ViolinBridges Book Out Now

[violinbridges]

Hope your all keeping safe in these strange times. At the beginning of covid  lockdown, like many of you, most of my work disappeared in a short space of time.

I was reminded by my friend at Henry Violins that many years ago I talked of creating a book about my encounters with great violin bridges. Encouraged by the wonderful Joseph Curtin, Henry Violins and Ewen Thomson I set about getting it done.

And Here it is...

Now Available to buy from the link below

ViolinBridges HardBack Book Introductory offer.

"This beautiful limited edition is truly unique and a must have for all violin makers, restorers, players, dealers and enthusiasts. A culmination of 14 years of research into violin bridges from around the world. The book is a curated selection of high resolution images from the website and database www.violinbridges.co.uk, and celebrates the art of cutting bridges and illustrates how the craft and design has evolved over time and is passed down from one luthier to another.

Chapter 1 – The master luthiers.

Chapter 2 – The interesting and unusual.

A selection from 1080 bridges spanning 28 countries, with 216 pages of high-resolution images of violin, viola and cello bridges.

21cm x 21cm x 2cm: 1kg

www.gerardkilbride.com

[Bodacious Cowboy]

Does it have anything that can't be found on the website?

[violinbridges]

Thanks for that as that's a really interesting question, and I think the answer is yes in many different ways.

technically the web site photos are low resolution as at the time of creating the website the largest image size we could use was 540pixels wide, it was huge in the day but every photo had to be reduced to work on the site,  the book however are all High Definition beautifully printed,.

The web site is a great idea but not that easy to flip through, the book is tactile a thing of great beauty in itself and easy to have on the bench, flip through and compare styles and trends, it also has a handy index at the back

I think of the book a bit like a Chippendale pattern book of styles of bridges from many countries. Curated into two section of Master and Interesting and Unusual, easy to move from one to the other.

Overall the book is a physical tactile real experience, a bit of treasure and totally unique.

 

 

 

[Brad Dorsey]

Congratulations.  It looks beautiful.  Can you explain how you selected which bridges to feature in the book out of the thousands that you must have seen?

[violinbridges]

Thanks Brad that means allot I am very pleased how it turned out.

I love the phrase encounters with great violin bridges, and like you said I have seen and cut thousands.

I tried to select for the Masters section bridges that were good examples of great craftsmanship and design, they are not all perfect but they show the skill, intent and training that the person cutting them had, you can trace in certain bridges who worked for who as style evolves.  Some of the early bridges are not figured at all and they obviously didnt think that excellence was the norm for bridges. The Morris & Smith Bridge is one of my favorites, perfect wood and beautifully cut and designed, so many beautiful bridges,  for example every Withers bridge is a masterpiece.

For the interesting and unusual section I choose, bridges that were from famous makers, shops that didnt make the masters section but were interesting by their lineage and also a few total nutty crazy designs, there is one silver bridge in this section totally crazy.

[Violadamore]

Do you accept Paypal? 

[Shelbow]

Its looks interesting, I'll try and pick up a copy sometime.

[Emilg]

8 minutes ago, Violadamore said:

Do you accept Paypal? 

There's a huge Paypal button on the checkout page 

[Violadamore]

19 minutes ago, Emilg said:

There's a huge Paypal button on the checkout page 

Thanks!!!!

[violinbridges]

thanks @Emilg

website should take cards and paypal

I am almost out of my first print run but have ordered some more.

thanks again for the support

 

[jandepora]

I really love the book. How about a coupon for the maestronet members?

 

[l33tplaya]

11 hours ago, jandepora said:

I really love the book. How about a coupon for the maestronet members?

 

There is about 8$ US off by pre-publish price. OTOH, shipping to US is almost $35.00! I wish there was another way...

[violinbridges]

@jandepora @l33tplaya yes postage on a single item is expensive mainly because its 230 pages, printed on good quality paper with a hard back, so it weighs 1kg.. if you can find cheaper shipping please let me know..

I had an order for Taiwan where they grouped together to buy a box of 10 books, where the postage comes to about £100 a box, so a huge saving. If any maestronet fellows want to organise this I am sure I could also apply a coupon to that, please get in touch

 

[martin swan]

1 hour ago, violinbridges said:

@jandepora @l33tplaya yes postage on a single item is expensive mainly because its 230 pages, printed on good quality paper with a hard back, so it weighs 1kg.. if you can find cheaper shipping please let me know..

 

 

USPS Smartmail Plus : https://www.transglobalexpress.co.uk/quote/quote/

Should be about £10 for 1 kg.

[violinbridges]

@martin swanclick that link and it shows you ups is £45 per kilo, even landmark global, with insurance and collection is £27.. what seems to happen is prices vary on the day just alittle

 

[martin swan]

Put in the correct dimensions - I entered 1 kg, 30x25x5 and the price was £8.50. It's a special service designed for small packages - not fast but massively cheaper than anyone else

 

[violinbridges]

thanks I will look at it, but it needs collection and insurance added, so only a few pounds less, but worth adding as an option

[GeorgeH]

Individual postage to the states is a no-go for me.

If it were a group-buy, would the books be shipped already packed in individual boxes suitable for re-mailing to individuals? 

[jacobsaunders]

Does your book have any 17^th or 18^th C Bridges? And does it explore the development since that time, or theories as to why a bridge has evolved over time or not, or is it just pictures of 20^th C used bridges?

[violinbridges]

@jacobsaundersI love your comments here, always bring a smile.

There are a few older bridges 1780 ish onwards, but does concentrate on mainly later bridges,  as you know earlier bridges were not stamped and used very plain wood, and tbh I dont think they cared so much about the cut as we do now.

No theories as to why the bridge evolved as I think thats another book all together, its big enough as it is  but  those engineers amount you can read our VSA paper published awhile back, but I warn you its a long read.That should part answer the engineering side of the evolution and what we expect from them

VSA Bridge Paper.

"or is it just pictures of 20^th C used bridges?" this makes me laugh, some people get the beauty, art and aesthetics of bridge cutting and the whole concept of the violinbridges project and some people dont.

[violinbridges]

@GeorgeH sorry about that and I understand its not cheap, the lovely people at the  International Violin Company have bought a few to add to their website, you may be able to pre-order from them at a lower cost.

As things settle down I will try and add slower cheaper postage methods to the website, and always happy to try and find easier cheaper ways for people to buy it.

[jacobsaunders]

39 minutes ago, violinbridges said:

@jacobsaunders

"or is it just pictures of 20^th C used bridges?" this makes me laugh, some people get the beauty, art and aesthetics of bridge cutting and the whole concept of the violinbridges project and some people dont.

 

I wish you the best of British luck with your book, its just that I have a whole box full of defunct 20^th C bridges, hardly something that gets me excited. If one looks hard, one can find 200 year + old bridges, for instance this one from Geissenhof in the Technische Museum in Vienna, which are of great interest, should one wish to replicate an “original” set up. It seems I am someone who "doesn't"

[violinbridges]

hahah,   yes your definitely in the "doesnt" camp, thats ok.

send me your bridges and I will show them some love.

 

 

[jacobsaunders]

7 minutes ago, violinbridges said:

 

send me your bridges and I will show them some love.

 

 

Has anyone ever called you a weirdo?

[Shelbow]

Maybe bridge cutting is also a fetish for some! There might be some interesting videos out there on the dark web.......