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Scan 163
The Hawley Collection of violins, 1904
24 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 89. See the scan on archive.org.
1tonio employed a flatter model and paler varnish. He was not so careful to finish his work as Giuseppe, and his tone is not so warm in quality.
3Giovanni Gagliano
5Giovanni was as a rule an indifferent workman, but some of his work is well up to the standard of the Gagliano name as regards tone. He died in 1807.
7Raffaele and Antonio Gagliano
9Raffaele and Antonio were sons of Giovanni. Their work is not in the same class as that of the elder members of the family, but some of it is well up to the Gagliano traditions. Other examples, however, are not. These makers, like nearly all others, were guided in their work largely by the price they were to receive. There was in lower Italy a demand for cheap violins, which these and other makers endeavored to supply. This accounts for the large number of violins which one sees bearing Gagliano names, which are undoubtedly genuine, though so roughly finished as almost to hide their identity. These makers worked together until about the middle of the nineteenth century, Raffaele dying in 1857, and his brother three years later. Their model, as a rule, is broad and flat, their wood of a tough nature, though often of handsome figure, and their varnish a pale somber color. There were other members of the Gagliano family who made violins about the same period as the brothers Raffaele and Antonio. We have found labels of Celetano Gagliano, and Felice Gagliano in Neapolitan violins of the ordinary kinds.
11Tomaso Eberle, 1720-1780
13This maker flourished from about 1720 to 1780. He worked with Ferdinando Gagliano. His style is lighter and more delicate. He used excellent wood and his varnish is of superior quality, some of his best work excelling in respect to varnish any of the Neapolitan makers. It varies in color from a rich rosy shade to a deep brown.
15Giorgio Bairhof, 1740-1790
17Bairhof was one of the second class Neapolitan makers. His style is heavy and his model very flat. He employed the outlines of both Stradivari and Guarneri. While in point of workmanship the violins of this maker do not take high rank, in point of tone many of them are exceptionally good. He used the usual yellowish varnish so common in Naples.
19Vincenzo Ventepani, 1740-1800, and Others
21Ventepani was a very industrious maker of violins of the cheaper grades. He employed a flat Stradivari model, used a tough, good-looking maple in his backs, and was fond of selecting virile hard spruce for his tops. His varnish ranges from a golden yellow to a brown. He also made many 'cellos which rank higher than his violins.
23Other makers who worked in Naples with more or less success were Antonio Vennaccia, 1760-90, and Vincenzo Postiglione, who was born in 1835, only recently deceased, and who used a large broad strong pattern of Stradivari or Guarneri. Vincenzo Jorio, 1790-1850, was the teacher of Postiglione; large model, yellowish varnish. Naples, in respect to the cheap violins made there, was to Italy what Markneu-
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