Scan 85
The Violin Gallery: Comprising: Section I. South Kensington Special …, 1890
21 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Notice the progress as indicated by the f hole in the three examples which we are able to show. Commencing with No. 208, we find in this early specimen an f hole so primitive as to partake of the Brescian character,—then in 1629 (No. 136) it is more rounded at the ends and shorter (remembering that the instrument is a viola) more like the later violins of his father Hieronymo; and in the example before us we observe that finished elegant f hole which marks the period where Amati left off and Stradivari commenced.
2This is not one of Amati's broad, flat, long cornered instruments known as the "grand pattern" which Stradivari adopted and improved upon, but it is the Amati which has been more extensively copied than any other style, consequently it serves better the purposes of this work, and I am particularly fortunate in obtaining so suitable and valuable a specimen.
4246 ANTONIUS STRADIUARIUS.
5Mr. Bernhard Listemann, 132 Tremont St., Boston, Mass.
6Said by Connoisseurs to be a good example of this great maker; its possession by this artist is surely a guaranty for its tone and quality.
8247 GIOVANNI GRANCINO, MILAN. Mr. Bruno Wollenhaupt, New York.
91694–1720. Son of Paolo Grancino who was a pupil of Nicholas Amati. He copied Amati, using better material than his father, and making his instruments flatter, which, being the more fashionable form, will give them more commercial value.
11248 JOSEPH GUARNERIUS (DEL JESU) I H S. 1741.
12Mr. Bruno Wollenhaupt, N. Y.
13It has the Del Jesu f hole, but the outline is quite uncommon in the works of this master. The back is in one piece, of beautifully figured maple with figure sloping upward from left to right.
15249 EGIDIUS KLOTZ. MITTENWALD.
161660–1675. Pupil of Stainer, workmanship fine, purfling broad, model worked out around the edges but rather high in the center, walls a little shallow. Scroll and outline very Italian, for which school this instrument has often been taken. Starcke says—"After Stainer, Egidius Klotz is the most celebrated Tyrolese instrument maker."
18250 JOSEPH GUARNERIUS DEL JESU. CREMONA, 1743. Paganini's.
191725–1745. Bequeathed by Paganini to the municipality of his native place—Genoa, where it is kept on exhibition in a glass case in the Municipal Palace and allowed to be handled by no one. It is said that this violin has never been played upon since Paganini's death, except once, when the authorities were prevailed upon to allow Sivori, Paganini's best pupil, to perform upon it at a charity concert.
20These photographs were taken for the Duke of Edinburgh when he was in Genoa, and it is said that he assisted at the work; they are kindly furnished me by Mr. S. M. Lloyd of Goderich, Canada.
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