Born in 1752 in Stirling, Scotland, the son of bow maker Edward Dodd (1705-1810), John Dodd was a gunlock fitter and then a money-scale maker before turning to bow making. John Dodd was a contemporary of François Tourte and worked in London. He arrived at a similar bow design to Tourte, though entirely through independent means.
He made fine bows, but his measurements and quality of bows are never entirely consistent. For example, some bows were made slightly shorter than the norm. His later bows are particularly fine, though judged to be a little short.
An excellent choice of Pernambuco wood was available to Dodd and much of this came to England in the form of Barrels. This explains the numerous traces of nail holes which sometimes run right through his sticks.
According to Pierre Baillot, it seems that Viotti may have used a Dodd bow which was about 2½ cm shorter than the Tourte model.
Many of Dodd's bows have this fault of not being long enough.
Given his daily encounters with need, John Dodd seems to have seen his skills and knowledge as the capital that could not be taken from him as long as he protected it vigilantly enough. Not even the sum of 1000 pounds sterling tempted him to disclose the secret of how he carved wood for a new stick, and no apprentice was ever initiated into the enigma of his art. On 4 October 1839 Dodd died at an advanced age in the poorhouse of Richmond, utterly destitute and ill. His legacy is his masterful bows, which are true milestones in the history of instruments. He was one of the first to mark his work with a stamp, and “Dodd” and “J. Dodd” quickly became a sought-after brand which countless ateliers and companies were eager to claim as their own. They attempted to honour the first great master of English bow making, a man who never intended to establish a tradition.
Born in 1752 in Stirling, Scotland, the son of bow maker Edward Dodd (1705-1810), John Dodd was a gunlock fitter and then a money-scale maker before turning to bow making. John Dodd was a contemporary of François Tourte and worked in London. He arrived at a similar bow design to Tourte, though entirely through independent means.
He made fine bows, but his measurements and quality of bows are never entirely consistent. For example, some bows we...