Feature
The Clarion mandolin strings by J.P. Guivier & Co. Ltd
Dec
The Clarion strings or just the packets are often found in vintage instrument cases which made us look in to the brand in a bit more detail. The story turned out to be quite interesting, especially with the comapny still being in existence.
The information taken from the packet is as follows:
THE CLARION, REGD.
MANDOLIN THIRD OR D STRING
COVERED ON PLATED STEEL
MANUFACTURED FROM THE FINEST ENGLISH MATERIAL
JPG & Co. LONDON MADE
The Clarion strings were made by J.P Guivier & Co. Ltd, who were and still are one of Britain’s foremost violin dealers and restorers, founded by a Frenchman named Joseph Prosper Guivier.
His father, Jean Prospère, an acclaimed military bandsman at the time and a famous exponent of the “monstre” ophicleide (the largest of a family of conical-bore keyed brass instruments invented in early 19th-century France to extend the keyed bugle into the alto, bass and contrabass ranges.), brought his family to London in 1840. He continued his celebrated playing career until moving back to France, primarily for health reasons in 1858.
Joseph Prosper remained in London and established the company with another Frenchman, Alphonse Villin in 1863. Messrs. J.P. Guivier, Villin & Co. was established for the manufacture and importing of strings for musical instruments. However, an 1874 trade advert indicated a sideline in selling musical instruments themselves. The advertising slogan states a “Speciality of cheap old violins“.
The connection with Villin lasted just a short time, and after some years based at Golden Square, J.P. Guivier & Co. moved, in 1880, to Warwick Street, just off fashionable Regent Street.
Retiring back to France in 1886 Joseph sold the business into English ownership. Now back in Golden Square it was purchased by a Mrs Ellen Cohn, formerly Miss Hawkes of the company Hawkes & Son, later to become Boosey & Hawkes. Under her guidance and leadership the business expanded and grew to include the sale and restoration of violins and bows, thus instigating a further move to larger premises in Great Marlborough Street.
From 1921 to 1960 Mrs Cohn’s son, Henry George (Harry) took over the running of the family business, moving the premises once again during the early 1940s to its current address at 99 Mortimer Street, and becoming Managing Director when it became a limited company in 1952.
Since the early 1960s J.P. Guivier has been moulded into the successful and thriving business it is today.
