A Selection from the Workshop of Andrew Fairfax - 30th October

A Selection from the Workshop of Andrew Fairfax

Andrew Fairfax (1953-2025)

Andrew Fairfax was born in Sevenoaks, Kent, on 28th May 1953, the son of a police officer. He was proud of the family’s descent from Sir Thomas Fairfax, Cromwell’s commander in the Civil War, and later named his own sons Thomas and Oliver.

Andrew trained at the Newark School of Violin Making, where in his final year he met a Dutch student, Anneleen van der Grinten, whom he later married.

His first job was in the van der Grinten family workshop in Amersfoort, in the Netherlands. In 1982 he returned to London to join the workshops of Charles Beare, where he stayed for more than thirty years. Those years gave him daily contact with some of the finest instruments in existence, Stradivari and Guarneri among them, and with players such as Nicola Benedetti and Pinchas Zukerman. He became known in particular for his set-ups.

In January 2014 he left Beare’s to concentrate on making new instruments. He and Anneleen had built a house in Tunbridge Wells with a shared workshop, where he made and she restored. He was exceptionally generous with his time and knowledge during this period and was a great help to many of us in the trade looking for advice.

Alongside the bench, he was a serious historian. He researched the 1988 British Violin exhibition and co-wrote its catalogue, which the British Violin Making Association published in 2000. He was a founder member of the BVMA, and a second book with them, on the Voller Brothers, followed in 2006.

His later research centred on the Panormo family, and took him into archives in Italy, France and Ireland. The result was the Panormo exhibition held in London in 2016, which he curated, together with its catalogue. He had hoped to turn that work into a full book on the family, but did not live to finish it.

He taught and lectured a great deal: at Newark, at the Oberlin workshops in America, on the BVMA’s set-up courses, and across Europe through the EILA, as well as in Australia and Asia.

He died in Tunbridge Wells on 9th December 2025, after a long illness, and is survived by Anneleen, their two sons and three grandchildren.

He was a vegetarian, a good cook and a lover of wine.

My overriding memory of him is of a deeply honourable man. I feel privileged to have known him.

James, 16th October 2026


These Lots will be available to view at The Langham.

Sunday 25th - 10am to 5pm
Monday 26th - 10am to 5pm

Open viewing.

If you have any questions about the auction please email [email protected] or call 

+44(0)20 7099 7114.

Buyers' Fee is 22% and VAT may be applicable.

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