Books › The Repairing & Restoration of Violins, 1903 › scan 63
Scan 63
The Repairing & Restoration of Violins, 1903
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 49. See the scan on archive.org.
1preserved should be so, and well studied, that the new work may be a continuation of the old to the minutest detail, even to the accidental emphasis of tooling left by the maker.
3The fact must not be overlooked, that rough as some work looks at a glance, it has been, by masters of their art, properly thought out beforehand. Rapidity of execution, coupled with fine artistic style, is not to be acquired within a short space of time. In most of the apparently rough hewn scrolls of the Italian masters there is to be seen the result of experience in cutting, perhaps, hundreds of them previously. If we examine closely the mannerism of the different schools with regard to that seemingly insignificant termination of the back grooves called the shell; the different ways, breadths, depths and direction of the gouging will be found to give, not only an accurate indication of the country, or city, in which it was carved, but with it the school, or style to which the maker belonged, besides his own individuality. As a landmark for distinguishing these interesting particulars, every part of the scroll of an old master, with its belongings, no less than any other part of the instrument, should be treated by the repairer with much reverence for its age and respect for the talent expended on it in course of its construction. That this is not always acted up to I am reminded by an instance that came under my personal knowledge many years since.
5A repairer and maker of some experience was examining a violin by one of the old Italian makers, that had, underneath the shell a rather sudden demarkation at the part where the graft had been fitted in. He remarked to the party who brought the violin, that if it were his own, or had been requested to put it in good order, he would file or glasspaper down the edge round the lower part of the shell, so as to make it conform with the modern work. The violin was not entrusted to his care, nor do I think many others were, judging by after events. Trust not any violin of value or interest to this class of repairer, or grief will count you for its own and mortification that of the fiddle.
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