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 90
Scan 90
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. Printed page 68. See the scan on archive.org.
1greatest rarity. So much obscurity reigns over the second epoch of Stainer's career, that we can only say he lived and laboured at Absom (his native place) from 1650 to 1667. It is said that he was here assisted by his brother, Mark Stainer, who was a monk. According to tradition, Stainer retired to a Benedictine convent, after the death of his wife, and there ended his days. In this seclusion, he determined on closing his career by the manufacture of twelve violins of superior finish, which he sent to the twelve Electors of the empire. M. Fétis saw one of these instruments in 1817, and speaks most highly both of its quality of tone and varnish.
3Matthias Albani, who sprang from the school of Stainer, was born at Botzen or Bolzano, in the Italian Tyrol, and died at the same place in 1673. His son, also named Matthias, was born at Botzen in the middle of the seventeenth century. After learning his trade from his father, he worked in the Cremonese manufactories, and made many instruments which have been esteemed nearly equal to the Amati violins.
5There was another Albani, who worked in Sicily, during the first half of the seventeenth century. Nothing is known of his life, nor is his christian name given in the violin quoted by Fétis.
7Matthias Klotz, a Tyrolean maker, was the best pupil of Stainer. He worked from 1670 to 1696. Other instruments of later date, bearing the same name, are believed to have been made by his sons; who did not set their own names to the violins and tenors which they made, until the death of their father. The names of his sons were George, Sebastian, and Egitia.
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