Bow & Bridge Violin and bow makers, as the old books printed them

Books › A treatise on the structure and preservation of the violin and all other bow-instruments; together with an account of the most celebrated makers, and of the genuine characteristics of their instruments;, 1860 › scan 24

Scan 24

A treatise on the structure and preservation of the violin and all other bow-instruments; together with an account of the most celebrated makers, and of the genuine characteristics of their instruments;, 1860

8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.

1Now, though all these are not indispensably necessary—since, in common instruments, the side-linings as well as the corner-blocks are often omitted, and occasionally, in good violins, the back or the belly is worked out of a single piece, instead of two glued together, and sometimes even both are so formed—still, it may be received as a general rule, that a complete violin consists of the fifty-eight parts which we have enumerated; a fact, indeed, which is evident from the very construction of the instrument, and which therefore admits of no doubt.
3A violin is usually made of three kinds of wood: the back, neck, sides, side-linings*, and bridge, consisting of maple; the belly, bass-bar, sound-post, and six blocks, of pine or white deal; and the finger-board and tail-piece of ebony†. The wood for the belly, as being of the utmost importance for the production of a good tone, should be cut in the month of December or January, and only the south-side of the tree used. This must be split in such a manner as to leave each piece an inch thick at the bark-side, and a quarter of an inch at the heart of the tree. Maple for the back must be cut in a similar way, but the whole of the tree may be used, the pieces when cut measuring six inches in breadth.
5* Other authors name pine or deal as the wood generally used for the side-linings.—Otto, himself, in a more recent edition of his work, says they are made of nut-tree, maple, or pine; and the blocks of pine or lime wood.—Tr.
7† Gavin Wilson, of Edinburgh, made a violin of leather, hardened, said to be "not inferior to any constructed of wood."—Gentleman's Magazine, LXXXIII, p. 312.—1813.—Violins have also been made in silver, copper, and brass, but have proved weak and disagreeable in tone. Leipzig Allgem. Mus. Zeitung VII, p. 50.—1804.—Tr.

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