Books › The varnishes of the Italian violin-makers of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their influence on tone;, 1904 › scan 47
Scan 47
The varnishes of the Italian violin-makers of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their influence on tone;, 1904
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Mr. Hill's description of refraction effects is almost equally good, but he seems to be afraid to let himself go—he delineates forcibly with one hand while with the other he holds fast to a cherished theory.
3The excellent coloured representations of a few of the ancient instruments, for which the world is indebted to the Messrs. Hill, are equally fatal to the monochrome theory—the artist portrays the different thicknesses of the pellicle of varnish, the variety caused by light and shadow, not as shades of the same colour but as distinct colours.
5As with the sunset and sunrise, so with the varnish. Herein lies the charm—that the tints are constantly changing with varying conditions of intensity, quality and direction of light. It is absolutely impossible to imitate these effects by coloured imitations; the notion that age will impart to these concoctions the properties of dichroic varnishes is quite illusory.
7M. Mailand did one great service to M. J. B. Vuillaume and his other followers, in that he taught them to use oxygenated turpentine in forming their mixtures; curiously enough, as far as can be discovered, neither he nor they appreciated the real significance of this proceeding.
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