The Forster family made some of the very finest English cellos, and this example, made by William Forster junior in 1804, is a particularly beautiful and well-preserved example, with an unusually full history. Dated 1804 and numbered 25, the cello was made for Heneage Finch, 4th Earl of Aylesford, who also owned the ‘Aylesford’ Stradivari cello of 1696. It remained in the family until around 1880, when it was sold by George Hart to Mary Arkwright of Hereford. The cello passed from Mary Arkwright to her son Samuel Ronald Courthope Bosanquet (1868-1952), Chancellor of the Diocese of Hereford, and from him to his daughter Rachel, then to the present owner, the grandson of Samuel Bosanquet, who loaned it to his cousin Caroline Bosanquet, the cellist and composer who died in 2013.

It is rare to have such a full history for an English instrument, but this is an exceptional cello. It is listed in the Forster records among ‘the best violoncellos made by Wm. Forster, jun’, and is made on their Stainer model, with its extravagantly styled scroll and distinctive soundholes. The back is made of two matched pieces of quarter-sawn maple with a beautiful, muddled flame descending slightly from the joint, while the ribs are of mixed stock, still well-figured. The scroll, typically, is of plainer maple, while the front is from exceptional straight-grained spruce, the grain of which is grouped in bands of fine to medium width. The workmanship throughout is of a very high order, the wood surface extremely well-finished, and all aspects of the modelling well-regulated. The distinctive outline is rather broad across the lower bouts, and only barely related to an authentic Stainer model. The arching does not follow the characteristic Stainer style, with deep compound curves around the edges, which English makers tended to exaggerate, but is a smoothly contoured, more Amati form. The Stainer elements are seen more clearly in the soundholes and scroll. The varnish is of the very best quality, generously applied and rich in texture, with a fine crackled surface and deeply pigmented with warm orange-brown colouring.