Books › The heart of music; the story of the violin, 1906 › scan 243
Scan 243
The heart of music; the story of the violin, 1906
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1In the Workshop of Amati
3and several coats of red varnish, made by dissolving fine red gum in spirit, from which the alcohol was allowed to evaporate," and adds that the deep red varnish was coloured by "dragon's blood" and the yellow by "gamboge in its pure form." Nevertheless, Reade himself concludes his theorising with this paragraph:
5"Many violin makers have tried hard to discover the secret of this varnish. Many chemists have given anxious days and nights to it. More than once, even in my time, hopes have been high, but only to fall again. Some have even cried 'Eureka' to the public; but the moment others looked at their discovery and compared it to the real thing, inextinguishable laughter shook the skies. At last despair has succeeded to all that energetic study, and the varnish of Cremona is sullenly given up as a lost art."
7Nearly all writers on violins have commented upon this strange enigma of connoisseurs and makers — George Hart as follows:
9"The more its lustre penetrates the soul, the more determined become the efforts. As yet, however, all such praiseworthy researches have been futile, and the composition of the Cremonese varnish remains a secret lost to the world — as much so as the glorious ruby lustre of Giorgio,
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