Scan 199
Antonio Stradivari, his life and work (1644-1737), 1909
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 175. See the scan on archive.org.
1results reached justify the most sanguine expectations. We are referred to the remarkable tone given forth by one or other of these newly varnished crudities by persons whose knowledge of tone is, to say the least, rudimentary—nothing, in fact, being more difficult than to correctly gauge subtle differences of tone. Should one venture, however modestly, to dissent from the conclusions drawn from such experiments, or should one dare to suggest that the experimenter is endeavouring to grapple with a question of the A B C of which he is wholly ignorant, one is forthwith compared to Rip Van Winkle, or has addressed to him "a few plain words," such as these of a Scotch correspondent: "You will go on to the crack of doom, and even then you won't have made anything of it." Others, and by far the greater number, immediately discern "green-eyed jealousy" in any dissent from their views, and denounce you with withering scorn.
3Now, it will come as good news to all lovers of our art to be told that the recipe of the varnish employed by Stradivari is still in existence. We cannot do better than give the following story, which is not without a touch of romance, in the words of the late Signor Giacomo Stradivari himself, who, in answer to the repeated requests of Signor Mandelli for information concerning his illustrious ancestor, wrote to him as follows:—
5"Little is the information I am able to give you, because very few are the documents preserved at home relating to my family. Here, however, is all that I can transmit to you in answer to your queries: Firstly, I send you a facsimile of the testimonial, the original of which I gave to M. Vuillaume, of Paris, who, in a letter dated January 3rd, 1860, wrote to me thus: 'I have placed under glass the original of the testimonial given to your ancestor,
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