Books › Violin tone and violin makers, 1916 › scan 203
Scan 203
Violin tone and violin makers, 1916
4 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 181. See the scan on archive.org.
1AND VIOLIN MAKERS
3traceable, and instruments now properly assigned to that maker have pretty frequently been labelled and passed as the work of Del Gesù. The sound-holes of his violins exhibit much diversity of treatment both in the form and the angle at which they are placed, and it is evident that in the cutting of them he rarely had recourse to patterns, or templates. It is generally supposed that he revived the "pointed" form associated with the school of Brescia. In many cases there is little or no suspicion of a "point" visible, and in no case known to the writer is the peculiarity accentuated to the absurd extent exhibited in swarms of copies which may be met with. His arching varies considerably, but the rise of the plates from the edges to the centre is usually gradual. In the outline of his more robust type of instrument there is a resemblance to the violins of Maggini, but that maker's large dimensions—his ordinary fiddle is about 14 1/4 to 14 1/2 inches long—are never approached by del Gesù. His varnish is almost always of fine quality and Cremonese type. There are probably more yellow specimens to be seen than those of deeper shade, but on the latter its colouring and texture are admirable. Swarms of makers of all nationalities have imitated, or attempted to imitate, him; but the truth, as shown by experience, is that del Gesù's work is very difficult to imitate successfully; far more so than that of Stradivari and many other noted makers. His eccentricities have been travestied to an extent which betrays the hand of the forger to all but the most inexperienced. The cutting of the scroll is nearly always a stumbling block, and perhaps ninety-nine out of every hundred copies are too big. This latter observation will generally be found to apply to the wonderfully clever imitations made by John
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.