Scan 49
A Review Of Ancient And Modern Violin Making, 1899
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1the coveted recipes were never found. The search was kept up for years, with no better success, and I am not sure that it has been abandoned yet. However, the modern makers showed the good stuff of which they were made by a close application to what they did know, meantime searching for improvements.
3Then began the search for rare gums and solvents to re-discover the lost art, and it has been continued ever since, with the result, if one can believe reports, of the true Cremona varnish having been re-discovered about a hundred times, with as many different formulas. What a variety of varnishes the old makers must have used, to be sure. What a world of trouble, time and expense could have been saved, if the searchers had stepped into a cabinet shop in Cremona. There they could have bought all they wanted of the very same varnish that the Cremona makers used, and not a very good varnish at that. This is now known to be a fact. The only difference was in the coloring, the violin makers merely adding the shade of color they desired.
5There has been a very gratifying result arising from these researches—they have ended in producing an infinitely better varnish
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