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Scan 152
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 138. See the scan on archive.org.
1examples of the violin type. Those preceding the first period above referred to have, one may say, almost totally disappeared. Few specimens dating much farther back than the beginning of the sixteenth century have been preserved in any country, and yet there must have been great numbers of them made, for documents in existence prove that the manufacture was, in various places, sufficiently important to suggest the early institution of these guilds or corporations having exclusive reference to this industry. I can think of no other reason to account for this paucity of mediaeval examples than the circumstance that the very early makers knew no means of covering their instruments with any kind of really protective varnish. We know the fate which speedily overtakes a wholly unvarnished violin, or the sounding boards of pianos. They, literally, sooner or later vibrate into powder. Prior to the year 1420 artists painted in distemper, with gum, glue, or egg albumen, and it was not until about that time that John Van Eyck, called also John of Bruges, discovered a drying oil, and thus obtained the distinction of being called the inventor of oil painting. In the chapter on Varnish I shall allude to the protection afforded by the oils to the resins and colouring matter, and the date of Van Eyck's discovery appears corroborative of the idea that they did not use oils of any kind in very early varnishes, for it is precisely at this period, allowing sufficient time for the utility of the invention to become known, that early examples of musical instruments of the violin kind begin to appear, coming down to us in more or less perfect preservation. References also begin to be
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