Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Urquhart, Thomas (fl.1650?)

706590Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 58 — Urquhart, Thomas (fl.1650?)1899Louisa M. Middleton

URQUHART, THOMAS (fl. 1650?), violin-maker, was distinguished among old London makers by the beauty of his style, and especially by the excellence of his varnish. Some of Urquhart's instruments are small in size; all are said to have been pure and silvery in tone. A violin with the Urquhart label, dated 1666, is in Mr. Hill's collection.

There is in the possession of Mr. John Glen, Edinburgh, an old flute, stamped with Urquhart's name, and characteristically varnished, but it is not possible to decide that this instrument was made by the celebrated Urquhart.

[Grove's Dict. iv. 210, 283; Hart's The Violin, pp. 168, 202, 317; Pearce's Violin-makers, p. 85; Davidson's The Violin; Sandys and Forster's Hist. of the Violin, p. 249; Fleming's Old Violins; Fiddle Fancier's Guide, p. 124; information kindly given by Mr. Arthur Hill, Mr. John Glen, and Mr. Alfred Moffat.]