Books › the history of the violin, 1864 › scan 243
Scan 243
the history of the violin, 1864
2 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 221. See the scan on archive.org.
1years' earlier date, "Jacobus Steiner in Absom, prope OEnipontum 1647." The wood used by him at this time is generally of a fine grain; he took the best deal of Switzerland for the upper, and the finest maple for the lower plate, sides, and neck; his varnish was of mahogany colour now embrowned by time. Mons. Alard, at Paris, is said to have had a violin of this period of the greatest beauty; and the excellent player Sivori also had a very fine instrument. Mozart used to play on an instrument of his make; and at the Salzburg Mozart Festival, in September 1856, this with the name and date, Jacobus Steiner, Absom, 1659, and another small one by Andrea Ferdinand Maier, Salzburg, 1746, on which Mozart first learned to play, were produced for sale, having at his death come into the possession of his sister. In "Luthomonographie" there is the following ticket of this period, "Jacobus Steiner in Absom prope OEnipontum, 1663." After the death of his wife, he retired to a convent of Benedictines, where, according to Fetis, he passed the remainder of his life; but "Luthomonographie" states that towards the end of it he lost his reason, either from a violent attachment formed for Clara Vimercati, (he being then approaching the age of threescore years and ten,) or from mortification in consequence of having sold his instruments at too low a price—two very different reasons; but at that age we might match Plutus against Cupid. There is no doubt, however, that he did retire to a convent, and then wishing to distinguish himself, obtained, through the influence of the superior, some wood of rare quality, of a close and regular figure, from which he made sixteen violins of a perfect model. He sent one to each of the twelve Electors, and the remaining four to the Emperor; and these are known as Steiner Electors. The tone is
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