Books › the history of the violin, 1864 › scan 283
Scan 283
the history of the violin, 1864
9 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 261. See the scan on archive.org.
1Norman, may be supposed to infer that he was a pupil of Steiner (but this borders on the impossible), or that he adopted the characteristic style of that excellent foreign workman; however it bears a fabulous number, as if the instruments he had made reached to so large a figure, the last figure being added in ink:—
3 "Nathanaeli Crosso Stainero
4 fecit. No. 2417."
6He lived in Aldermanbury, London, and the instruments which have been seen, chiefly violoncellos, were very similar to those he made during his partnership with the previous maker; they are small in size and squat, and are varnished of a light yellow colour, the vehicle or body varnish is considered to be made of one of the soft gums, mastic or sandarac dissolved in alcohol, which renders them of easy blemish and disfigurement by any slight scratch, similar to the defect observed in the ornamental wood-work of Tonbridge Wells. The tone is clear and rather penetrating in quality. His violoncellos are generally sold as Barak Norman's, but the style of work of the two makers, in every particular, is very different. Cross is supposed to have been living in 1751. It has been previously noticed that the monogram of the elder partner is generally, if not always, inlaid either in the upper or lower vibrating plates of the younger workman.
8It cannot be stated when these two makers became partners, but there is evidence that they were so about 1720, as the following copy of a printed label used by them will prove; the Maltese cross is at the top, and only three figures are in print, leaving the pen to complete the date:—
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