Books › Old violins, 1905 › scan 225
Scan 225
Old violins, 1905
6 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 203. See the scan on archive.org.
1figured by whitewash, starched and bleached just like so much dirty linen, and the old frescoes obliterated like so many disfiguring stains; and even now, in these more enlightened days, how many old carvings have been replaced by modern routine-work sculpture, whilst the walls, façade, and floor of grand old St Mark's at Venice have been smeared over with Salviati's modern mosaic. Thus have I seen a Maggini botched and browned over so completely with bad German varnish as to leave only faint traces here and there of the original coating.
3Never in the matter of varnish dare to replace what time has stolen; that loss of old varnish is a tribute paid not ungrudgingly to "the Vandal years," who have spared the life and been unable materially to injure the fabric of the rare old instrument. Above all, thou favoured guardian of a Cremona, never let it get near damp, or suffer from any other mouldering or corrosive influence.
5A friend of mine, finding that the worm had got into his violin case, which contained a Guadagnini, proceeded to saturate his case with benzoin, and before it was properly dry replaced the precious instrument, with the result that the old varnish was brought up in blisters all over the back, which is now one crinkled mass, as rough to the touch as a nutmeg-grater. The varnish was completely ruined, and what is worse, the violin has never sounded like itself since; a clear proof to my mind that the varnish affects the tone, or at least that damaged varnish impairs it.
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