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Scan 222
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 208. See the scan on archive.org.
1the Royal Chapel were sent from Madrid to Italy to seek out some good instruments, and returned with some very fine ones, among them being a splendid double quartet, made entirely by Stradivari himself, viz., four violins, two violas, and two violoncellos. The last two were in Madrid ten years ago, but the others had been dispersed. The violinists and amateurs of Banks' time affected the Amati, which was pre-eminently suited to the chamber music of that day, and it is probable that this circumstance gave him the penchant for that model which he displayed. Besides, Nicolas Amati can, as a distinguished authority has said, "safely defy all criticism without, in any way, lowering Stradivari to the profit of his great master, who was the precursor and chief of the school, and gave to his work an ineffaceable seal and a distinction, at least equal to that of his pupil." All the best instruments by Benjamin Banks are remarkably good in quality of tone, particularly his violoncellos. They have a brownish-yellow varnish with a tinge of red; others have it of a deep red with a blackish tinge, and on the back and ribs it is transparent and rich; the varnish on the breast is not very brilliant. His tickets vary considerably, sometimes being "Benjamin Banks, Fecit Salisbury," and others have a more detailed address. He stamped "B. B." in all sorts of places on his instruments. On the back, beneath the button at the end of the neck, he also stamped them, "B. Banks, Sarum." He made Stainer models as well as Amatis, and made inferior instruments, Forster says, for the music shops. His son, also a Benjamin, appears to have made a few instruments in London about 1754. This son died, it is
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