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Matthew Hardie: ‘The Scottish Stradivari’

2026-07-31T08:52:00

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Matthew Hardie, who died 200 years ago this year, was possibly Scotland’s most influential violin maker. To mark the anniversary, David Rattray tells the story of his life and examines a selection of his violas

This article marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Matthew Hardie. The most famous and esteemed violin maker of the Scottish school, he was born in 1754, in Jedburgh on the Scottish Borders. He became active as a luthier during the mid-1780s, developing his own sophisticated style in Edinburgh and basing his work on classical Italian forms. He developed a construction method that proved most influential to other violin makers in his Edinburgh circle, including David Stirrat, William Ferguson, John Blair and his own son, Thomas Hardie…

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