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Scan 77
The Hawley Collection of violins, 1904
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 47. See the scan on archive.org.
1NICOLA AMATI. THE GODING AMATI
3ably assisted in the construction of many of Amati's instruments, and made beautiful copies of Amati's violins. He is said to have married the daughter of Nicola Amati. Jacob Stainer, the most celebrated of German makers, is also supposed to have obtained his knowledge of violin construction in the Amati shop. But if he did so, it must have been early in the life of Nicola, in the shop of the Brothers Amati, for his work resembles their model more than it does that of Nicola. Giovanni Battista Rogeri was one of the most talented of his pupils, and undoubtedly the best of the family, some of his work falling but little short of that of the best work of his master. Francesco Ruggeri, il per, a most elegant workman, copied both the small and large models of Nicola Amati, and excelled in the beauty of his varnish and the generally artistic character of his workmanship. Santo Serafin, the Venetian, was one of the grandest workmen who came under the influence of Nicola Amati and Stradivari, and, judged by his best work, which excels in regard to varnish, beauty of workmanship, and tone, is entitled to much higher rank than many authors unacquainted with his best work have given him. Paolo Grancino, of Milan, another of Amati's pupils, who was to acquire fame, was a prolific workman and the founder of a family of violin-makers in Milan. The youth Francesco Gobetti became a maker whose work was to rank very high, and possibly may have been a pupil late in Amati's life. Like Santo Serafin, he has not received full credit for his talents. That he was associated in some way with Stradivari seems self-evident from a survey of his work. Besides, if he studied in Amati's shop it was late in that master's career, when Stradivari had become the guiding spirit.
5Among other makers whose work bear evidence of their having been employed in the shop of N. Amati are David Techler, renowned for his 'cellos; Mathias Albani, who afterwards went north to Botzin; Paolo Albani, who settled in Palermo; Giofredo Cappa, more properly, no doubt, considered a pupil of the Brothers, who attained reputation in Saluzzo. But greater than all these, and the one on whom by virtue of his heaven-born genius the mantle of Nicola Amati was to fall, was Antonio Stradivari.
7Referring again to the violins of Nicola Amati, we find his model broadening, slightly less arched and longer during the period of 1640 to 1645. About 1648 the first unmistakable evidence of his grand pattern appears, and by 1660 he had developed it to the highest extent. The model as he perfected it remained, with a few local changes in the arching, the same up to the time of his death. One of the few remaining perfect specimens left to us to-day by the insatiate maw of time, is the specimen known as the Goding. For many years this instrument formed a part of the Hawley collection. It is now in the possession of Mr. W. H. Winslow, of Chicago. It belongs to the year 1662, and is a typical specimen of the best period of Amati's work. Had it been made but fifty years ago instead of two hundred and fifty, one could hardly hope for more perfect preservation so far as its tone producing features are concerned. The thicknesses remain intact, the linings and blocks, with one exception, are in our opinion all original. It remains after two and a quarter centuries practically as it left Amati's hands. The artistic sweep of the upper and lower bouts, the graceful corner, the magnificently curved scroll and the cut of the sound holes, all
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