Scan 74
The Violin Gallery: Comprising: Section I. South Kensington Special …, 1890
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Additional Photographs & Original Notes.
3205 GASPAR DI SALO. BRESCHIA. Mrs. Ole Bull, Cambridge, Mass.
4The celebrated "Treasury Violin" of Inspruch, by Gaspar di Salo with Caryatides, by Benvenuto Cellini, sculptured by special command of Cardinal Aldorandini, and by him presented to the Museum of Inspruch. After the assault upon the said city by the French in 1809, the Museum was plundered and the violin carried to Vienna, where the Councillor Rehazek placed this unique gem in his celebrated collection of ancient musical instruments, refusing to sell it at any price. He left it by will to Ole Bull in 1842. Up to that period it had never been played upon; had no bar, only a bridge of boxwood, sculptured and painted, and a very short and inlaid finger-board.
5The varnish is dark brown, approaching an ebony color. It is said that the breast of this famous violin is marked with multitudes of geometric rings or waves caused by the vibrations set in motion by the Norwegian's powerful arm, but I question this theory, as I have seen what I think is the same thing in an Egidius Klotz violin of about 1670, which has never trembled under the stroke of the eminent Norwegian fiddler's bow—they are the rings of annual growth in the wood and it is so cut as to show them diverging from the center to the edge like the calm waves on a circular beach. Ole Bull's Gaspar di Salo is the most widely known and the most celebrated violin in the world, its distinguished owner having performed on it for 39 years in concerts in the cities of all countries, and he who has not heard its enchanting tones under the electric touch of the Norwegian King of Violinists, has indeed never heard any violin playing. When he favored an audience with his own "Quartett for one violin" rendered on this instrument, it did not take much stretch of the imagination to hear at times a full pipe organ, again a full string quartett would loom up before you in the one man and one fiddle; and his double harmonics were equally astounding. But of all the feats with the bow that have ever been performed on this continent Ole Bull's detached bowing (a variety of the staccato) is the greatest. On account of having a long arm he used a bow about two inches longer than the ordinary bow, and it was the writer's good fortune to witness one of those wonderful exhibition performances, which occurred I think, as a cedenza in a solo;—commencing at the point he pushed the bow up say 1-16 of an inch at a time in rapid succession—clear to the frog, and then changing the direction without disturbing the rhythm, drew the bow downward to the point in the same manner, making at each 1-16 of an inch, notes clean cut, clear and distinct and following each other in great rapidity. This marvelous performance like Paganini's prodigious intervals will probably stand forever unequalled and be a model for aspiring violinists in each succeeding generation.
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