Scan 79
Cremona: an account of the Italian violin-makers and their instruments, 1894
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 57. See the scan on archive.org.
1Amati and Stradivarius, at first made high-arched violins, and in the course of time shaped his archings on a lower model.
3For the backs and sides of the larger instruments he generally used pear-tree wood, for the violins only maple. The technical finishing in all his instruments is not particularly good, according to modern ideas; the purfling is not so polished and neat, as the later makers knew how to finish it. His greatest merit is his fulness of tone, which is extremely great.
5Gaspard di Salo's instruments are in safe hands; if one comes into the market it is willingly purchased at a high price. One of the finest violins by this master is in the possession of Ole Bull. (p)
7(p) This maker is considered by one of the most recent writers, (Livi), to have been born in 1542, and to have died in 1609.
9Violins of Gaspard da Salo are rare enough in this country, but some of the finest of his violas are in the hands of English collectors. Ole Bull's violin, the celebrated so-called Treasury violin of Innspruck, is fully described by Messrs. Sandys & Forster: from a description taken for it, when exhibited at a conversazione of the Musical Society of London on the 29th January, 1862, at St. James' Hall. This description ran: "The celebrated 'Treasury Violin' of Innspruck, by Gaspard da Salo, with Carytides by Benvenuto Cellini, sculptured by special command of Cardinal Aldobrandini, and by him presented to the Museum of Innspruck, in the Tyrol. After the assault upon the said city by the French in 1809, the Museum was plundered, and the violin carried to Vienna, when the Councillor Rrehazek placed this unique gem in his celebrated collection of ancient musical instruments, refusing to sell it at any price. He left it by will to Ole Bull in 1842. Up to that period it had never been played upon; had no bar, only a bridge of boxwood, sculptured and painted, and a very short and inlaid finger-board." This interesting instrument is now in America. Another remarkable violin is the one owned by Mr. W. A. Tyssen-Amherst, now Lord Amherst. Many fine double-basses by Gaspard da Salo are in existence, notably the celebrated instrument belonging to Signor Dragonetti, which he bequeathed to the Churchwardens of St. Mark's, Venice. This famous player also owned the gigantic three-stringed instrument which he left to the Duke of Leinster, which is in the South Kensington Museum; the Amati double-bass, which he left to Mr. Samuel Appleby, of Brighton; and a Stradivari double-bass, which he left to the municipality of Venice. One of the most perfect bassi di camera by this maker was found in the collection of Tarisio; it afterwards passed into the possession of Mr. Bennett. A small bass viol with six strings is in the Musée du Conservatoire, Paris, and a four-stringed contra-bass, also by Gaspard da Salo, in the same collection; the latter instrument dates from about 1580, it belonged to M. Boulart, then to M. Faure.
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