Books › John Askew, the Stanhope violin maker, 1914 › scan 48
Scan 48
John Askew, the Stanhope violin maker, 1914
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 30. See the scan on archive.org.
1is not sufficiently known or recognised that in a great measure Stradivari instruments owe to it their distinguished quality of tone; in reality the future of any perfectly constructed instrument is determined by the coat it is clothed in." And further, that "the varnish employed by Stradivari is still in existence." Hart, however, is of opinion that the Cremonese varnish remains a secret lost to the world.
3Whatever the varnish is composed of there must be something due to the Artist who puts it on to the instrument.
5In later years of his violin making Askew probably changed his varnish. He was an experimenter, and probably other varnishes were used. The four violins exhibited at the Jubilee Exhibition at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1887 were entered as being oil-varnished and of entirely his own workmanship. On this point we have an opinion from a person who is a well known violinist and a collector to the extent of 30 or 40 instruments.
7Mr. Clarkson Close who informs the writer that a violin dated 1879 is quite a nice well made one with Askews own varnish on whilst the violin he has and made by Askew in 1893 is very different in character and
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