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Scan 169
The Hawley Collection of violins, 1904
22 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 95. 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.
1ANALYSIS OF WORK OF THE FOLLOWERS OF GREAT MASTERS
3Rome
5In the Eternal City violin-making flourished as elsewhere in Italy, the peculiarity of the work being that it was so often carried on by Germans, working in the Italian style.
7David Techler
9David Techler, who worked there from about 1700 to 1744, was, it is said, born in Salzburg, but as a young man went to Italy to study his chosen profession and eventually settled in Rome. His work resembles in general style that of Nicola Amati. He was happy in his wood selection and employed a varnish of fine quality, which in color is usually a brownish yellow shade. He was one of the best makers of the second class in Italy. His 'cellos especially are highly prized. They are usually of large size, of broad pattern, and have great breadth and quality of tone.
11Platner, Gigli, and Emiliano
13Associated in style with Techler in Rome was Michel Platner, who did finely finished, precise work, and selected excellent wood. He worked through the fore and middle parts of the eighteenth century. Julius Caesar Gigli, who worked in Rome in the first part of the eighteenth century, seems to have turned out a number of violins. He was a good maker of the third class, who used good wood, fair varnish, and a fair amount of skill in construction. He used orange and yellow varnish. Francesco de Emiliano, who worked in Rome at the same period, was an excellent workman. He was choice in selecting his wood and used a varnish of excellent soft quality which varies in color from an orange shade to a brown.
15Florence
17Florence, one of the chief centers of Italian art and literature, the city which, during the Renaissance, led all others in advanced thought and the civic liberty of its people, in violin-building occupied a less important position than her neighboring sister cities of northern and middle Italy.
19Gabrielli
21The makers who occupied the foremost position in the art in Florence were the Gabrielli and Carcassi families. Of the former, Giovanni Battista Gabrielli is the most important. He was in respect to workmanship a true artist. Every detail is invariably carefully executed. He employed excellent and handsome wood. His varnish is nearly always a pale reddish yellow, though sometimes he used a rich shade of red. It is, if anything, wanting in softness, but is always well put on. Gabrielli employed a very rounded model as a general rule, though there are many specimens of his work to which this exception cannot be made. The scroll is small, well executed, but lacking in design. Gabrielli made splendid violas and violoncellos, and was a prolific and enthusiastic workman, if the number of his instruments be a just criterion. He lived during the middle part of the eighteenth century.
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