Books › British Violin Makers: A Biographical Dictionary of British Makers of Stringed Instruments and Bows and a Critical Description of Their Work, 1920 › scan 44
Scan 44
British Violin Makers: A Biographical Dictionary of British Makers of Stringed Instruments and Bows and a Critical Description of Their Work, 1920
8 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 26. See the scan on archive.org.
1described above a "natural" process? If not, then what is the "natural" process?
3I have searched patiently and long for what I could accept with a degree of confidence as historical evidence of the exact method adopted by old Italian violin makers in seasoning their wood, but I have searched in vain. Modern writers say that Stradivari, e.g., was wont to dry his timber in a kind of loft or open attic, having first cut it up from the trunk or balk into blocks of suitable dimensions. I should much like to know where they get their information from. It is so easy to suppose this or that, but what we want is plain, exact historical evidence.
5The workmanship of our leading professional makers, and of many of our amateurs, is excellent. Careful attention is usually paid to every detail of the work. This is a feature worthy of commendation, as the British have in the past been somewhat impatient of detail. Even details which to the ordinary observer would appear as mere trifles are now finished artistically. And what a difference this attention to minutiae makes to the completed article! An artistically finished violin is a poem, a painting, and a musical instrument combined in one object.
7English makers somewhat lower down the rank have yet something to learn in the matter of inlaying the purfling, the proportion of widths, the arrangement of the curves, the treatment of the button, etc., and many Scottish makers are open to the charge of having exaggerated the peculiarities
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