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Alfred Ebsworth Hill

Biographies

John Dilworth Willibald Leo Lütgendorff

John Dilworth

HILL, Alfred Ebsworth Born 1862, died 1940 London UK. Third son and pupil of William Ebsworth Hill, below. Trained in Mirecourt alongside Langonet who returned with him to London to manage the workshop of W. E. Hill & Sons. He also recruited W. C. Retford to make bows for the company, which produced the definitive English bows of the 20th century. Gained the reputation as the finest expert and connoisseur in the world. With his brother Arthur, he made the donation to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford which provided the museum with one of the greatest collections of classical Italian instruments in the world, most notably the Stradivari ‘Messie’ violin. Also in partnership with his brothers he produced a series of seminal works on Stradivari, Guarneri, and Maggini which remain standard texts. At least one very fine copy of a decorated Stradivari is credited to him, but most of the work labelled ‘W. E. Hill & Sons’ was produced by a very skilled group of craftsmen under the guidance of the Hill brothers. [BVMA]