Edward Lewis (I)
Flourished 1684 from died 1711 business ceased 1717
London St Paul's Churchyard
Edward Lewis appears to have been the successor to John Pitts as one of the early makers in St Paul's Churchyard. Significant similarities in construction and decoration between instruments by the two makers confirms a close working relationship, and John Pitts' death in 1685 corresponds with the earliest labelled instruments by Lewis, dating from the previous year. Lewis is mostly remembered as a maker of bass viols with his shop alongside that of Barak Norman. These fall into two forms. Those with red varnish, decorative purfling in the ribs and an excess of purfling on the top and bottom are his most typical work, but a number of his instruments - mostly unlabelled - have much more conservative decoration either in the style of Richard Meares (I) who he seems to have consciously copied in 1684, or similar to the simpler designs of Barak Norman. Lewis's work (and that of Pitts) can be identified by a two piece carved top, a tendency towards slightly over-large soundholes (in his simple models), and a back made of three pieces.
Violins, violas and cellos all survive, and the Oxford cleric James Talbot wrote of a bass violin of six strings that he made for Lord Abergavenny. Recently, the account books of the Bath physician Claver Morris have revealed extensive purchases of musical instruments and music books from Mrs Lewis in St Paul's Alley. Identifying his violin family work tends to be difficult because of the close relationship that he held with Barak Norman and Daniel Parker, but violins by him appear with a black Stradivarian chamfer from 1701 that follow a slightly broad Italianate pattern, with a deep red colour. Cellos tend to be larger than normal size with a fold in the back like a double bass. When he died in 1717 his wife put the stock in trade up for auction, advertised in The Post Man on 18 April:
To be sold by Auction. The Musical Instruments of Mr Edward Lewis, late of St Paul's Churchyard, London, Instrument-maker, deceased, to be disposed of by his Widow at Mr Heweston's at the two Golden Balls in Great Hart Street ... The Sale is to begin the 1st of May, and to continue four Days; where Attendance will be given on Monday and Tuesday before the Sale begins, to shew or try the said instruments, they being made by the best Masters in Europe.
Nothing more is known of his wife after 1717. He had a son, also named Edward who moved to Drury Lane in Westminster. His work is very rare, but a small cello survives from the 1730s. Several of his viols were sold unfinished and completed by Richard Meares (II), which bear his label.
Authors: Benjamin Hebbert
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| Detail from a bass viol by Edward Lewis, London, 1684. |
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| Detail from a bass viol by Edward Lewis, London 1687. |
