Books › Old violins, 1905 › scan 167
Scan 167
Old violins, 1905
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 149. See the scan on archive.org.
1of that resinous gum beloved of artists, gamboge yellow, from Gamboga, Siam, or China, is then powdered and dissolved in pure alcohol; sloes are sometimes added, or when a yellow ground is not desired, sandarak and the long resinous tears of benzoin are treated with pure alcohol. When the back, belly, and ribs are thoroughly dry, the colouring, like a flavouring to taste, is added.
3The chief colouring ingredients appear to be of two kinds of sandal-wood, one yielding red orange tints, from Calcutta, and the other a deeper red, from the Coromandel Coast. An alcoholic solution of these is mixed with essential oil of turpentine, freely oxydised (or exposed to the air) and laid on the perfectly dry surface in successive layers, each layer being allowed to dry separately.
5The colour coating thus lies like an agate film over the oil sizing, and through the top varnish as through coloured glass may be seen—dyed orange, or red, or brown—all the delicate curls and fibres of the wood, shown up as by a kind of Röntgen rays by the oil size.
7We are told that the resins used may be divided into hard and soft, and that of these the soft, such as mastic and dammar, are the best, because the most elastic and friendly to the waves of vibration. The mastic and dammar resins seem to unite, in the greatest perfection, the three essential properties most suitable for varnish—elasticity, solidity, and transparency.
9The Cremonese are said to have used nothing but the soft resins. The much-talked-of, old-fashioned
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.