acquainted with this wonderful man, does not say anything about the matter in his sketch of him in the June number of The Strad, 1893. However, on the strength of this statement, I venture to include him here as a British maker of British blood. He was not an Anglo-German or French, but a thorough Britisher in character and sentiment. And so is his work. Out of the three thousand odd instruments that he is said to have made, I have seen only about a dozen — that is to say, only about a dozen that I knew to be his work. But very many of his instruments have a forged label in them, and as he made very fair imitations of Joseph Guarnerius and other Italians, his work is not always recognised. I cannot say that there is anything about Craske’s work to excite ecstatic utterance. However clever the workmanship may be — and in much of his work we may concede that it is clever — the tone will never give him a seat amongst the mighty : it is too hard and metallic. I have carefully tried the specimens which from time to time have been brought to my notice, and I must honestly say that I have always been disappointed with the tone. It is a large, round, and piercing tone, but it lacks unction. It is stronger than the tone of any of our classical makers, but will not for a moment bear comparison as regards mellowness and sweetness. Craske’s instruments are splendidly adapted for orchestral purposes, but as solo instruments they are never likely to be in great demand. In some catalogues of old instruments issued recently I find that there are specimens of his work offered at £30. This sum is more than double the intrinsic value of anything I have seen by him. The workmanship, however, is honest and solid, and we must give Craske his due that he never attempted to sell his clever imitations as originals.

Craske was a pupil of ” old Forster,” and he made many instruments for Clementi and for Dodd, the bow-maker. Besides copying Guarnerius, he made several copies of Amati and Stradivari, from templets and measurements taken from a Strad and an Amati in the possession of Sir Patrick Blake, of Langlam Hall, Suffolk. Whilst in Birmingham, he is reported to have been once engaged by Paganini to do some repairs to his violin, which had met with an accident.

Craske lived in Salford, amongst other places, where he worked for about twenty years, leading the life of a recluse, allowing no one to enter his workshop except Mr. George Crompton, his friend and successor in business. He lived a retired life for some years before he died, at Bath, in affluent circumstances. He died in November 1889, at the advanced age of ninety-eight. He was a man of striking appearance and personality. ” His head was exactly the same shape and measure as Shakespeare’s, and his memory one of the most remarkable that ever was known ” ; such are the concluding words of Mr. Crompton’s biographical sketch.

Worked in various places, Salford, Manchester, &c. ; he made a number of instruments, generally Italian in character.

Als Jüngling kam er zu William Forster in die Lehre, trat später zu dem
berühmten Klavierspieler Clementi in Beziehung, namentlich aber zu Thomas
Dodd, der einen neuen Geigenlack erfunden hatte und junge Leute beschäftigte,
die für ihn arbeiten mussten; unter diesen war auch Craske. Er verliess Dodd
aber bald wieder und liess sich in Bath nieder. Er hatte hier keinen sonderlichen
Erfolg und siedelte nach der Reihe nach Leeds, Sheffield und Birmingham
über. In Birmingham hielt er sich über 20 Jahre auf, um dann für ein
Jahr nach Manchester und von da nach Stockport (District Salford) zu ziehen.
Er war eine echte Künstlernatur, aber voll Schrullen und Eigenheiten, die sich
im Alter immer mehr ausbildeten. Obwohl er unermüdlich thätig war und noch
in seinem 93. Lebensjahre arbeitete — er hat über 3000 Violinen, Violen und
Violoncelli und etwa 20 Contrabässe gebaut — und von den bedeutendsten
Virtuosen hochgeschätzt wurde, brachte er es doch zu keinem Wohlstande.
Seine Arbeiten sind nach den besten italienischen Vorbildern sehr sauber ausgeführt
und werden jetzt von Jahr zu Jahr besser im Ton. Seine Biographie
veröffentlichte Arthur Broadley in der Zeitschrift »Musical News« 1901 No. 553:
»An english Stradivarius«. Drei Violinen von ihm aus den Jahren 1820—1836
waren 1880 in Edinburgh ausgestellt.