Books › The violin : how to choose one, 1893 › scan 32
Scan 32
The violin : how to choose one, 1893
2 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 28. See the scan on archive.org.
1vicissitudes of time. Between 1740 and 1760 great changes in the manufacture of varnish were introduced. The old soft gums and their menstrua were discarded. The old fashion of ornamenting all articles of furniture with carving had given place to a more sober style. Broad, unrelieved surfaces, depending on the intrinsic beauty of their material, were found a relief to the eye, tired with unravelling the mazes of complex carving or painted arabesque. The old, soft, badly-wearing varnishes no longer sufficed for the protection and covering of such surfaces, hence the new processes. The hard copal gums hitherto undissolvable, or only partially so, were found to yield entirely on proper heating and fusion, and the problem of durability, hardness, and unchangeableness was soon solved; but with the laying aside of the old receipts, the Italian varnish became a lost art, and the knowledge of its composition, naturally confined to general manufacturers, was forgotten. Moreover, the days of violin making in Italy were over. England, France, and Germany were eager competitors; the stolid build of the first, the gaudy colour of the second, and the baked wood of the Mittenwalder, and the general cheapness of all, held the market. And so it has happened that the art of the old varnish is not lost, but buried under the wheel of progress, and it would be absurd to say that persistent enquiry must fail to unravel a skein of so many ends."
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.