Scan 182
Joseph Guarnerius, his work and his master [Andreas Gisalberti], 1906
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 114. See the scan on archive.org.
1yellow, orange and light brown, the latter particularly being thinly laid, soft in consistency, and somewhat frizzled.
3In the earlier of the two specimens in hand there is noticeable a great leap in the direction of rich colour; apparently the maker had become alive to the advantage of more positive tints, or had received some urgent solicitations to clothe his work with a richer material—the colour is what may be termed a bright chestnut, appearing at times, under favourable light, to have a tinge of red. Full, transparent and beautiful, the use of such a varnish must at once have placed the maker in the ranks of the foremost men of Cremona's art.
5On Mr. Kirkhope's violin the varnish has a deeper tinge and suggestiveness of what people called ruby red, also of the highest quality. In this instance also we can perceive an advance in the Cremonese manner of treating the soundholes, these being a still further departure from his early manner, or Gisalberti period, the influence of the teacher being now absent, almost in the absolute sense of the word. The alteration of colour and consistency of the varnish was not the only alteration at this time.
7Another one, which would seem but a trifling detail of construction when the violin has the upper table removed, is that of the linings or pieces running from one corner block to the other at the waist, mainly for the purpose of giving a broader glueing surface to the upper and lower edges of the ribs. They are now inserted on the system adopted by the Amati and Stradivari school, that is, instead of the lining coming to a full stop at the block, it is driven some little distance into it with a square end. The reasons for so doing are not very evident, excepting the holding of the parts together when the glue had become likely to give way under usage and age. The rough manner in which these linings were bent round, although the inserted ends were fairly well finished, seems to point to this part of Joseph's work having been thought of as a very secondary matter, and
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.