John Dodd (6)

John Dodd (28 December 1752, London — 4 October 1839, Richmond, Surrey) was a renowned British archetier, often dubbed "English Tourte" for his crucial role in establishing definitive characteristics of the UK modern Pernambuco wood bow; Dodd was the greatest English bow-maker in the generation before James Tubbs (1835—1921). He originated from a family of bow-makers, and his father, Edward Dodd (1705—1810), and both younger brothers practiced the oeuvre. John didn't immediately follow the path and instead began his career as a fine metalworker, fitting gunlocks and making money scales; he probably picked archetiery in the late 1780s. At first, John Dodd primarily worked as a contractor for other workshops, with one of his earliest extant bows carrying the "Norris and Barnes" brand; he also supplied bows for John Betts (1752—1823), William Forster (ca.1714—1801), and brothers James (1758—1831) and Henry Banks (1770—1831), all bearing their respective stamps. He worked in Lambeth and later Kew boroughs of London. Throughout his career, Dodd gradually transformed the traditional bow to meet new demands and requirements of the late XVIII-century virtuosi players; unsurprisingly, he arrived at many design choices similar to Francois Xavier Tourte's work (who lived and worked in London at the same time, but they never collaborated.) From his earlier "classical" bows with rounded heads, narrow ivory frogs, and straighter sticks, John progressed to his later models, outlining all the familiar features of modern English bow: the upward-tilting ivory face, large chamfers, "top-hat" shaped mortise, and frog made of ebony wood or tortoiseshell. He became one of the first archetiers to broadly experiment with directly cutting the curved bow out of the wood plank with a double saw instead of slowly heat-bending a straight stick. This innovative approach provided an excellent tone but at the price of reduced flexibility since the bow wouldn't "bounce off" strings in the same manner as a traditionally curved model. Like many other British masters at the time, Dodd often sourced his Pernambuco wood from old barrels (with nail hole traces sometimes visible directly on the bow's surface). Dodd was very secretive about his work and never ran a full apprenticeship, so none of his agents and assistants knew trade secrets; John rejected generous offers to purchase his patents even at times of great financial struggle. He was reportedly a heavy drinker, too, leading to the heavy decline of Dodd's business after the 1820s. John spent his final years in Richmond's "workhouse" and died in extreme poverty and complete abandonment.