The Identities of the Viols in the Ashmolean Museum

Abstract

The Ashmolean Museum, which is part of the University of Oxford, houses a small but world-class collection of musical instruments. This is generally known as the ‘Hill Collection’ because it predominantly comprises a gift made by the firm of W.E. Hill & Sons shortly before the Second World War. The Hills were among the top specialist violin dealers, and of world-leading renown for their expertise. As part of a major refurbishment of the museum in 2009, the musical instruments have been moved, and their display reorganised. Boyden’s catalogue1 of the Hill Collection is long out of print, antiquated in many respects, and does not include the later accessions. Consequently a new catalogue is being prepared, research for which has generated this article.2 A table of concordances between Boyden’s numbers and the new catalogue numbers is given at the end of this article, followed by illustrations of the viols