George Craske

George Craske was born in Bury St. Edmands, England in the 1790s. He showed an interest in violinmaking early in life and soon moved to London to study with maker William Forster. Craske started working for Thomas Dodd and the firm of Muzio Clementi, producing excellent copies of Amati, Guarneri, and Stradivari models. During his life, he opened workshops in many locations. As a young man he worked in Bath, where he became acquainted with the thriving music scene there. He moved to Birmingham after a few years, where in 1832 he repaired the Guarneri del Gesù violin of virtuoso Niccolo Paganini. This repair had a profound effect on his work, after which many of his instruments outwardly resembled the model on del Gesù. After 20 years in Birmingham he moved to Manchester, where he lived and worked until nearly the end of his life.

Craske was an incredibly prolific maker, producing over 2,000 instruments in his lifetime. After his death, many of his works were sold by W.E. Hill & Sons. One of our instruments from Craske has a label reading, “Made by George Craske / (born 1797, died 1888) / and sold by / William E. Hill & Sons, London”.