Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments in the South Kensington museum, preceded by an essay on the history of musical instruments, 1874 › scan 288
Scan 288
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments in the South Kensington museum, preceded by an essay on the history of musical instruments, 1874
12 lines. Read by computer on 14 September 2026. Printed page 268. See the scan on archive.org.
1Dragonetti, the celebrated virtuoso on the double-bass, came to England in the year 1794. His favourite instrument, upon which he played in public concerts, was a 'Gaspar di Salo,' which he obtained from the Convent of St. Pietro at Vicenza, and which he never could be induced to part with, although 800l., it is said, was offered him for it by one of his rich and enthusiastic pupils in England. After the death of Dragonetti this bass, and another valuable one by Stradivarius, were sent back to Italy, he having bequeathed them in his will to the town of Venice. Dragonetti died in the year 1846 at his house in Leicester Square, at the age of 83. A year before his death he was still able to assist in the public performances at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn. His friend H. Philipps mentions in his 'Musical Recollections,' that the ends of Dragonetti's fingers had gradually become quite flat and deformed from playing.
3Some double-basses of extraordinary large size are known to have been made in England. William Gardiner ('Music and Friends,' London, 1838, p. 70) mentions such an instrument, made by Martin in Leicester, which he saw in the year 1786, and which, if his statement may be relied upon, "was of such height that Mr. Martin was obliged to cut a hole in the ceiling to let the head through; so that it was tuned by going upstairs into the room above."
5430. '72.
7NAIL-VIOLIN. (German, nagelgeige, nagelharmonika, eisenvioline.) Mahogany; circular, with three sound-holes, and forty-nine pins. There are brass pegs for fifteen sympathetic strings, which are missing. French. 18th century. Diam. 13 5/8 in. (Given by Monsieur Vuillaume, Paris.)
9The oldest nail-violins, dating from about the year 1740, were made without sympathetic strings. These strings, intended to increase the sonorousness, are of thin brass wire. Senal in Vienna, about the year 1780, improved the instrument, and excelled as a virtuoso on it. Träger in Bernburg, in the year 1791, made it of an oblong-square shape, added a keyboard to it, and called it nagelclavier. In Träger's instrument the friction was, however, not produced by a bow, but by a linen band coated with resin.
11The iron nails, or pins, of the nail-violin, which are founded by the friction of a bow, gradually diminish in length and thickness from the
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