Scan 38
Cremona: an account of the Italian violin-makers and their instruments, 1894
18 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 16. See the scan on archive.org.
1ever, certain, that they experimented thereon quite as successfully as has been done at the present day. (r)
3The colours which are given to the instruments must be sap-colours, which allow the wood to appear through them and do not cover it over. The best are dragon's blood, sandalwood, saffron, and orleans; the colouring matter is obtained by means of an infusion of spirit of wine, and a blending according to fancy is obtained by a combination of the colours. Other sap-colours are extracted by means of boiling, such as those from Kurkuma, mahogany, Pernambuco wood, &c.
5Oil varnishes are made by an extract of poppy seeds, but principally from linseed oil.
7Lac varnishes or gum varnishes are made from solutions of different resins, such as amber, copal, colophonium, mastic, sandarach, elemi, or usually from oil of turpentine.
9Spirit varnishes are obtained by means of dissolving hard gums, such as shellac, gum-lac, stick-lac, or benzoin, in spirit of wine.
11More exact knowledge and information about the preparation of different varnishes is to be obtained from Gretschel's treatise on Violin-making, published at Weimar by Bernhardt Friedrich Voigt. (s)
13The Italians sometimes gave their violins before varnishing a thin coat of isinglass or of a solution of glue. Did they intend to prevent the varnish from soaking in, or did they wish to give the varnish a foundation, so as to improve its lustre? An imitation of this system in recent years has in no way proved to be of any advantage.
15(r) Mr. Charles Reade says in his fourth letter on Cremona Fiddles, among other remarks, more or less (principally more) forcibly expressed:—"The Cremona varnish is not a varnish, but two varnishes; and those varnishes always heterogeneous: that is to say, first the pores of the wood are filled, and the grain shown up by one, by two, by three, and sometimes, though rarely, by four coats of varnish, with some common gum, but clear in solution. Then upon this oil varnish, when dry, is laid a heterogeneous varnish, viz., a solution in spirit of some sovereign, high-coloured, pellucid, and, above all, tender gum. Gum-lac, which for forty years has been the mainstay of violin-makers, must never be used; not one atom of it."
17(s) For useful information on the different materials, see Appendix A in Mr. Ed. Heron-Allen's "Violin-making, as it was and is."
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.