Scan 166
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1909
6 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Gragnani, Antonio, Leghorn. Usually branded his initials below the tail-pin. Varnish somewhat hard; ordinary wood. The tone is often of good quality.
3Grancino, Paolo, Milan, 1665-92. Pupil of Niccolò Amati. The Grancino family, as makers of Violins, commence with this maker, and occupy a similar position, as followers of the Amati pattern, to that of the Gagliani as imitators of Stradivari. Paolo Grancino was pupil of Niccolò Amati. His early works bear the stamp of the mere copyist; later on the borrowed plumes are less apparent, the dictates of his own fancy are discoverable, but never to such an extent as to permit him to be classed with Stradivari, Bergonzi, and Guarneri, as striking out into entirely untrodden paths.
5His Violoncellos are particularly fine instruments; his Tenors also are worthy of notice. The wood he used was varied, but is, for the most part, plain. It is curious to observe how various centres of Violin-making ran upon different qualities of wood. In Venice the handsomest wood was used, in Milan and Naples the plainest. The commercial importance of Venice would, of course, draw to it the largest selection of wood, and thus permit the second and third rate maker to use it, and at the same rate, probably, as a less handsome material would cost in cities farther removed. The scroll
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