Scan 78
The Violin: Its Famous Makers and their Imitators, 1875
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 42. See the scan on archive.org.
1and as it was chiefly in vogue after that the Cremonese was lost, we may conclude that it was probably produced by the Neapolitan makers for their own need.
3If we reflect for a moment upon the extensive use which these makers made of the Cremonese varnish, it is reasonable to suppose that it was an ordinary commodity in their days, and that there was then no secret in the matter at all. To account for its sudden disappearance and total loss is, indeed, not easy. After 1760, or even at an earlier date, all trace of it is obliterated. The demand for it was certainly not so great as it had been, but quite sufficient to prevent the supply from dying out, had it been possible. The problem of its sudden disappearance may, perhaps, be accounted for without overstepping the bounds of possibility if we suppose that the varnish was composed of a particular gum quite common in those days, extensively used for other purposes besides the varnishing of Violins, and thereby caused to be a marketable article. Suddenly, we will suppose, the demand for its supply ceased, and the commercial world troubled no further about the matter. The natural consequence would be non-production. It is well known that there are numerous instances of commodities once in frequent supply and use, but now entirely obsolete and extinct.
5While, however, our attention has been mainly directed to the basis of the celebrated varnish, it
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.