Books › The violin : how to choose one, 1893 › scan 57
Scan 57
The violin : how to choose one, 1893
2 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 53. See the scan on archive.org.
1of Stradivarius, which sold steadily for £4 a piece, and produced a handsome competence to their maker. Stradivarius was not an impudent man, and he never advertised, and he said nothing of his violins being made according to "the secret of the Cremona violins;" for, alas, there was no secret in it that he ever grasped. There may have been a certain method known to the Brescian makers, Gasparo da Salo and Maggini, which was lost by the sudden death of the latter, but if so Stradivarius never re-discovered it. He came upon good pieces of wood occasionally, which would mellow into grand sounding boards in 150 years; and he covered his violins with a good oil varnish, and so may any violin maker; and there is no more in it.
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