Books › The "Tuscan". A short account of a violin by Stradivari, made for Cosimo de Medici, Grand duke of Tuscany, dated 1690, 1891 › scan 16
Scan 16
The "Tuscan". A short account of a violin by Stradivari, made for Cosimo de Medici, Grand duke of Tuscany, dated 1690, 1891
6 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1same time that microscopic perfection of workmanship which distinguished his earlier work.
3The exceptional fortune by which this violin has been preserved intact has happily fallen to one of the very finest instruments that ever left the Cremona workshop. The quality of the wood selected, the grace of form, alike in the curves and in the cutting of the scroll; the extreme technical perfection of workmanship, notably shown, among other points, in the precision of the purfling at the corners; and the transparent beauty of the varnish, stamp it beyond question as a great masterpiece: while the tone, in power, rich brilliancy, and purity, fully sustains the impression created by the appearance of an instrument so perfect in form and material.
5It is perhaps unnecessary in this place to assert the pre-eminence conceded by the greatest players to the work of Stradivari; but it may be of interest to record the opinion of the first living violinist, Herr Joseph Joachim, who, in a letter written to a well-known English connoisseur, has given expression to an almost universal feeling. He says—"While the violins of Maggini are remarkable for volume of tone, and those of Amati for liquidity, none of the celebrated makers exhibited the union of sweetness and power in so pre-eminent a degree as Giuseppe Guarnieri [del Gesu] and Antonio Stradivari. If I am to express my own feeling I must pronounce for the latter as my chosen favourite. It is true that in brilliancy and clearness, and even in liquidity, Guarnieri, in his best instruments, is not surpassed; but what appears to me peculiar to the tone of Stradivari is a more unlimited capacity for expressing the most varied accents of feeling. . . . ."
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