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Scan 311
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 297. See the scan on archive.org.
1hours to dissolve in summer, and in winter thirty. When the mastic is dissolved, add the dammar, reduced to powder, the solving of which will take about the same time. Shake the bottle two or three times each day. When these resins are dissolved, add the linseed oil, shake a little, and the mixture will be effected. Cork the bottle and shelter it from too much light, which might oxidise the colour. Let it rest for about a fortnight, in order that any foreign substances which it may hold in suspension be deposited. Then filter through cotton, or paper, into a glass funnel, which you can easily clean with alcohol. A varnish made with essential oil should not be used until it has been allowed to age for six or eight months, because the resins would not otherwise have sufficiently united with the essence. The varnish will then also have a fuller body.
3The linseed oil has been indicated instead of elemi and the turpentines, because these would make the varnish too soft, and would cause it to take a longer time to dry, while the linseed oil gives it more solidity, a firmer look, and causes it to approach more closely the examples left by the Italian masters. Raw linseed oil is employed in preference to boiled, because the latter would thicken the varnish, and the litharge which it contains might alter the colour. The colouring matters will already have given a certain body to the liquid, and, if more than the given quantity of resins were dissolved, it would become difficult to apply it without making blotches. A certain ability is required to lay it on well, for every touch of the brush, when the varnish has begun to "take," makes a mark. The
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