David Tecchler

David Tecchler was born in Salzburg, Austria in 1666. He left there in 1699 to favour Venice in Italy. But after some time he ran into a little trouble with the chief citizen or at least his wife, then had to leave in a hurry. He then went to work and live in Rome. This gives Tecchler three periods. Salzburg, Venice and Rome. As you can see from the photographs that this period is very Germanic in style, which makes this instrument either from the Austrian period or the Venice period. I favour the earlier Austrian period as it is a very large bass unlike his later instruments. One can see how the German instruments have been very influenced by makers such as Tecchler, yet this bass has nothing that can be thought of as typically German in sound. It is a flat backed viol shaped bass, with that famous Tecchler light yellowish varnish. I would put the making of this instrument as probably around c1690. As you can also see it has a lion head carved scroll. This, of course is never original, but probably 19th. century French. I bought this bass in Pudsey, outside of Leeds in the North of England many years ago and converted it myself to five string, which worked very well. This instrument is now being played in an orchestra in Germany. To my way of thinking the very best period of Tecchler was the Rome period. Gallery Strings has been lucky enough to have owned three basses attributed to Tecchler, and each one from each of the periods. The best by far was a beautiful bass from the Rome period made in c1720. It was a fantastic flat backed violin cornered instrument in the style of Italian makers that most people think of as the best shape. That bass went to the Opera Orchestra in Barcelona, Spain.

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