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Scan 242
the history of the violin, 1864
2 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 220. See the scan on archive.org.
1of a rude form, after the model of an old instrument of Kerlin he found in the house. His parents at last yielded to his wishes, and he ultimately went to study under the Amatis at Cremona, where, after some years practice, he acquired skill nearly equal to his distinguished masters, or in beautiful finish perhaps excelled them, and began to work on his own account. The instruments made at this period of his life are some of his best, and also the rarest to be met with. They have a written ticket, dated from Cremona, and signed by himself. The model is higher than that of the Amatis, the sound holes rather smaller, and the scroll less prolonged, and wider in the forepart: the wood broad veined, and the varnish like that of his teachers. The finest instruments of this period are about 1644. He now married the daughter of Antonius Amati, and established himself at Absom; when, being compelled to work to maintain his family, he attended more to expeditious workmanship in order to provide for their immediate wants, than to working for fame, and his instruments of this period are inferior to those of his first period; he rarely got more than six florins for his violins, and had to carry them out himself. His varnish of this time was of a dark reddish colour and opaque. After a time the merits of his instruments became known, and as he could then get better prices, he again made them with care, and engaged pupils and assistants, and among them his brother Marcus, the brothers Klotz and Albani, and founded a school. Some of his instruments of this period, made for persons of rank, have the scrolls ornamented with heads of lions and tigers, and other animals, adopted frequently from the arms or crests of his patrons. The instruments of this second period are generally dated from 1650 to 1667 at Absom, but Hawkins gives a ticket of three
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