George Wulme-Hudson

Born George Hudson in London in 1862, he added the name Wulme to avoid confusion with another George Hudson, a violin maker in Skegness, north-east England. He trained as both a jeweller and a violinist before entering into violin making professionally, and was largely self-taught, although with some guidance from Thomas Jacques Holder, a little-known but adept English copyist of the period. Hudson developed considerable skill in imitating old instruments, both the accepted classical masters and other more diverse and less readily identifiable originals. He produced many instruments, some sold through agents such as Edward Withers, but rarely with his own labels. Many instruments contain facsimile labels of Italian makers and often entirely fictitious names. He adopted the name ‘Caressa’ to identify his work, which is sometimes found branded internally.