OUR STAFF
The Staff at Dipper Restorations
Andrew Dipper – Founder
Andrew Dipper is a skilled restorer, historian, writer and sculptor. After studying sculpture and violinmaking in London and Cremona, he founded Dipper Restorations in London, England in 1975. He relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1990 where he joined Claire Givens Violins, Inc. as Vice President.
Examples of his restoration and conservation work can be found in many of the world’s foremost public and private musical instrument collections, including: the Metropolitan Museum in New York; the Federal Musical Instrument Museum of Berlin; the National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota; and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Since 2009, Mr. Dipper has been Consultant Conservator to the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments, and from 2015, an honorary member of the Board of Trustees of the National Music Museum, SD. He is currently a member of the Entente Internationale des Maitres Luthiers et Archetiers d’ Art, and a Member of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers, AFVBM. Mr. Dipper, is a sought-after lecturer and has taught violinmaking and restoration in Cremona, London, and Oberlin College. He has also published important texts on various aspects of stringed instruments which include:
- A translation of the violinmaking notes of Count Cozio de Salabue, the first collector of instruments by Stradivari and Guarneri and the patron of J. B. Guadagnini.
- A book on the theory of violin geometry and f-shaped sound-hole construction.
- Three articles in The Violin Society of America Journal on the works of the Italian makers, their varnishes and working methods.
In addition, he translated and edited the translation of The “Secrets” of Stradivari by S. Sacconi from Italian to English. He is currently working on a translation of La Chelonomié, ou, Le Parfait Luthier, compiled by the Abbé Sibire from the workshop notes of Francois Lupot. Detailed information can be found in the Articles/Publications section of this site.
Douglas Scoggins – Workshop Assistant
Douglas’ parents were the highly regarded violin makers Carrie and Michael Scoggins. He recently graduated from the violin repair program at Minnesota State College Southeast Technical. He is apprenticing with Andrew Dipper of Dipper Restorations to learn the fine art of restoration. Douglas has achieved a black belt in martial arts alongside his mother and older brother Spencer and enjoys practicing the violin.
