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, 1875 › scan 68
Scan 68
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, 1875
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 52. See the scan on archive.org.
1with the same admirable result as on their former visit; when Maucotel—satisfied as to the correctness of his own views—declared to them the bar had since been removed, and forthwith he submitted it to their inspection. A retreat was, of course, soon inevitable; and after that he heard no more of Tilton's Improvement! It is only necessary to add that the identical bar which Maucotel thus experimented upon can be seen at Mr. George Chanot's, in Wardour Street.
3Of novel forms of violins, two of which were shown in the Exhibition held at Munich, in 1854, the so-called Trumpet-violin of Ferd. Hell (which seems to have been patented in this country, in the same year, by W. E. Newton) is so thoroughly ridiculous, that nothing more need be said of it than to state the tube of a trumpet was coiled up inside, with the bell end opening (as far as the depth of the body of the violin permitted) towards the button of the tail-piece, and the smaller end of the tube connected with the mouth-piece passed down the neck, and out at the scroll. Abele says that neither the tone of the trumpet nor that of the violin was bad.
5The other novelty of this kind in the same Exhibition, consisted of a string quartett, made by A. Engleder, of Munich, and possessed the following peculiarity of form. The upper half of each instrument was contracted, and passed almost perpendicularly into the curves, wholly omitting the upper corners; whilst the lower half, also omitting the corners, was expanded nearly in a proportionate degree to the contraction at the other end, so that the outline resembled that of a pear. As might be expected, nothing very favourable could be reported of these queer-shaped instruments.
7In the London International Exhibition of 1862, Mr. Hulskamp, of New York, but a native of Westphalia, showed a violin which was so constructed as to admit of a regulated tension of the back and belly. This was effected by a simple mechanism within the instrument, which was acted on by a key, and thus (according to the Jurors' Report), the tension of the tables could be readily put in harmony with the strings; so doing away with the necessity of giving a bulging form to the back and belly, which being made quite flat, instruments of the finest quality could, it was stated, be constructed with certainty at a far less cost than usual. Instead of the ordinary f-holes, this instrument had a small circular opening in the belly, between the bridge and the end of the finger-board. One foot of the bridge rested on the belly, and the other on a post, which passed through the belly (but without touching it) and stood on a rib fastened to the inside of the back. The names of Messrs. Joachim, Laub, and Becker are mentioned as having expressed favourable opinions on this new invention; which, however, seems to have had its day, like other novelties.
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