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Scan 93
The Hawley Collection of violins, 1904
6 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 55. See the scan on archive.org.
1GIOVANNI PAOLO MAGGINI. THE HAWLEY MAGGINI
3well as that of some other cities would have overshadowed it. After all is said and done, however, the worth of a violin depends on the quality of its tone, and not on the beauty of its lines, and the work of Maggini and Gasparo da Salò is loved to-day for the ruggedness that encompasses their tone of subtle richness. In the first period of Maggini's work we find the details crude in the extreme. Scrolls, miters, purfling, and even the wood he used are "out of joint" to the eye. In common with the custom of the viol and lute makers of the time, he cut his wood, both backs and bellies, slab-wise. This tends to produce that intensely somber tone quality for which his earlier instruments are noted. Five years, however, and a marked change took place, for in the violins of the second period the bellies are cut on the quarter, which is recognized as the proper manner. The maple of the backs of his first violins often possesses a striking figure, but that of his second epoch not so much. Just at what time he introduced the corner block and linings is not known, but he must have done so early in his career, as he was the first to recognize the necessity of strengthening the instrument by this means. In what is known as his best period, his violins are beautifully finished and every detail is carefully attended to. Still one cannot even here compare the work with that which was done at Cremona when in her glory, because her masterpieces were wrought a hundred years later. She had the advantage of a century, during which time a great advance was made in the standard of workmanship and finish. Compared with what had been done before in Brescia, however, and considering Brescian work apart from all others, which is the fair test, the violins of this period, which have raised Maggini to the high place he occupies in the fiddle world, deserve the highest encomiums. With the wood the Brescian makers used, the varnish, and the rich tone of their violins, it seems as if any other character of work than that bold, rugged style would have been out of harmony. In other words, it does not seem as if one could expect the feminine grace and beautiful finish of Amati or Stradivari in any other than violins of their rich soprano tone quality. The varnish Maggini employed at this time was less somber than in the preceding epochs. It ranged from a rich golden brown to a yellowish brown. That of his earlier work is a deeper chocolate color and more reddish brown. The inlaying is done in a far superior manner, the mitre-joints are truer, the scroll carving better, and the toute-ensemble is of a far higher order. Another feature of this period is that he reduced the size of his violins to approximately the measurements of the later Cremonese makers, which renders them far more usable from the player's standpoint.
5Maggini's best period is happily represented by the specimen in the Hawley collection known as the Hawley Maggini. The back is formed by one piece of maple cut on the slab, having a handsome broadish figure extending slightly downward from left to right. The top is of the choicest kind of spruce cut on the quarter. The material of the sides and scroll is of the same description as that of the back. The sound holes are full of grace and character, and by no means so angular as those that occur in many of his earlier instruments. Its remarkable state of preservation is well worth a moment's reflection, for notwithstanding the fact that it antedates the great Cremonese masterpieces nearly a century, and was completed at about the time of the first English settlement in America, it is still practically as perfect as the day it left the hands of its maker. Mr. Hawley secured this magnificent example of Maggini's work from Messrs. Hart & Sons, in June, 1877. Like many other celebrated
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