The Identities of the Viols in the Ashmolean Museum

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.