Scan 132
Joseph Guarnerius, his work and his master [Andreas Gisalberti], 1906
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 84. See the scan on archive.org.
1much alike, with the broad curl mostly arranged so as to decline from each side of the central joint of the back, and it has its full complement of what are known as the nutmeggy marks.
3The pine used, although having the appearance of first-class material, varies in the width of thread; the trees probably had not the obliging quality of growing the rings with such regularity or closeness as would please all modern connoisseurs. Of the tone, however, every person who hears the Gisalberti instruments recognises it as of the highest class, and suitable for great performers.
5Of the interior work, the same must be said of it as of the rest; the linings are broad strips of pine not let into the blocks, but the latter are cut away slightly at an angle where the lining is attached, so that the upper and lower corner blocks present the appearance of an octagon roughly drawn.
7The inner surfaces of the upper and lower tables do not present the roughness which we might expect after looking at the other details of workmanship, and it is in this matter that we are led to reflect upon the meaning or cause of the rugged appearance of the whole, and to come to the conclusion that it was not resultant upon haste or carelessness, but was a peculiarity of style or mannerism. There seems to have been always what dealers call "plenty of wood," the backs being very robust, and in one instance, at least, that I know of, about a quarter of an inch in thickness about the centre.
9This calls to mind a remark in the work of Fétis that the early works of Joseph Guarnerius were made too thick in the back, and the possibility suggests itself that the writer, or his informant, may have seen a Gisalberti and thought it to be a Joseph Guarnerius.
11Indeed, there appears to be much probability that a number of Gisalberti's violins without their original tickets have passed, for long generations perhaps, without a suspicion on the part of their owners, or many of the connoisseurs and dealers who may have come into con-
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