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Scan 37
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 23. See the scan on archive.org.
1Gasparo, and in this country there are one or two good specimens of these classes, I believe. A number of his instruments, violas, violoncellos, and double basses, as well as two or three "assigned" to him, were exhibited at the Exhibition at South Kensington before mentioned. An authentic ticket of this master runs in large bold letters, "Gasparo da Salò, in Brescia," a fac simile of which is given (see Fig. 1).
3Javietta Budiani is another Brescian violin maker of whom nothing is known or said, except that he was renowned for his basses, one of which the celebrated artist Dragonetti possessed and prized. He is supposed to have been actively engaged in manufacture about 1580. No violins of his are known to exist. About the same period Matteo Bente worked in Brescia, and his instruments are looked upon with a certain degree of favour by collectors, but very little indeed is known about them further than that they were constructed after the manner of the Brescian school. I have never met with a single instance of anyone claiming to possess, or to have seen or heard of anyone so claiming, a violin by this last maker. Everyone says they are much sought after by connoisseurs, but the search appears to continue fruitless from generation to generation. In fact, the productions of this period of the Brescian school are surrounded by such a dense atmosphere of fraud, fabrication, and duplicity, that it is almost impossible nowadays to say anything about them. Instruments have been broken up and re-made, tickets changed or imitated, and the domain of authentic guarantee so successfully invaded, that he would be a bold man indeed who would venture any decided opinion about them.
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