Charles Beare, luthier and one of the world’s leading string instrument experts and dealers died on Saturday 26th April. He was 87.
Particularly respected for his knowledge of sought-after instruments by Stradivari and Guarneri, Beare’s opinions were valued by leading soloists, including Mstislav Rostropovich, Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern and Jacqueline du Pré.
Pinchas Zukerman, commenting yesterday, said “Beare was a dear friend and colleague. My fiddle and my viola came to me through Charles. I am deeply saddened by his passing.”
The Beare family’s string instrument dealership was established in 1892 by John and Arthur Beare. The family firm, now named Beare Violins Ltd, survives through Charles’ sons Peter and Freddie. They are the fifth generation of the Beare family in the string instrument business.
In 1960, Beare worked at the New York City firm Rembert Wurlitzer Co., enabling him to study 110 Stradivari instruments and 57 Guarneris.
Beare’s expertise was utilised by the Ashmolean Museum in 2013 for a landmark Stradivarius exhibition, which gathered 21 instruments by the maker in the UK for the first time. Previous exhibitions organised by Beare included a major retrospective in Cremona in 1987; Beare was later made an honorary citizen of Cremona.
Beare was a former president of the Entente Internationale des Maîtres Luthiers et Archetiers d’Art and an honorary fellow of London’s Royal Academy of Music. He received an OBE in 2004.
In a recent tribute, Tarisio’s Jason Price described him as a “supremely kind human being”, whose instrument certifications were an “irreproachable guarantee of authenticity”, whose leadership grew the family firm into “arguably the most respected dealership in the world”.
