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Scan 87
Dictionary of Violin makers, 1928
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1the influence of his noted predecessors can well be traced, but he is nevertheless the starting point of the downfall of the great Cremonese School. No 243.
3STRADIVARIUS (Antonio) — Cremona 1644-1737. The celebrated and greatest master of violin making. Pupil of Niccolo Amati whom he copied for a few years. (There exist violins signed by or attributed to Amati which were made by Stradivarius). The instruments of this first period are the Amati-ised, Amati-like, also known as Amati-Strads. Plate IV reproduces one of the finest specimens of this period, dated 1668. This violin comes from the collection of the famous violinist Niccolo Paganini, was sold by his son, the Baron Achille Paganini to J.-B. Vuillaume, then became the property of an amateur at Amiens, M. Desaint, who sold it to the Maison Gand where it was bought by M. Levers, the well informed and well-known collector. He in his turn transferred it to a young Russian, a victim of the Revolution, and this beautiful instrument must have shared the same fate. Towards the year 1676, Stradivarius created the model referred to as "longuet" or longish, that is to say these instruments gain in length what they lose in width. One feels that he is gradually freeing himself from his master's model in order to perfect his own but it was actually in 1690 that the great model was made and never ceased to be improved upon until the year 1700, after with it was definitely adopted. Towards the year 1725, the workmanship is not so light, age beginning to affect the master's faculties. Nevertheless, the instruments of this period, the last, have the great quality of being stronger in wood which, at times, causes them to be superior, in tone. It will be noticed that the violins of the latter period, those of the last ten years of his life, have their backs of a lighter shade than their bellies. The violin recently sold by auction at the Hotel Druot was the property of the celebrated conductor Lamoureux, whose Society of Concerts bears his name, and belongs to the category constituting the latter manner. This instrument has been acquired by MM. Maucotel and Deschamps, violin makers in the Rue de Rome, for the trifling sum of 103,000 francs. With the exception of his first models, Stradivarius always used magnificent woods. As to
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