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Scan 160
The Hawley Collection of violins, 1904
22 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 86. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1THE HAWLEY COLLECTION OF VIOLINS
3esteemed. His workmanship is of no ordinary kind, edges, corners, purfling, scroll, and sound holes being artistically executed.
5Anselmo Belosio
7This maker worked in Venice about the middle of the eighteenth century, and is ranked with the second class violin-makers of that city. He used wood of fair quality. Sometimes his backs are of bird's-eye maple, and less frequently of a very handsome curly maple. The material of the bellies is of good quality. His pattern is that of Sanctus Serafino, and the color of his varnish ranged from a pale yellowish red to a reddish brown. His scroll is weak and the design of the sound holes is also wanting in force. His tone is light and brilliant, and admirably adapted to a certain class of players.
9Marcus Antonio Cerin
11The violins bearing the label of this maker that we have seen have impressed us very favorably. He signed himself a pupil of Belosio. He used excellent wood, finished his work as well as any contemporary maker of the same class, and employed an orange color varnish of good quality. Cerin secured a tone of more than usual beauty, and it is worthy of note that his violins are heavily constructed.
13Giuseppe Odoardi and Others
15This maker flourished during the latter part of the seventeenth century. He employed an excellent model, a splendid quality of spruce for his tops, and maple, pear, or beech for his backs. His varnish is usually a deep shade of red. His violins are highly prized in Italy, and several have found their way to this side of the Atlantic.
17The list of Venetian makers comprises possibly forty other makers, some of whom did very creditable work, which to-day has not a little musical value. Among them may be mentioned Valentino Castro, 1690-1720; Antonio Pandolfi, 1720-1750.
19Naples
21The Neapolitan violin to-day plays a very important rôle in violin music in that it supplies a type of instrument very much in demand by violinists, the world over, viz., a large, broad pattern. The proportion of violins made on Stradivarian lines is, after all, small in comparison with the total production of the Peninsula during the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. As has been previously mentioned, the large majority were made after the models of the Amati family. With Stradivari and Guarneri the art reached its zenith, but it should be borne in mind that it existed much longer before their time than it did after. Inasmuch as the predominating influence in violin-making in Naples was that of the Gagliano family, it is particularly fortunate that they adopted a broad flat form. This model their contemporaries, though few, were compelled to follow, so we find the majority of Neapolitan bow instruments to be of the type which during the past fifty years has come to be highly regarded by professional performers. As most Neapolitan violins in point of workmanship and varnish are inferior to a large number of the violins of northern Italy, they have not, until comparatively recent years, commanded high prices. Of
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