London’s Most Mysterious Violin Maker

Daniel Parker is one of the finest yet most inscrutable names in English violin making. Unfortunately for us he had a common, unremarkable name, unlike Barak Norman, or Edward Pamphilon, which has defied genealogical research into his background. There are so many Daniel Parkers in the parish records of London, let alone the rest of the country, that it is impossible to say for sure when or where he was born, how he became a violin maker or where in London he may have worked.

All we do know comes from the few authentically labelled violins, like this characteristic example from 1716, and a careful study of his style and technique. Through this we can surmise that he was a pupil of Barak Norman, about whom we do know a considerable amount as he was celebrated as one of the great viol makers in the respected English tradition. Much was written about him, and his name is well-known. This is not the case for Parker, and the rarity of his labels or any discourse about him in contemporary accounts suggest that he spent most of his life as an employee of the various music shops in London, like those of Norman and John Hare.

Yet Parker’s work and style is unique, and is clearly evident in instruments bearing the labels of both Norman and Hare. Sometimes it is a little eccentric, in what can be characterised as the English school of the period, especially in the rare violas attributed to him. But what makes him truly outstanding is his Stradivari-modelled violins like this one, possibly the first of their kind anywhere in Europe. The great thing about Parker’s work is its character- there is a muscular ruggedness to this instrument that does not obscure the careful attention paid to the full and beautifully shaped arching and the disciplined model, clearly taken from a Stradivari of the period 1685-1690. The varnish too is rich and carefully applied, and has the texture and depth of a fine old Italian.

The story of how Daniel Parker got his hands on a Stradivari violin in the early eighteenth century is a fascinating and important one, first suggested by the violin historian Duane Rosengard. Living in London between 1702 and 1705 was a Cremonese violinist, Gaspare Visconti, born to a noble family there in 1683. He was a very well-connected man. A 1684 bass viol by Stradivari known as the Visconti da Madrona was probably made for his family. Gaspare was a pupil of Arcangelo Corelli and may have been sent to London as his proxy – as a devout Catholic, Corelli was reluctant to travel to London himself despite his great popularity there.

We also know that Visconti knew Stradivari personally in Cremona; Stradivari’s early biographer and contemporary Don Desiderio Arisi noted that Visconti advised Stradivari about the tonal development of his instruments. While in London, Visconti met and married Christina Steffkins, a member of a well-known musical family who were employed at the English Royal court as violists. She accompanied Gaspare back to Cremona in 1705, where she commissioned a cello from Stradivari himself in 1707; the surviving templates are inscribed with her name.