Scan 182
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
2 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1examine the characteristics of the earliest productions of Stradiuarius, in order that the reader may judge of the extent and value of this fancied resemblance. Although we have not met with a single instance of a Stradiuarius Violin bearing the maker's name prior to 1668, we have seen instruments bearing the signature of Nicholas Amati which can be readily recognized by the practised judge as having been the work of Stradiuarius, in some cases in toto (in which case, as may easily be imagined, they have no longer been allowed to sail under false colours, but have had their proper certificate of birth attached to them); in other cases, and more frequently, in part, as when the beautiful scroll of Stradiuarius is met with on the body of an Amati, or the sound-hole of such an instrument shows that it has been cut by the hand of Stradiuarius. We will not, however, consider these instruments as typical of the maker, but pass on to the period when we assume that Stradiuarius left the workshop of Amati, the year 1668. At this point we find that his whole work is in accordance with the plans of Amati (not as seen in the latter's grand pattern, but in his ordinary full-sized instrument); the arching is identical, the corners are treated similarly, the sound-hole is quite Amati-like in form, yet easily distinguished by its extreme delicacy, the scroll a thorough imitation of Amati, and presenting a singular contrast to the vigorous individuality which Stradiuarius displayed in this portion of his work a few years later.
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