Books › Cremona violins. Four letters descriptive of those exhibited in 1873 at the South Kensington museum. Also giving the data for producing the true varnishes used by the great Cremona makers, 1900 › scan 32
Scan 32
Cremona violins. Four letters descriptive of those exhibited in 1873 at the South Kensington museum. Also giving the data for producing the true varnishes used by the great Cremona makers, 1900
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 26. See the scan on archive.org.
1a thrill through the true connoisseur. The outline is grotesque but original, the model full and swelling but not bumpy, the wood detestable; the back is hare-wood, but without a vestige of figure; so it might just as well be elm: the belly, instead of being made of mountain deal grown on the sunny side of the Alps, is a piece of house timber. Now these materials would kill any other maker; yet this mighty bass stands its ground. Observe the fibre of the belly; here is the deepest red varnish in the room, and laid on with an enormous brush. Can you see the fibre through the thin varnish of Sanctus Seraphin as plainly as you can see the fibre through this varnish laid on as thick as paint? So much for clearness. Now for colour. Let the student stand before this bass, get the varnish into his mind, and then walk rapidly to any other instrument in the room he has previously determined to compare with it. This will be a revelation to him if he has eyes in his head.
3And this miracle comes in without a name, and, therefore, is passed over by all the sham judges. And why does it come without a name? I hear a French dealer advised those who framed the catalogue. But the fact is that if a man once narrows his mind to three or four makers, and imagines they monopolize excellence, he never can be a judge of old instruments, the study is so wide and his mind artificially narrowed. Example of this false method: Mr. Faulconer sends in a bass, which he calls Andreas Guarnerius. An adviser does not see that, and suggests "probably by Amiti." Now there is no such thing as "probably by Amati," any more than there is probably the sun or the moon. That bass is by David Tecchler, of Rome; but it is a masterpiece; and so, because he has done better than usual, the poor devil is to be robbed of his credit, and it is to be given, first to one maker who is in the ring and then to another, who is in the ring. The basso di camera, which not being in the ring, comes without a name, is by Domenico Montagnana of Venice, the greatest maker of basses in all Venice or Cremona except one. If this bass had only a decent piece of wood at the back, it would extinguish all the other basses. But we can remedy that defect. Basses by this maker exist with fine wood. Mr. Hart, senior, sold one some twenty years ago with yellow varnish, and wood striped like a tiger's back. Should these lines meet the eye of the purchaser, I shall feel grateful if he will communicate with me thereupon.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.