Books › The varnishes of the Italian violin-makers of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their influence on tone;, 1904 › scan 33
Scan 33
The varnishes of the Italian violin-makers of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their influence on tone;, 1904
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1M. Mailand writes (9):—"We have already said "that the art of making varnishes at the epoch when "the great masters lived was in a nascent state. "Nevertheless, we are certain that they employed "those which they found in commerce and which "they appropriated to their wants. It is this which "explains to us why these also have sometimes "changed, when new formulæ were produced. But "if they have left one formula for another, they have "always remained under the conditions of elasticity, "which they had recognized as necessary. As to the "colouration, it has little effect on the quality of the "varnish as body (elle importe peu à la qualité du "vernis comme pâte), if one may so express oneself; "and if they have often varied in this respect, that "could only depend on the demand of the buyer, on "their taste, or on the more or less solidity of the "colouring matters."
3M. Mailand gives no evidence whatever in support of his certainty that the old masters used varnishes which they found in commerce. I agree that the "conditions of elasticity" remained practically constant, for the simple reason that the constitution of the varnish was the same from start to finish. As to his astonishing statement that the colouring matter would have little effect on the quality of the varnish ("comme pâte"), I am sorry to differ from him. The very large proportion of pigment which is required to be mixed with a pale, soft resin to produce a deep-coloured varnish has a most important and deleterious effect on the quality of the body of the varnish.
5He repeats, on page 12, that he "is well convinced
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