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Scan 128
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 114. See the scan on archive.org.
1they were incapable of descending to the practices which these so-called Tyrolese instruments reveal. I think it was Jacob Augustus Otto who first baptised them as Tyrolese, and it may be that it was his own intense German patriotism brought face to face with these Bavarian forgeries that induced him to make light of the border line that should have decided their nationality; but it is high time now to call them by their proper names, and I am convinced there are as few actual Tyrolese forgeries in existence as there are genuine Tyrolese minstrels.
3A great deal of confusion exists as to the other members of the Klotz family, or bearers of the name. Some call them sons and others brothers of the same individual. Joseph Klotz is said by Otto to be a son of Egidius, and by Schebek to be a son of Matthäus, and George Klotz is left without either a father or a brother, Sebastian Klotz being in the same desolate condition. There was also a Michael as well as a Charles Klotz. These last two are called sons of Egidius. They all worked in Mittenwald, and the best of these Bavarian makers were Egidius and his son, Matthäus, the latter somewhat better than the former. Those of their make which Otto saw appear to have been tolerably good, and the name has been conjured with in the lower ranks of violin fanciers. Their value, like that of all violins, depends on the quality of the workmanship, and, chiefly, on condition. The authority above quoted states that Egidius employed good Swiss pine for the bellies of his instruments, instead of the white, perfectly fine-grained larch commonly used by others of his countrymen. All these makers employed spirit varnish except Egidius,
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