Bow & Bridge Violin and bow makers, as the old books printed them

Books › Fiddle frauds and how to detect them, 1894 › scan 21

Scan 21

Fiddle frauds and how to detect them, 1894

8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.

1After several layers of the colourless so-called body varnish have been applied, it is polished several times, and lastly with pumice-stone and oil or water; then, having removed every particle of dirt, tepid castor-oil is slightly rubbed on, and as many more layers of varnish added as seem desirable. The rubbing being performed with vigour and frequency, the varnish assumes the appearance of having been scratched off.
3Grains of sand are then rubbed by means of a piece of wood over the places where indentations are to appear. These places are smutted over with the help of a spirit lamp, and after the varnish has dried are neatly rubbed with sand paper. Polishing will not affect the varnish where the bruises have been made. Indeed, if a light varnish be used, this process assists the deception. Wherever the sand-paper has been applied with extra force the varnish will peel off, and in order to complete the deception places here and there are touched up with sandarach varnish. This substance is a solution of sandarach in spirits and sulphuric ether, and has the peculiar effect of producing cracks in the colour varnish. Such cracks appear as soon as the sandarach begins to dry, and they will be the finer the thinner the stuff has been applied.
5It is often sought to produce not only cracks but blisters, which latter are to give the impression that the instrument has been lying near a hot stove; the sandarach will be hurriedly passed over a flame.
7To represent the wear of the varnish by fingering and rubbing of the chin, a small rag dipped in spirits is used where the signs of wear should be apparent, and a second varnish is applied and neatly rubbed with pumice stone and oil. The part where the chin rests is usually operated upon with ink diluted with pyrogallic acid and water and with lamp-

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