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Scan 58
Old violins, 1910
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Bulley's violoncello, a Jerome (the younger) Amati, is also a rare gem of tone and workmanship.*
3The grand Amati violin pattern runs some of the Stradivari violins very hard, and is evidently the model on which the 1700-35 Strads are "calqué," as the French say. The side-grooving, generally held to interfere with the volume of tone, whilst supposed by some to add to its sweetness, has not disappeared as in the Strad grand model, but it has become less pronounced. The tone is lovely and sensitive, and the Nicolo is truly delightful to handle. It is par excellence the lady's violin.
5The one before me, where the varnish still remains, melts into light orange with clear golden gleams in it. If Joseph is the strong male, Nicholas or Nicolo certainly belongs to the softer and more yielding sex. The tone is most delicate, and of ravishing sweetness. It seems to leap out almost before the horse-hair has feathered the strings. It continues to sing on like a vibrating silver bell, as if intoxicated with itself, long after the bow has ceased its contact. In the sweet Nicolo the lover finds no bars, no obstacles; it is won almost before 'tis wooed (Plate V.).
7We are interested to know that in his own time Nicolo's work was carefully imitated, if not forged; whilst his supremacy over one of his best pupils, Francesco Rugereo, Rugieri, or Rugerius, was clearly
9* An unique set of instruments by the Amati family worthy of mention is the quintett, composed of three violins, a viola, and a violoncello, now (1898) in the possession of Miss Willmott.
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