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Scan 278
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 264. See the scan on archive.org.
1CHAPTER IX.
3VIOLIN VARNISH.
5Perhaps the most interesting subject in connection with violins, after the experiments of Savart, referred to in my last chapter, is the Varnish—that inscrutable mystery, or lost art, which has been a puzzle to all violin-makers for over a hundred years. And yet in the face of a general acknowledgment that the art of making this varnish has been lost, I do not suppose there is a violin-maker in Europe who will not offer to sell you "amber varnish," or if he does not so offer, he will perhaps tell you that he keeps it only for his own use. Throughout these chapters I have employed the term "amber varnish," whenever I have had occasion to refer to that subject. As opposed to that of "spirit varnish," it was likely to be better understood than any other, and it is the one universally in use for the purpose of distinguishing the kind employed by the Cremonese makers (with the one exception already mentioned) down to the days of Storioni. It is, however, a misleading term. What we call amber is a
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