Books › The violin : how to choose one, 1893 › scan 29
Scan 29
The violin : how to choose one, 1893
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 25. See the scan on archive.org.
1and a fine quality to the tone of a new violin, which is given by no other mixture. It does not give the tone, but it smooths it into a glassy-like clearness—imparts to it a certain tincture to be got from no other varnish. So careful have I been to test this thoroughly that in no case have I taken the word of the varnish maker alone, but have seen the mixture and had it applied to a violin with endless tests and comparisons of the quality of the tone, and in every case where fossil amber was the gum of the varnish, the same glassy clearness, combined with softness, was the characteristic of the tone. Seeing that the method of making this varnish is now known to at least nine men, I venture to predict that before long every first-class new violin will be covered with amber oil varnish, and with no other. A violin maker has only to try it once to use it always.
3Having stated this opinion concerning amber oil varnish, and given my reasons for adopting it, I may now give a few facts connected with the amber theory supplied by Mr. Whitelaw, but before doing so I must state that I have no interest in the sale of this varnish, or of any article noticed in my works, and that I have never met Mr. Whitelaw, or been asked to look at or notice his varnish, a specimen of which I came upon by the merest accident.
5"Was amber used in the varnish of the old Cremona masters, or was it not? It is allowed by all that this question is almost unanswerable; and after putting briefly the arguments against the amber theory, mostly based on conjecture, I shall bring forward evidence of it based on facts.
7"Charles Reade, as his strongest reason against the amber theory, says—'Surely amber was too dear.' The fact does not seem to be generally known, that within a short distance of Cremona important amber deposits have been worked from time immemorial, and as the smaller pieces were of no use for carving, &c., they would be cast aside, and could probably be had for the lifting of them.
9"1st. Perkins, the great English Chemist, detected amber in varnish scraped from a Joseph Guarnerius violin.
11"2nd. That amber can be got cheaply and plentifully I have already shown.
13"3rd. That no other gum will give the fine yellow colour and characteristic sheen. The peculiar 'sheen' called by Charles Reade 'the hidden fire,' is the result of the very high refractive power of amber, the highest of any gum substance, and almost equal to rock crystal among minerals.
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