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Scan 65
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 51. See the scan on archive.org.
1nality, are, more or less, reproductions of the form and style handed down by Nicolas Amati to ancestors of the Guarneri family; but it is not of much importance to decide who taught him, since his celebrity as a maker rests almost entirely on the excellence of instruments produced during what have been termed his second and third epochs, when he followed the best style of Stradivari. M. Fetis, whose description has been repeated by all other writers, says that the violins of the second period are of small pattern, of a happily-designed contour, the arching slightly elevated and falling off towards the purfling in a softly graceful curve. He finds one fault with them, viz., the thicknesses in the centre of the back, which are rather strong, an obvious defect, and hurtful to the elasticity and freedom of vibration. In the third epoch of his career, Joseph Guarnerius, he says, offers a variety in his style still more surprising. His instruments become of larger form, are made of most excellent wood, and are of the best possible arrangement, so far as concerns their archings and thicknesses. They have a beautiful varnish, as remarkable for its delicacy and elasticity as for its tint. These violins are quite equal to the finest productions of Stradivari. The last epoch is described as being characterised by a complete falling away. The wood becomes poor, the work and the varnish also. It has been said that this sudden collapse was due to circumstances the reverse of creditable to Joseph del Jesu's personal character, but which are, fortunately for him, not very well authenticated. They are as follows:
3Carlo Bergonzi's grandson, who was eighty years of age when he died, in 1838, in Cremona—Fetis says 1738,
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