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Scan 281
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 267. See the scan on archive.org.
1the odour of animi (hard copal) or the very persistent one of the resin called Lubân Matti, a product of two native trees of the Somali country, and which is supposed to be the substance originally known as "elemi."
3Besides these experiments, there is a certain amount of literary evidence which is corroborative of the position here indicated, if it be admitted that, whatever the materials or methods employed, they could be no secret, but a matter of common knowledge. And I think this must be allowed, for the same style of varnish, with variations in colour, prevailed for over a hundred years, and was practised by nearly as many different violin makers in different places down to the time of Stradivari, when varnish making as a general art made a considerable advance. The probability would seem to be that this so-called "amber varnish" was the ordinary varnish of commerce then in use, and was only discontinued when the more perfect spirit varnishes for general purposes—though not, as it turned out, for violins—began to be made. Assuming this to be correct, it is found that about the year 1550 the materials in common use for varnishes were benzoin, galipot, Venice turpentine, linseed oil, white amber (a mixture of oil and wax, which was procured from pines in Calabria), mastic and sandarach. The colouring matters were chiefly saffron, sandal wood, dragon's blood, and Brazil wood. In 1564 the same materials are still in use. About 1685 were employed elemi, animi, white amber (this time signifying dammar), mastic and sandarach, turpentine, and so on, down to 1713, when the resins in use were gum
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