The British bow maker James Tubbs was born 190 years ago this month. John Basford looks back at his life, work and legacy to the bow making community

JAMES TUBBS

The 1876 Royal Academy of Music bow, sold by Tarisio, London, in October 2024

TARISIO

James Tubbs has had a bad press. Violin literature has characterised him as a drunk, from a family of drunks who lived dissolute lives. The facts indicate something quite different. His working life extended to over 70 years owing to his enforced return to work following the death of his son Alfred in 1909 (not 1912 or 1911 as in some previous printed/current online sources). If a successful working span of over 70 years is the result of a drunken, dissolute life, maybe more of us should try it.

James Tubbs was baptised on 28 June 1837 at St Mary’s, Lambeth. The address of his parents is given as Regent Street, Lambeth; his father listed as bow maker William Tubbs III (1814–78). By 1851, in the census of that year, James is already described as a violin bow maker living at the same address as his parents, 19 Princes Street, Soho.

He married in 1857 and around this time probably began his sometimes problematic connection to William Ebsworth Hill. Just five years later, W.E. Hill won a Prize Medal at the International Exhibition, London, for ‘good quality of tenor [viola], and excellence of bows’. However the bows, though entered by W.E. Hill and carrying his brand, were by Tubbs. This was a bone of contention between the two – when William Ebsworth formed his company W.E. Hill & Sons in 1880–81 it continued to claim the accolade. Tubbs gained revenge by overstamping bows he had made for William Ebsworth with his own name whenever they came into his hands.

After living at various addresses: Rupert Street; Great Windmill Street; Church Street; High Street, Marylebone; Greek Street and King Street, Tubbs finally moved to his long-time address at Wardour Street in 1872. In terms of marketing he was no slouch. In 1874 he became bow maker to the Duke of Edinburgh and in 1876 began an annual prize of a gold-mounted bow to be given to a student of the Royal Academy of Music. A similar prize was offered to a violin student of the Guildhall School of Music.