John Alfred Gould 1860-1944

John Alfred Gould, 1860-1944 was born in England and settled in Boston where he worked for violin maker Orin Weeman. He opened his first shop at 147 Tremont Street, and after his sons joined him, named the company John A. Gould & Sons. This company would thrive in Boston until the late 1980s. Gould's violins were very popular, and two were used in acoustic experiments conducted by Harvard University Professor Frederick Saunders in 1938, who compared them with Jascha Heifetz's Guarneri del Gesu.

This violin was made in Boston in 1922. It has an orange-brown varnish and a quite powerful and rich sound.