Books › The varnishes of the Italian violin-makers of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their influence on tone;, 1904 › scan 31
Scan 31
The varnishes of the Italian violin-makers of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their influence on tone;, 1904
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1a basis varnish with gums of the proper degree of hardness, and then colouring it with sandal wood, dragon's blood, &c., &c. The colouring is of less importance, although demanding much care. "All "that offers great difficulties, because, in the trials " (experiments), the greater part of the substances "treated together often do not agree, and everything "has to be begun over again."
3Spirit varnishes have been tried; it is said that Louis Guersan, pupil of Boquay, was the first French maker to use it. It had the great advantage of drying quickly, a few days sufficing for varnishing an instrument. But the varnish encased the instrument as if with a carapace—sonorousness was wanting. These varnishes had to be abandoned.
5M. Vidal speaks with great praise of the researches of M. Eugène Mailand, which became public knowledge in 1859. In a footnote he makes the following interesting statement:—"Our great 'luthier,' M. J. "B. Vuillaume, has affirmed to us that this book of "M. Mailand had completely modified his ideas on "varnish, and that from that time he had made "important changes in his method. It is easy to "convince oneself of this by examining the instru-"ments which left his hands during the last fifteen "years of his life. The varnish is incontestably "superior to all that he had made before."
7M. Vidal further writes:—"Among the old Italian "masters, A. Stradivari is the one who, from this "point of view, as from many others, has reached the "greatest cleverness and perfection; his varnish is a "model both in respect to its colour as well as to its "fine and transparent body. That of Joseph Guarneri
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