Scan 277
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
4 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 9. See the scan on archive.org.
1on all sides. His originality was conceived in the German school amid the worst examples, and it was too late to undo what had gone before. Here then lies, I consider, the key to the seeming anomaly that so great a maker as Stainer should have adopted and clung to so clumsy a model. That his stay in Cremona had a marked affect upon his style is clear enough. Who but an artist located in Cremona could have made those exquisite Violins known as "Elector Stainers?" The wood selected for its rare loveliness, the finished workmanship, and charming rose-coloured varnish, render these works of art, of which one glimpse is a never-fading memory. These works show the diligent zeal with which Stainer laboured in his studies of the Italian masters. He contrived to give these instruments an air of grace quite foreign to the best efforts of his brother German makers. In the sound-hole and scroll is observable his seeming desire to leave behind the German preferences; and although it must be admitted that he was but partially successful in his endeavours to stamp out early tendencies, the connoisseur cannot but be impressed with the fertile resources of the artist's manipulations. Had such skill been exercised on a form nearer akin to the Italian, the result would have been perfect.
3The history of Jacobus Stainer is enveloped in obscurity. The dates of his birth and death are unknown, and, indeed, nearly all that is related of him rests upon tradition. Amongst the rumours
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