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 33
Scan 33
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
11 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 27. See the scan on archive.org.
1I come now to the last of the Goths, thus catalogued, No. 100, "ascribed to Guarnerius. Probably by Storioni."
3Lorenzo Storioni is a maker who began to work at Cremona about 1780. He has a good model but wretched spirit varnish. Violin No. 100 is something much better. It is a violin made before 1760 by Landolfo of Milan. He is a maker well known to experienced dealers who can take their minds out of the ring, but, as the writers seem a little confused, and talk of two Landulphs, a Charles and a Ferdinand, I may as well say here that the two are one. This is the true ticket:—
5Carolus Ferdinandus Landulphus,
6fecit Mediolani in via S. Margaritae, anno 1756.
8Stiff inner bought really something like Joseph Guarnerius; but all the rest quite unlike: scroll very mean, varnish good, and sometimes very fine. Mr. Moore's, in point of varnish, is a fine specimen. It has a deeper, nobler tint than usual. This maker is very interesting, on account of his being absolutely the last Italian who used the glorious varnish of Cremona. It died first at Cremona; lingered a year or two more at Venice; Landolfo retained it at Milan till 1760, and with him it ended.
10In my next and last article I will deal with the varnish of Cremona, as illustrated by No. 91 and other specimens, and will enable the curious to revive that lost art if they choose.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.