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Scan 282
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 268. See the scan on archive.org.
1lac, sandarach, mastic, soft copal, called at this time "false amber," and bitumen of Judea. The first trace of amber and hard copal being employed in the making of varnish dates from 1737, the very year in which Stradivari died. It was called "Martin Varnish," and was discovered or invented by a M. Delaporte, a brother-in-law of Martin. M. Martin received a patent for its manufacture, dated 18th February, 1744. Thirty years before this the solving of amber for a varnish had been tried and failed. During the time Martin carried on the manufacture the process remained a secret, as they were not obliged in those days to give a description of inventions, but it was subsequently published in 1772.
3These details may serve to show that the term "amber varnish" is, as I said, a misleading one. The resins employed by the Cremonese makers appear, both from literary evidence and direct tests, to have been precisely the same as those in use to-day, the modern difficulty lying in the methods employed for solving these resins, and in determining the colouring matter with which they succeeded in charging them. The veins of the wood can be seen through these colours almost as clearly as if one were looking at them through a glass. It is, unfortunately for more definite research, almost impossible to subject the Cremonese varnish, in its present condition, to chemical analysis, because some of its constituents are long ago oxidised; and, besides, it would be almost as difficult to encounter a person in possession of a fine instrument, whose varnish is intact, who would suffer it to be meddled with. Some violins have, however, been
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