Books › Old violins, 1905 › scan 170
Scan 170
Old violins, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 152. See the scan on archive.org.
1The materials being now absent, the varnish was differently composed. The trick of mixing it got lost along with the stuff to be mixed, and the Cremonese secret, once an open secret, lapsed and lapsed, as it seems, most irrecoverably.
3At one time every one knew how the ancient war-galleys were rowed; how the Pyramids were built; how Stonehenge was poised; how the Medicean poisons were distilled, and how the old masters mixed their colours; now no one knows.
5Of the Cremona varnish it must be written, as we have to write of these unexplained disappearances of the lost and missing—
7"Gone, and made no sign."
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.