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Scan 120
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 106. See the scan on archive.org.
1maple, and the instruments are covered with amber varnish of a reddish-yellow colour. In some the peg box is dark brown and the belly deep yellow." His works were originally classified by an old French maker, named Lupot, and M. Cartier, the finder of the two Charles IX. Amatis, into three different periods. To the first of these belong, according to Fetis, who followed this classification, the violins dating from Cremona, and distinguished by their small pattern, the small and narrow sound holes, the large-veined wood, and varnish the same as Nicolas Amati's. He illustrates this description by citing an example which was in the possession of a M. Gardel, and which bore date 1644. Now, according to the most recent authentic information regarding Stainer which I have given above, he was settled in Absom when he was twenty years old, and was selling violins in Hall at that time. Being born in 1621, this fixes him as a maker in his native place three years before the date of the above violin, which hails from Cremona. There is the corroborative evidence of his marriage in 1645, the lady having a daughter prior to that date, and we must allow him a little time in Venice to account for even the suspicion of a flirtation with Signora Clara Vimercati, so that the date of the above example of his Cremonese manufacture is extremely dubious. It shows how much confusion and uncertainty exist in these matters.
3Genuine Stainer violins are of the utmost rarity. One was exhibited at South Kensington, and another was shown there which was, however, only "ascribed" to Stainer, and was dated 1695—thirteen years after the maker's death, as now ascertained. It is difficult
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