AS02/ 10 Circa 1985 16″ viola. Handmade by Ian Highfield.
£5,500.00
AS02/ 10 Circa 1985 16″ viola. Handmade by Ian Highfield. Labelled: ‘Highfield workshop Birmingham Circa 1985. Signed. With Larsen strings.
Professional player comment: ‘Smooth, even tone across the ranges, with good projection and a sweet sound.’
One-piece back of wide grained maple with narrow curl with matching ribs. Neck and scroll of medium grained maple with narrow curl. Front of spruce. Golden-orange oil varnish. Ebony pegs and chinrest and Wittner tailpiece.
Length of back: 40.5cms. String length 37cms. Body stop: 22cms
Ian Kenneth Highfield (1946-2012) began making instruments and undertaking repairs due to his involvement in early music and schools orchestras. However, he went on to study fine art (sculpture & painting) and architecture, and then taught art and music for several years.
Eventually he set up Highfield Violins at Stratford House, Camp Hill in Birmingham in the 1980s, before moving to Derbyshire in the late 1990s and setting up the English Cello Studio with John Basford.
Throughout his career he studied and researched fine instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries, and experimented with grounds, varnishes and pigments with a particular aim to recreate the famous grounds of that ‘golden’ period of violin-making. As a result of his extensive study, he is noted for fine replicas of 19th century English and Italian instruments.
