Books › The violin : how to choose one, 1893 › scan 24
Scan 24
The violin : how to choose one, 1893
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 20. See the scan on archive.org.
1CHAPTER IV.
3Amber Varnish—A Collection of Theories and Facts.
5I have frequently had the question put to me—"Is the grand tone of the Cremona violin caused by the varnish with which they are covered?" to which I emphatically answer "No." The tone is in the wood and the harmonious relation of the parts, not in the varnish; nevertheless, it is easy to spoil the tone of a good violin by putting on a coat of hard varnish, whether that varnish be an oil one or a spirit one. A new violin is certainly improved in tone by being covered with a varnish of the right kind—the tone is neither increased nor diminished, but a certain tincture or quality is imparted to it which it had not "in the white." Curiously enough, however, a violin one or two hundred years old, which has at first been properly varnished, seems to need no varnish, for many valuable old violins are almost bare, yet their tone is ravishing. A friend of mine owns a violin by Vincenzo Panormo, which, through being long exposed to the sun in a shop window, became denuded of every particle of varnish with which it was originally covered. It is as bare as the back of my hand, yet it is full, round, and mellow in the tone as any varnished violin which can be placed alongside of it. The owner, however, is of opinion that there is still varnish in the wood, though not visible to the eye. I once tried a Stradivarius violin somewhat worn in varnish alongside of one which was whole in varnish, and am bound to say that the worn one sounded better; but here again the difference in favour of the worn one might have arisen from the violin having been more played upon. However, seeing that varnish does tincture the tone of a new violin, it is well that the tincture should be a good one. A very skilful violin maker in England, who uses a very slow drying oil varnish, once declared to me that amber was too hard a gum to be used in a violin varnish, but he was mistaken. The varnish which he himself makes and uses is so
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