Books › Violin tone and violin makers, 1916 › scan 277
Scan 277
Violin tone and violin makers, 1916
4 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 255. See the scan on archive.org.
1AND VIOLIN MAKERS
3sound-holes, and the form of the scrolls. This type of violin he continued to make with certain exceptions, such as the "Hellier," a large fiddle of the "inlaid" class, measuring 14 1/8 inches in length, until 1684. Between that year and 1690 the pattern and details are somewhat variable. According to Messrs. Hill, Stradivari first began to pick out the edges of his scrolls with black in or about the year 1688, and continued the practice, with rare exceptions, until the end of his life. In 1690 he made the remarkable violin known as the "Tuscan," a large instrument of exceedingly handsome wood and build, and in the years 1691 and 1692 a few violins of exceptionally large proportions. The year 1690 also saw the advent of the "long Strad," a pattern the dimensions of which have given rise to a certain amount of controversy. As a matter of fact, the lengths of these instruments vary between about 14 1/8 inches and 14 5/6, the latter being the extreme limit. About 14 3/6 inches would seem to be the more usual length. The widths are about 6 7/16 in the upper bouts, and 8 inches in the lower ones. These narrow violins were made until the year 1700, with the exception of the year 1698, from which year no examples seem to have been seen. A large number of them—something like fifty—are still in existence. During this period, however, he did not confine himself entirely to the long pattern. Some of the long Strads are of great beauty of form and material, and by the time he began to make them he had adopted a varnish of deeper colour. The maker's best period is commonly supposed to begin about the year 1700, but some of the finest efforts are dated from 1704, in which year he made the "Betts," a specimen in a remarkable state of preservation, and with rather long corners. In the same year he
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