After a short, unexpected illness, Bernard Ellis died peacefully on the 15th of November 2000.

This website will continue as a tribute to Bernard’s work. These instruments are no longer for sale, but it is hoped that the site remains of use as a source of information and images of a wide range of early string instruments.

Luthier Bernard Ellis specialised in early string instruments for nearly forty years, supplying instruments worldwide to professional and amateur musicians, museums and cultural foundations, and university departments of music. Often he worked in conjunction with professional musicians to meet specific requirements and demands in an instrument for performance and recordings, for example with Philip Pickett, director of the New London Consort and Dr Mary Remnant at the Royal College of Music, London.

For nine years he worked on reconstructing and reproducing a wide variety of string instruments for the Chi Mei Cultural Foundation in Taiwan including the first 'dulce melos' one of the earliest string keyboards from the 14th century.

Where possible the instruments are copies of originals, otherwise they are researched and based on historical sources and traditional methods of construction.

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