Scan 108
How to Make a Violin, and Violin Notes by Ole Bull. Revised edition., 1910
2 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 98. See the scan on archive.org.
1tures, was forgotten. There is no doubt that some of the Cremonese and other makers knew how to prepare it, but, as has been shown, its use was not confined to them. The new ingredients, the copals, amber, etc., would naturally supersede the old as articles of import, and so by degrees those who possessed the secret, for a secret it was, certainly regarded by its latest possessors, would find increasing difficulty in obtaining the old constituents. Moreover, the days of violin-making in Italy were over. England, France and Germany were eager competitors, the stolid build of the first, the gaudy colour of the second, the baked wood of the Mittenwalder, or artist of the Black Forest, and the general cheapness of all, held the market. And so it has happened that the art of the old varnish is not lost, but buried in the dust under the wheel of progress. For two hundred years it was in the hands of a nation; and though now a desire for this forgotten knowledge is confined to only a few, it would be absurd to say that persistent inquiry must fail to unravel a skein of so many ends.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.