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diff --git a/78831-h/78831-h.htm b/78831-h/78831-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a42e3a --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/78831-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14841 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + OLD VIOLINS | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; + text-indent: 1em; +} + +.pad05 {padding-left: 0.5em;} + +.fs80 {font-size: 80%;} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +hr.r5 {width: 5%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 47.5%; margin-right: 47.5%;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +ul.index { list-style-type: none; } +li.ifrst { + margin-top: 1em; + text-indent: -2em; + padding-left: 1em; +} +li.indx { + margin-top: .5em; + text-indent: -2em; + padding-left: 1em; +} +li.isub1 { + text-indent: -2em; + padding-left: 2em; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +table.autotable {border-collapse: collapse;} +td {padding: 0.25em;} +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdc {text-align: center;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + color: #A9A9A9; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + +.customcover {visibility: hidden; display: none;} + +.x-ebookmaker .customcover {visibility: visible; display: block;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: 1px dashed;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} + +/* Transcriber’s notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} +.poetry .indent14 {text-indent: 4em;} +.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2em;} +.poetry .indent22 {text-indent: 8em;} + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowp100 {width: 100%;} +.illowp44 {width: 44%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp44 {width: 100%;} +.illowp47 {width: 47%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp47 {width: 100%;} +.illowp48 {width: 48%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp48 {width: 100%;} +.illowp52 {width: 52%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp52 {width: 100%;} +.illowp53 {width: 53%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp53 {width: 100%;} +.illowp55 {width: 55%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp55 {width: 100%;} +.illowp56 {width: 56%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp56 {width: 100%;} +.illowp58 {width: 58%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp58 {width: 100%;} + + + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78831 ***</div> + + + + + +<div class="transnote"> +<p>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE</p> + +<p>Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.</p> + +<p class="customcover">New original cover art included with this eBook is +granted to the public domain.</p> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<p class="center"> +Collector Series</p><br> +<hr class="r5"> +<h1>OLD VIOLINS<br></h1> + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<figure class="figcenter illowp48" id="i_003" style="max-width: 43.75em;"> + <img src="images/i_003.jpg" alt="Ornate title page with titles of +other books in this Collector series."> + </figure> + </div> + + +<table class="autotable fs80"> +<tr class="smcap"> +<td class="tdc">Autographs and<br>Manuscripts</td> +<td class="tdc">The Collector Series</td> +<td class="tdc">English Water-<br>Colours</td> +</tr> +<tr class="smcap"> +<td class="tdc">Stamps</td> +<td class="tdc">Tapestry Lace and<br>Embroidery</td> +<td class="tdc">Miniatures</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc"><br>OLD<br>VIOLINS</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +</tr> +<tr class="smcap"> +<td class="tdc">Fine Prints</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc">English<br>Book Plates</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc smcap">by<br>Rev. H. R. Haweis</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc"><br>EDINBURGH<br>JOHN GRANT<br>1910</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +</tr> +<tr class="smcap"> +<td class="tdc">Coins</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc">Pictures</td> +</tr> +<tr class="smcap"> +<td class="tdc"><br>Porcelain</td> +<td class="tdc"><br>Old Bibles</td> +<td class="tdc"><br>Ancient Glass</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> +</div> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><span class="allsmcap">CHAP.</span></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdr allsmcap">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Prelude</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violin Genesis</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violin Constitution</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violins at Brescia</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violins at Cremona</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Violins at Cremona</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violins in Germany</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VII.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violins in France</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VIII.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violins in England</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IX.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violin Varnish</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">X.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violin Strings</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_153">153</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XI.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violin Bows</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XII.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violin Tarisio</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIII.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violins at Mirecourt, Mittenwald, and<br>Markneukirchen</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIV.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violin Treatment</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XV.</td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Violin Dealers, Collectors, and Amateurs</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Postlude</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Dictionary of Violin Makers</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_239">239</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Bibliography</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_281">281</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl smcap">Description of Plates</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_287">287</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="OLD_VIOLINS">OLD VIOLINS</h2> +</div> + +<br> +<div class="chapter"> +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PRELUDE">PRELUDE</h3> +</div> + + +<p>What is the secret of the violin? Why is it that +when a great violinist appears all the other soloists +have to take a back seat?</p> + +<p>The answer is: the fascination of the violin is the +fascination of the soul unveiled.</p> + +<p>No instrument—the human voice hardly excepted—provides +such a rare vehicle for the emotions—is in such +close touch with the molecular vibrations of thought +and with the psychic waves of feeling. But whilst the +violin equals the voice in sensibility and expression, it +far transcends it in compass, variety, and durability.</p> + +<p>Consider the singular completeness and perfection of +this instrument as a sort of physical and vibratory +counterpart of the soul. The four strings no doubt +limit and define its compass, and only in the quartet +and collectively, is it capable of extended effects of +complex harmony; but as a tone-producing instrument +and within its limits it is perfect—every gradation of +sound between tone and semitone is attainable, and for +no other instrument can this be claimed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span></p> + +<p>Next I observe that the violin possesses a trinity in +unity of power which invests it with a quite singular +and felicitous completeness of its own:—</p> + +<p>(1) <em>Accent</em>—and in staccato passages almost the +accent of percussion.</p> + +<p>(2) <em>Sustained sound</em>—to a degree far beyond the +capabilities of the human voice.</p> + +<p>(3) <em>Modified tone</em>—and in such refinement of gradation, +that the melting lines of the spectrum can alone +supply us with a parallel or analogy.</p> + +<p>Your piano possesses <em>accent</em>, but once strike a note, +soft or loud, and it passes beyond your control.</p> + +<p>The piano has little <em>sustained</em> and no <em>modified tone</em>.</p> + +<p>Your organ has <em>accent</em> and <em>sustained tone</em>, but in a +very imperfect sense <em>modified</em> tone; and a brief survey +of all musical instruments now in use will convince the +student of acoustics that nowhere but in the violin do +we find to anything like the same degree, that trinity in +unity of power summed up in <em>accent</em>, <em>sustained</em> sound, +<em>modified</em> tone.</p> + +<p>But the half has not yet been revealed. The trinity +of power in the violin is placed under the immediate +control of two hands—of ten fingers, each hand functioning +differently. The hand on the finger-board is +engaged in pressing the strings; the other hand wields +the bow, and not only sets the strings in vibration, +but drives, tears, plunges, caresses, checks, prolongs, +magnetises and regulates, in an altogether marvellous +fashion, the outpourings of sound, which are in reality +the outpourings of the musician’s soul,—and further:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span></p> + +<p>Has it ever occurred to you, my reader, how differently +the same piece of music, or, for the matter of +that, the same violin, sounds in the hands of two +different players?</p> + +<p>A few of Paganini’s solos were written down, and +Sivori, who passed as his only pupil, was in the habit of +playing some of them; yet no one was ever wrought +to frenzy or melted into a passion of tears by that +elegant performer. I have often heard him. The +gentlemen in the orchestra remained calm, and listened +with admiration and approval. But when Paganini +played, the drummer on one occasion so shook with +excitement that he was utterly incapable of playing his +part at all, and Professor Ella, then a violinist at the +first desk, went up and did it for him, whilst the other +violinists were so lost in wonder that they could hardly +concentrate their attention sufficiently to come in at +the “tutti.”</p> + +<p>When Paganini raised his bow on high, it came +down on his four strings with a crash. What made it +sound like thunder? It was the thunder in his soul! +When his violin wailed with sweetness long drawn out, +why did the tears roll down the faces of hardened +orchestral veterans, and even great virtuosi like Lindley +and Dragonetti? Why did the people just go off into +fits of laughter when a comic vein seized the prodigious +Maestro in the midst of his variations on the Carnival +de Venise?</p> + +<p>I have heard Wieniawski play his since much +hackneyed “Legende”—it may have been somewhere<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span> +in the sixties. I never heard anything so weird—spirit +voices in the twilight—the wail of lost souls—one +positively saw ghosts. I have heard the “Legende” a +hundred times since by Neruda, Nachez, Sarasate, and +I know not how many more, but I have never again +seen ghosts.</p> + +<p>What was it? It was the mystery of <em>touch</em>. The +language of touch is but half understood, but the +language of touch is the language of soul, and the +perfection of touch is reached when a sensitive finger +controls a vibrating string or nerve and sends its own +psychic thrill along the waves of sound or sensibility.</p> + +<p>The same no doubt is true of the pianoforte touch, +though in a less degree, because a percussive touch +can never have the power of a sustained and modified +pressure.</p> + +<p>Recent science has thrown some curious sidelights +upon this same sense of touch. It affirms that the +trained fingers of the blind actually acquire from +exercise, practice, and adaptation, new nerve-cells filled +with grey matter exactly similar to the thinking and +feeling grey nerve matter of the brain—in fact, the +fingers of the sensitive musician have the power of +thought and emotion delegated to them; and just as +thinking matter is not confined to brain cells, but +extends all down the medulla oblongata, which responds +to stimulus, even when the head is cut off—so we now +know that brain cells may be acquired, I had almost +said cerebrated, and used even by the fingers.</p> + +<p>Now, supposing we bring these thinking, pulsating<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span> +finger-tips and wed their subtle pressure to waves of +sound, who shall say that these special sound waves +may not be so impregnated with brain waves as that +sound thus charged with soul may convey through the +auditory nerve to other souls the passion, the emotion, +the sorrow, the joy, and whatever else is generated in +the heart and brain of the musician? ’Tis not more +inconceivable than thought-reading.</p> + +<p>This goes far to account for the personal fascination +which players exercise through their art. Their soul +waves becoming brain waves, float out, charged with +whatever is in the musician; and if there is nothing in +the musician, as not unfrequently happens, they float +out charged with nothing!</p> + +<p>The witchery of the violin for collectors is perhaps +more difficult to explain. Very often these fanciers +don’t play, and still more often they seem to have an +objection to other people stringing up their treasures +and playing on them. It is the construction, not so +much the sound of the violin, that deprives the collector +of his senses; but we ought to be very thankful to +these monomaniacs, for without them there would be +few masterpieces still extant; through them the violin +goes into a period of Devachan, or enforced rest. At +all events, it cannot be worn out, or chipped, or rubbed, +or trifled with by repairers whilst in the collector’s +cabinet.</p> + +<p>All the finest violins are known and carefully stalked—the +health of their owners watched; and when the +time comes, they either find their way to the open<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> +market or are picked up briskly by the great dealers, +sometimes for fabulous sums. Mr Hill of Bond Street +thinks nothing of a thousand pounds for a really fine +specimen of Strad.</p> + +<p>Watch the collector exhibiting his treasures to a +select company after lunch. You will soon see he is +not the daft creature whom the uninitiated who only +want to <em>hear</em> the fiddle are apt to suppose. He knows +the influence which that old Gasparo or Maggini had +upon the Cremona school. He marks with admiration +the emergence of the Amati and Guarnerii from the +Brescian models; for him even the quaint long ∫ ∫’s of +the old makers stand in lovely contrast with the more +graceful but still pointed sound-holes of Joseph or +more rounded ones of the great Antonius. To him +that ancient viola cut down from a larger-sized model +of viol now extinct, and placed side by side with an +Amati tenor, is as interesting as the study of comparative +anatomy to a scientist.</p> + +<p>Then your collector is never tired of dwelling on the +perfection of those forms which slowly emerged as the +survival of the fittest in that exciting quest for the +sensitiveness, sweetness, and sonority of tone which +occupied the lifelong meditations of Nicolo Amati and +Stradivari. Anon he will call your attention excitedly +and sympathetically to the grace of the curves, the surface +never flat or board-like, but full of a variety of +levels like the satiny surface of a fine human body. +You might almost believe that a whole system of muscle—a +very living organism—lay beneath the “back” and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> +belly, which to his eyes are alive with swelling and +undulating grace;—and then think of the varnish like +a sheet of thin jasper, at once shielding from decay, +whilst revealing as years roll on the transparent filaments +of the mottled maple or sycamore and the pine, +and crossed between the fibres with millions of tiny +rays which betray the desiccated cells—now fit for +resonance—through which the sap once flowed!</p> + +<p>But I must not anticipate matter which more properly +belongs to violin manufacture. I only wish to +affirm, in justification of the existence of players, hearers, +and collectors alike, that the violin charm has its own +rationale.</p> + +<p>I may perhaps be pardoned if I close this prelude +with some words which I used before the Royal Institution +in 1872.</p> + +<p>“The violin is perennial. It grows old with its perpetual +youth. There is no reason why it should ever +wear out. It sings over the graves of many generations. +Time, that sometimes robs it of a little varnish, +has no power over its anointed fabric.</p> + +<p>“The hard durable substance steeped in silicate-like +varnish has well-nigh turned to stone, but without +sacrificing a single quality of sweetness or resonance.</p> + +<p>“The violin is the only fossil which still lives, and +lives with a fulness of life and a freshness that contrasts +quaintly enough with the fleeting, sickly, and withering +generations of man. Even should mishap bruise or +break its beauty it can be endlessly restored. It is +never fit for death; it survives a thousand calamities;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> +nay, even when cut up and dismembered, its several +parts, scattered through a dozen workshops and three +hundred years, live on with a kind of metempsychosis +in new forms, and still cling strangely to their individuality, +so that men taking up a patchwork violin say, +‘It is fine—the front is poor, the head is tame, but see +here is a Stradivarius back!’</p> + +<p>“Thus human in its power and pathos, superhuman +in its immortal fabric, the violin reigns supreme, the +king and queen of all instruments—and, in the hands +of a Paganini, a Joachim, an Ernst, or a Sarasate, the +joy and wonder of the civilised world.”</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER I</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLIN GENESIS</p> + + +<p>To me it has always appeared unimportant and not +very interesting to answer the question, “Were or +were not the ancients—by which we usually mean +Babylonians, Egyptians, or Greeks and Romans—acquainted +with the fact that stretched strings could +be set in tonal vibration by means of horse-hair, reed, +or some other fibre?” They knew most things, and +how much they knew we are only now beginning to +discover.</p> + +<p>At one time we thought that even the Romans did +not know that water rose to its level, but they were +well acquainted with the fact.</p> + +<p>We pride ourselves upon the triumphs of modern +surgery, but we now find that the Egyptians were also +great surgeons and operated successfully for calculus.</p> + +<p>The wonders of electric telegraphy are doubtless of +modern origin, but the Greeks were at least aware of +the attractive properties of amber, which they called +“Electron,” though they made no use of electricity, +and they may very likely have been acquainted with +the principle of rubbing, as they certainly were of +plucking, a string in tension to produce a sound—without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> +ever elaborating the idea in an instrument for +musical purposes.</p> + +<p>Both Fêtis and Vidal deny that any instrument of +the viol tribe existed in antiquity, apparently on the +slender grounds that the few fragments of pottery, +papyrus, or mural decoration known to us have not +yet revealed the fact. I think it probable that these +savants are wrong. Like the use of the wheel, bow +and arrows, bow and string for drilling holes, the bow +or something like it employed for musical purposes is +likely, on <i lang="fr">a priori</i> grounds alone, to be of immense +antiquity, and at least as old as the knowledge of +percussion instruments such as the drum, or of wind +instruments such as the pan-pipes.</p> + +<p>I don’t lay any great stress upon pictures of stringed +instruments with something like a bridge taken to +prove the existence of a bow, especially if the bow +happens to be absent—a guitar has a bridge but no +bow, so has the zither and the bandoline, which are +plucked with the fingers or a plectrum. The much-talked-of +Canino Vase (fig. 103, vol. iii. of Micali’s +<i lang="it">Storia Degli Antichi Popoli Italiani</i>), showing apparently +a sort of instrument with apparently a sort +of bow, has been held by some to be conclusive that +something like the violin tribe was known to the +Etruscans. Possibly! Personally I am not satisfied +that it is a musical instrument at all which is figured +on that same vase—it might be anything, from a rattle +or a torch to a broom or a dust-pan. The strongest +point in its favour as a musical instrument is not the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> +rough image on the vase, but the fact that a musician, +astronomer, and doctor, by name Chiron, is seated +beside it.</p> + +<p>We probably see the descendants of any such instruments +as may have existed in those times in the +Ravanastron, which has been recognised by some as +the oriental precursor of the occidental fiddle.</p> + +<p>Altogether, I think that, from the musical point of +view, too much time, and a surplus of barren antiquarian +lore, have been bestowed on the origin of the +viol tribe.</p> + +<p>Our business begins not even with the building up +of the viol out of the Rebek, Crouth, and Rotta (see +“Music and Morals,” p. 382), but with the emergence +of the violin tenor, violoncello, and double-bass out of +that confused, tentative, and often grotesque crowd of +viols and viol da Gambas, specimens of which are +still exhibited behind glass in our Art Museums and +Loan Collections. We have little to do with them. +They are of no more living account than the Egyptian +mummies in the British Museum. A few retain a +gleam of practical importance for the violin collector, +because they have been cut down for tenors or otherwise +used up during the last three hundred years +by violin makers: the others remain of interest to +musicians only; like the bones of fossil crocodiles, +they are curious studies in the comparative anatomy, +not of reptiles, but of musical instruments, that +is all.</p> + +<p>No, it is with the distinct evolution of the violin, by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> +which I mean the violin tenor, violoncello, and double-bass +types, from the nondescript, dusky, tubby, ungainly +machines, muffled in sound and dubious in form, +that for me at least begins the history and the interest +of the violin tribe.</p> + +<p>The genius of these elect types is inseparably connected +with song—sacred song.</p> + +<p>Viols were used in churches to play chants in unison +with the monks’ voices (probably also to assist their +defective musical ear). When the singing-schools of +Italy arose and divided the voice into treble, alto, +tenor, and bass, a suitable viol was told off as the +companion of each voice. Soon after this the modern +divisions, the octave and the discovery of the perfect +cadence, laid the foundation of the art of modern +music (Monteverde, 1570). The violin emerged.</p> + +<p>The endless discussions as to exactly when the violin +proper made its appearance, or the tenor proper, or +when the viol da Gamba got modified into the current +violoncello size and shape, will probably continue to +agitate those whose minds have a special aptitude for +such researches. A very general statement will probably +satisfy general readers, and even special lovers of +the violin.</p> + +<p>The name of Duiffoprugcar haunts this dim transition +period, and although the violins extant under his name +have all been discredited, and not always distinguished +from Vuillaume’s clever forgeries, I remember one of +the first judges in Europe, who was certainly quite +alive to the tricks of the trade, showing me a reputed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>Duiffoprugcar (hung and labelled in the South Kensington +Museum), which he then believed to be +genuine. It had lost the tubby characteristics of the +viol tribe; it was, in fact, an early Brescian violin, +linen-lined, but its claim to be a Duiffoprugcar was +withdrawn.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp44" id="i_018a" style="max-width: 50em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_018a.jpg" alt="Picture of an old violin back and front."> +</figure> + + +<p>Duiffoprugcar was born in 1514 at Fussen, in the +Bavarian Tyrol. He was an inlayer and mosaic worker. +He is now known to have visited Paris, and to have +worked at Lyons. There is a fine portrait of him +etched by the engraver Wariot in 1562, and a curious +viol is extant by him, with a map of Paris inlaid at +the back, once owned by Vuillaume, and within recent +years secured for the Brussels Conservatoire Museum +by its intelligent curator, Mr Victor Mahillon. Mr +Donaldson’s beautiful viol da Gamba is the only other +known specimen of his work. There is no evidence +that Duiffoprugcar ever made what we should call a +violin, and very good negative evidence to the contrary. +In a curious old print exhibiting his portrait, +a copy of which is owned by Messrs Hill, amongst the +various viols represented no such instrument as the +violin appears.</p> + +<p>It is easy to see how inevitable was the differentiation +of the violin tribe from the first moment that +a vocal quartet came to be conceived of. First the +viol is selected to double a part, next a viol is made +in a modified way to suit the part, and very soon the +modification assumes the forms and proportions known +as violin, viola, and violoncello.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span></p> + +<p>But in the early days of violin genesis the instrument +was quite subordinate to the voice; it only gradually +conquered its independence with the emergence of the +string trio and string quartet. It would happen +thus:—</p> + +<p>Two people would meet to sing, and the missing +tenor or bass voice would be supplied by a viola; or +three would meet who could not sing at all, when it +would occur to them that the vocal parts might be +played instead, and with even more accuracy perhaps +than the very average voices would attain to.</p> + +<p>The instrumental trio and quartet thus at once came +into being.</p> + +<p>Next, music would be written independently for such +combinations, and the voices would be egged out altogether, +and presently the treble or violin would show +a tendency to throw the others into the shade, and +at last be thought worthy of a solo <em>all to itself</em>, and +thus the independent position of the instrument would +quickly be established.</p> + +<p>All attempts to date exactly the stages of this +differentiation of the violin tribe are likely to be +misleading.</p> + +<p>You cannot say exactly when perspective was discovered +or rediscovered by the Italian painters, it +developed gradually; and so the violin developed +gradually, born of new musical needs and new musical +knowledge.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the old chaotic world of viol noises +that preceded it, the struggle to displace the old viol<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> +players and the slow disappearance of the whole clumsy +craft is aptly summed up in the words of one who lived +at the moment of transition. He writes—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“In former days we had the viol in</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Ere the true instrument had come about;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But now we say, since this all ears doth win,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The violin hath put the viol out.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span></p> +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER II</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLIN CONSTITUTION</p> + + +<p>One of the subtle charms of the violin is that it may +be called bisexual.</p> + +<p>It unites in itself and welds together the masculine +and feminine qualities.</p> + +<p>Its very fabric is bisexual. The soft, easily moved +vibrations of the swelling front are controlled, checked, +and yet excited by the slower and harder pulsations +of the maple back. The porous deal and the close-grained +maple or sycamore thus thrill together, and +each supplies the deficiency of the other, both blending +in harmonious and sympathetic union, the ribs welding +the back and the belly into an organic whole, whilst +the sound-post, poetically called by the French the +soul of the violin (<i lang="fr">l’âme du violon</i>), collects the quick +and slow vibrations, and fusing them, produces the +subtle resultant of violin tone.</p> + +<p>That tone is the offspring of neither back nor front, +nor ribs alone, but of all these differently vibrating +surfaces, collected and made musical in the “soul,” +and poured forth as the breath of life from the ∫ ∫ +holes as out of the very mouth and nostrils of the +violin. Surely the children of the violin are nothing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> +but the sweet and subtly compounded sounds that +it utters.</p> + +<p>The bisexual figure holds good even to the bow +and strings. The bow is the male and the strings +are the female elements. They can only vibrate when +touched—swept into a tempest of emotion or caressed +into tender whispers.</p> + +<p>They wait and pine for this magic touch, and long +for their own fulfilment. They are so sensitive that +they respond to the lightest feathery kiss of the +powdered and anointed horse-hair—they murmur, +they sigh, they scream, they weep, they laugh, but +only when smitten, coaxed or agonised, sometimes +almost torn, at others calmly and masterfully swept; +whilst the finger-tips, pressing out the vibrations and +generating those magnetic thrills which go forth charged +with the musician’s very thought and feeling, aid and +abet the masculine power of the bow. They are its +ministers; without them the might of the bow itself +would be impotent; without them the very strings +would be unable to yield their infinite variety of tone +and inflection of meaning. Yes, certainly the violin +is of all instruments the most human, personal, and +sympathetic, for the violin is truly bisexual.</p> + +<p>It is also a miracle of art, strength, and simplicity—we +may say at once, as light as a feather and as strong +as a horse. It is composed of thin sheets or slips of +wood, only about a fragment of an inch thick; but, +by the simplest and soundest mechanical construction, +these are so put together as to resist a strain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> +of about a hundredweight upon the belly, neck, and +tailpiece, from the tension of the four strings.</p> + +<p>Six sycamore ribs and twelve internal blocks and +linings suffice to hold the back and belly together.</p> + +<p>The neck carries the ebony finger-board and lifts +its characteristic scroll or head—so expressive that +makers can almost be recognised by its physiognomy.</p> + +<p>The neck is let solidly into the ribs and fastened +against the lower part of the belly. When firmly +glued it is extremely difficult to detach it, and once +only in my experience has the neck of a violin proved +unequal to support the enormous pull made upon it by +the strings.</p> + +<p>It was in Ceylon. The heat was intense and moist. +I had borrowed a violin for experimental purposes +in one of my lectures at Colombo. In the middle +of an attempted passage the neck quietly doubled +up; the strings fell in a loose cluster. The glue +had liquefied, and the whole fiddle came to pieces in +my hands. What no time nor wear and tear had +been able to effect had been suddenly achieved by +the peculiar hothouse, vapour-bath treatment of the +tropics.</p> + +<p>The early viol-makers no doubt at first selected their +wood empirically; but it soon became an established +rule to take a soft wood for the belly and a hard wood +for the back. If all were soft, the sound would be +muffled and tubby; if all were hard, the sound would +be metallic and light; neither must the thickness of +back and front be uniform—each must be thicker<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span> +towards the middle, but how thick or how thin must +depend upon the relative densities of the wood. The +problem was to find the relative densities which would +best vibrate together—a cunning connoisseur in timber +can judge of these densities even by the feel of the +wood. Of course the densities will affect the tone +yielded by the wood when set in vibration, and it is +difficult to believe that Stradiuarius and his school +were unacquainted with some exact technical method +of testing the acoustic properties of these woods.</p> + +<p>Monsieur Savart’s experiments with specimen strips +of Stradiuarius backs and bellies showed that in most +cases tested there was the difference of one tone between +the belly and the back. A 1717 and a 1708 Strad +back both yielded a F♯, a 1724 and a 1690 Strad +bellies gave the interval, so that Stradiuarius worked +his backs and bellies on some regular principle. On +examining specimens of Joseph Guarnerius, it was found +that his best were made with only a full tone between +back and belly; but occasionally the interval was greater.</p> + +<p>The sound-bar is a subtly proportioned strip of pinewood +running nearly all the way down the middle of +the belly inside. The increasing tension of the modern +pitch has made it necessary to strengthen all the old +violin sound-bars, as the increasing demands for execution +have compelled the lengthening of all their necks.</p> + +<p>It is needless to say that the sound-bar readjustment +is a delicate surgical operation, more difficult than the +substitution of a long violin neck for a short one, for +the neck no more affects the tone than the screws in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span> +head. But any blundering with a sound-bar is fatal to +the nervous system of the violin; the <em>wolf</em> may suddenly +be evolved—that horrid dull growl which sets +the teeth on edge, and which, once generated within the +violin, is so difficult to diagnose or to cure. The best +old masters finished everything inside their violins as +carefully as the purfling and the joinings which would +meet the eye, and this although a century might elapse +before those tiny smooth blocks in the angles, or that +carefully-cut close lining of wooden strips fitting neatly +to the bellies as a glove to the hand, might chance to +be seen at all.</p> + +<p>Many forgeries have thus been rudely unmasked, the +forger only having troubled to make clean the outside +of the cup and platter, whilst within you find the dead +men’s bones of his slovenly dishonesty. He worked +only to sell, and to sell by deception (not because he +cared for his craft or respected his instrument), and his +works do follow him! But as Mr Lowell says—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Men as worked thorough is the ones that thrive,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But bad work follers you as long as yer live;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yer can’t get rid on it, just as sure as sin,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Tis allers askin’ to be done agin.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The finger-board is of black ebony; in the old fiddles +it was often inlaid. There need be little said about it +except that the old masters would be puzzled to know +what a player could want with our long finger-boards, +and still more would they have been puzzled could they +have heard the extraordinary and complex effects we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> +manage to produce with our extended compass and +phenomenal shifts, in spite of the absence of frets to +measure intervals.</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Finger-board</span> must be kept smooth and even, +or it will not be possible to “stop” fifths or any other +chord in tune. You will notice in old finger-boards the +strings have worn deep channels, which of course mar +the vibration. The height of the strings above the +finger-board is to some extent a matter of fancy, and of +course depends on the height of the bridge. A child +or young girl would soon be discouraged with attempting +to press strings raised too high above the finger-board, +and of course the higher you ascend the harder +must be the pressure. On the other hand, if the strings +are too close down, the touch is no doubt light to your +heart’s content; but you cannot get a sufficiently full +vibration, and your tone will suffer.</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Bridge</span>! I had almost said the asses’ bridge, for +indeed thereby hangs a tale. The hard-wood bridge, +with its whimsical perforated visage, and its two slender +feet clinging closely to the smooth belly of the violin, +has been sometimes treated with scant courtesy by +writers, and even makers do not all seem fully alive to +its importance. I notice repairers will send you back +your violin with a bran-new bridge, and no apology, if +they happen to have mislaid or broken yours. But the +bridge not only exercises the most important and indispensable +functions of carrying the four strings under a +combined pressure of seventy pounds, but it is in closer +and more intimate contact with the instrument than<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> +any other of its appendages. It is so squeezed upon +the wood as to be almost pressed into it, far more so +than the finger-board or the tailpiece, or even the +blocks and linings. It is charged with the primary +vibrations from the strings and the secondary vibrations +of the belly, ribs, and back; nothing goes on in +that wondrous air column enclosed in the violin walls +without the bridge taking cognisance of it, and possibly +hindering or aiding and abetting its successful exit from +the sound-holes.</p> + +<p>I am aware that I have been thought fanciful in +this matter, but an experience of many years has +convinced me that it is not easy to get a bridge that +suits a violin perfectly, and most dangerous to trifle +with the close and <i lang="la">quasi</i> marital relations which exist +between the violin and its bridge. I dislike new +bridges. I love old ones; and why, when all the rest +happens to be old, is the bridge alone to bring the raw +sap of youth to vex the mellow and desiccated repose +of melodious age?</p> + +<p>The position of your bridge, like that of your soundpost, +the adjusting of your screws, the thickness of +your strings, belongs rather to the management than +to the constitution of the violin.</p> + +<p>The only further details fit to be noted here seem to +be the button supporting the tailpiece, which has a +character of its own, in its size, material, and fixture; +and the far less important tailpiece, to which we may +add the purfling and other occasional inlaying.</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Tailpiece</span>, of course, is strictly indispensable,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> +but it does not much matter what it is made of, or +how it is decorated.</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Purfling</span>, although occasionally resisting +damage to the outlying edge, is chiefly ornamental, +and consists of three thin strips of wood—two ebony +or whalebone, and one of white wood—glued together +and inlaid.</p> + +<p>In the purfling we have the last survival of the +inlaying as applied to musical instruments. You will +notice that the further you go back the more elaborately +inlaid are the viols and violins. It was thought +that the instrument, which was little more in those +days of rudimentary music than a toy, might fitly be +exploited to show off the conceit of artists and the +skill of cabinet-makers; but as music developed and +tone was reckoned all-important, every detail likely +to interfere with this new development gradually disappeared, +till in the hands of the Cremonese makers +the faint memory of all the gorgeous mother-of-pearl, +ebony, ivory, gold and silver embossing, survives only +in the narrow three thin lines of the purfling which +strike the contour of the instrument and give piquancy +to its form.</p> + +<p>And thus the perfect sounding violin, though denuded +of all superfluous decoration and meretricious +adornment, yet remains a miracle of art—“a thing +of beauty and a joy for ever.”</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER III</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLINS AT BRESCIA</p> + + +<p>The violin proper is an Italian creation. It comes +from the north of Italy. Stainer, it is true, is an early +maker, and he bore a German name, but his date is +after all 1621-83, whilst that of Maggini is 1590-1632; +and if you visit the frontier village of Absam, near +the town of Hall, where he lived, you will observe that +he dwelt on the high-road between the Tyrol and +Italy, and that his training, his talent, and his market +were Italian.</p> + +<p>But Brescia was really the home of the violin, and +there is possibly something in the heavy salt seasoning +of the Tyrolean pines which specially favours that +peculiar resonance, sensitiveness, and durability for +which the Brescian and Cremonese schools are famous.</p> + +<p>The name of Gasparo di Salò (Bertolotti was his +real name), now chiefly famous for his double-basses +and violas, must ever be revered by students as the +master of the great Maggini, who was in reality the +father of the violin, in the sense of having clearly, at +once and for ever, differentiated the instrument as a +distinct type.</p> + +<p>Salò is a lovely spot on the shores of the lake of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> +Garda, in the province of Brescia, and about twenty +miles from the big town. It was early famed for its +culture. Foreigners went there for the sake of its +schools, and the Corporation records show that sacred +music especially flourished there. It is now certain +that Gasparo migrated thence to Brescia and worked +in that town. Maggini was as certainly his pupil. +This is proved by a legal document, dated 1602, which +has lately been discovered, bearing the joint signatures +of Gasparo and Maggini, who is termed his “garzone,” +or apprentice.</p> + +<p>Gasparo’s share in violin-making proper could not +have been very great, as the earliest violin orchestral +music appeared in Italy in 1608, and Gasparo died in +1610 or thereabouts—a fact which, taken in connection +with the extreme rareness of any Gaspardian instruments +which can be called violins, seems to argue that +the piccolo violino which was presently going to be +master of the situation was only just creeping up.</p> + +<p>I have seen and played on one very fine Gasparo +violin, the property of Lord Amherst—D and A strings +rich and pure, 1st and 4th rather muffled, but on the +whole the tone is mellow and powerful.</p> + +<p>This almost unique Gasparo violin is still bulgy, but +a great improvement on the old viol build; the head +is long and quaint-looking, but lacks that finish and +character which later masters put into their scrolls. +Gasparo’s basses are still much sought after, and +Dragonetti possessed more than one.</p> + +<p>A giant specimen, known as the Duke of Leinster’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> +bass, may still be seen at the South Kensington Museum, +and I exhibited it at the Royal Institution in 1872. +His work is heavy and lacks refinement, but his tone is +grand and full-bodied.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gio. Paolo Maggini</span> was the child of his father’s old +age, and born at Botlicino, near the town of Brescia, +which afterwards became the family headquarters.</p> + +<p>Brescia was at this time a strongly fortified place, +and a print as late as 1764 probably gives us a fair +notion of what it looked like between 1560 and 1632.</p> + +<p>Swift brooklets ran down the streets, and outside the +walls were spreading woodlands and ploughed fields. +It boasted of a splendid brick palace, the Broletta, and +a massive belfry of rough stone (Torre del Popolo), a +Castello, and an old Duomo; the streets were adorned +with frescoes. The Cathedral of San Pietro de Dom +was famous for its music, and had an organ and full +orchestra. The viol-makers and the monks were then, +as they have since been, in intimate relations, and it +was a couple of monks who befriended Gasparo when +he was down in the world in health and fortune, and +sadly needed it.</p> + +<p>The princes of Italy at this time (1512-1630) were +great patrons of art, letters, and especially music. +Brescia in 1600 was under Venetian rule. The town +or fortress was from its very position constantly in the +midst of wars and rumours of wars, and was appropriately +famed amongst other things for its manufactory +of swords and armour.</p> + +<p>It is surprising how little military commotions seem<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> +to have affected, either at Brescia or at Cremona, the +manufacture of musical instruments. There seems to +have been an uninterrupted line of viol and cither and +lute makers at Brescia from 1300 and onwards.</p> + +<p>But when it is remembered that war does not interrupt +the functions of religion or diminish the importance +of the clergy (nay, often enhances both), we can +understand that the musical instrument makers might +have been as much in demand, in the stormiest times of +the Visconti and Medici, as druggists, soothsayers, or +mountebanks; and they probably made impartially for +friend or foe—for any one, in fact, who could afford +to pay.</p> + +<p>Up to within the last few years very little was known +of this man Gio. Paolo Maggini—Magino or Magicino. +As he put only the name and place, but not the date, +on his labels (all dated Magginis are therefore frauds), +it is not easy to assign fixed dates to any of his instruments, +and the personal information to be squeezed out +of them is of the meagrest description. He worked in +Brescia; few of his instruments survive. His violas are +as rare as Gasparo’s violins, but he distances all other +makers in the attention that he gave to that newfangled +and suspiciously regarded instrument, the true +violin.</p> + +<p>His handwriting, some of which survives, would lead +one to suppose that his education was very moderate, +but the signatures of illustrious princes of this period +are no better. Recently, however, the State Archives +of Brescia have revealed some interesting gleams of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span> +information which enable us to show him in his workshop +with one apprentice, Franchino, and a young +wife, aged nineteen, Maddalena Anna, who brought +him a dowry, and afterwards children.</p> + +<p>A picture of his house in the Contrada del Palazzo, +Vechio del Podesta, lies before me. It has but two +storeys, and the family lived upstairs, surrendering the +ground floor to the violin business.</p> + +<p>In a woodcut by Jost Anian, Zurich (1539-91), we +have an authentic picture of such easy, leisurely, calm +workers as Maggini.</p> + +<p>There is the rude substantial bench, the tools, the +glue-pot, the planks and the wood in blocks, bits of +fiddles and strips of timber hung up on the walls; the +aproned artificer is carefully trying a lute as he sits on +his three-legged stool.</p> + +<p>What simplicities! Were we to enter in imagination +the studios in which the greatest pictures in the +world were being painted about this time, the same +meagre appliances and absence of superfluous luxury +would doubtless have greeted our eyes.</p> + +<p>But our gorgeous modern studios hung with the +spoils of the East, and iridescent with precious pottery +and curiously worked metals, our modern workshops +with their exquisite mechanical appliances and all sorts +of labour-saving machines, somehow fail to rival in +quality of production those old masters who sat on +three-legged stools, ground their own pigments, made +their own glue and varnish, and chopped and chiselled +their own wood.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span></p> + +<p>If you consider Maggini’s period (1560-1632) you +will see how exactly the direction of his genius was +conditioned by the demands of his age.</p> + +<p>The singing-schools of Naples had resulted in a call +for stringed instruments in increased numbers, but the +old viols were seen to correspond ill to the altered +times, and the need for an instrument which would +render leading melodies effectively was felt just in +proportion as such melodies became multiplied with +the rise of vocal music, sacred and profane.</p> + +<p>Most writers on the violin seem to have a passion +for cutting up a maker’s life into periods, as though +a man could rise one morning and say, “Go to now, +let us enter upon period number three, in which the +back shall be sloped so, and the belly brought down +thus, and the curve of the bouts tilted, contracted, or +elongated thus.” All that can be safely said is, after +such and such a time Maggini or Amati dropped or +adopted this or that feature as a rule, and we may +infer that a maker came under such and such influences, +and so forth.</p> + +<p>Now I come to speak of Maggini, I will trace +roughly but clearly what may be called his continuous +development, rather than any so-called three periods.</p> + +<p>Naturally at first the pupil made like his master +Gasparo. His violins suggested big viols on a small +scale. They had a heavy look; they were of large +size, which makes the sides seem lower than they are, +for in reality the ribs are not higher than those of +the Amati.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span></p> + +<p>The heads look rough, because, with the reduced +size, no increase of refinement or delicacy has yet +been reached; now, they are cut without symmetry; +now, the fluting of the scroll is not smoothed, even +the grooves for the purfling are not neat, nor is the +purfling itself sharp.</p> + +<p>Maggini’s early backs, sides, and bellies are cut on +the slab—that is, across the grain.</p> + +<p>Then Gasparo’s sound-holes have got narrower in +the hands of his pupil, and Gasparo has probably got +credit for some of the improvements of Maggini, as +there can be little doubt that some violins labelled +Gasparo are the work of his pupil, just as early +Stradivari violins are in existence signed Nicolo +Amati.</p> + +<p>If I may hazard the remark, in my opinion Maggini +did not copy so long or so seriously the work of +Gasparo as did Stradivari copy Nicolo. The reason +is obvious. The stride between Gasparo and Maggini +is far greater than that between the late Nicolo +and the Strad. By the time Nicolo died the violin +had already risen to that supreme and independent +individuality and dignity which it has never since +lost.</p> + +<p>Stradivari got the violin all ready made; it was +Maggini’s glory to have assisted at the individualisation +of the “King” type.</p> + +<p>Presently we become aware that Gasparo is dead and +buried. The Maggini bellies now cease to be cut on +the slab, but show the long parallel grain lines of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> +wood as in the Amatis; the art of wood selection for +sonority and sensitiveness seems already to have reached +the 1650 Cremona level. The sound-holes are more +delicate, but still a little quaint; they are invariably +bevelled inwards, a practice entirely discarded by the +Cremona masters.</p> + +<p>Sir Joseph Chitty’s, and Mr Sternberg’s, and the +Dumas’ tenors are good specimens of Maggini’s first +independent work illustrating the above characteristics. +The Dumas family were friends of Beethoven, and +enthusiastic admirers of Maggini’s work. They possessed +at least one valuable “chest” of his instruments. +A chest is described by an old writer as “a large hutch +with several compartments and partitions in it, each +lined with green baize” (we have since gone heavily +into velvet and plush).</p> + +<p>There are only about eight violas or tenors of Maggini’s +known; they do not vary in their proportions.</p> + +<p>The model of the Dumas viola is of the master’s +most arched type—a feature much exaggerated by +Stainer and his followers. It is, like almost all this +master’s specimens, adorned with double purfling, set +close to the edge, with the usual Maggini bevel at +the corner joints. These corners give it a special physiognomy; +they are short, and make no appeal to the +eye like the later Cremonas. The tenor’s ∫ ∫ holes are +upright, short, and broad; they are higher than in the +same maker’s violins, the top curves as usual larger than +the bottom ones, the back and belly both in two pieces; +the bass bar and blocks inside have been strengthened;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> +the rough tooth of the well-known Brescian plane has +left its mark on the wood inside. The Dumas tenor +is in exquisite condition; the varnish is unlike the old +Gasparo brown, it glows with rich golden tints. Its +type is admirably defined; no one in looking at this +tenor can say, “This is a little violoncello,” or “This is +a big violin.” It is a distinct viola type, and it set the +type for all succeeding violas. The Cremona makers +worked on it, but they did not re-create the tenor; +they could not.</p> + +<p>The Dumas-Maggini violin is in equally fine condition; +it looks so new that some have supposed that, +although eighty years before Stradivari, it must be a +copy made by Strad of the older master, but it is +absolutely authentic and genuine.</p> + +<p>Before Maggini died, we notice that a very high +standard of finish has been reached, unknown to him +in his earlier days, or, as for the matter of that, to +any of his predecessors. Observe the improved purfling, +the bouts and mitres cut with clear intention, but +never so marked in physiognomy as the Amatis, the +sound-holes quite as sharp as theirs; but, above all, +the arching has at last come down—this true hint, +so early given, was not at once adopted by Maggini’s +Cremonese successors. Stradivarius at last fixed it and +regulated it in a model from which no later maker +has found it safe to depart with the exception of Duke +and Klotz, who obstinately adhered to the Stainer high +bellies with deep side grooves.</p> + +<p>Maggini’s later varnish runs out of the old Gasparo +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>brown into orange and golden yellow, as luscious as +anything to be found in a Joseph or a Strad.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp53" id="i_038a" style="max-width: 37.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_038a.jpg" alt="Picture of an old violin back and front."> +</figure> + + +<p>Although Maggini adhered to his double purfling, +there are specimens of his work in exhibitions without +it; and at least one curiously but not carelessly made +instrument is known where the purfling at the back +is neither double nor even inlaid, but merely drawn +sharply in black lines. A very fine single-purfled +violin, formerly in the collection of Prince Caraman +Chimay, now in the possession of Mr Antonietti, possesses +an unrivalled tone of the Maggini timbre. Many +of his violins retain the old taste for other inlaid ornamentation. +He does not run into maps and portraits, +but a graceful clover-leaf pattern is often found at top +and bottom of his backs, twisted, as it were, out of the +purfling, and a sixfold trefoil sometimes occupies the +centre of the back; but an acute observer has noted +that there is no instance of the central trefoil combined +with the clover-leaf pattern.</p> + +<p>Not less remarkable than this great maker’s definition +of the violin and viola types was his conception of the +violoncello. The Maggini ’cello is not the son of the +double-bass, but the father of the tenor. It is much +more like a large tenor than like a small double-bass; +the proportions are, as it were, enlarged from the tenor, +not reduced from the flat-backed bass. Maggini’s +bent was entirely in the direction of the smaller +violoncello pattern.</p> + +<p>The early and even the later Cremona ’cellos were +too large, and there is very little doubt that the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> +powerful influence of Maggini can be traced in the +evolution of those perfect but moderately sized Strad +’cellos which date mostly after 1700.</p> + +<p>The tone of Maggini is full, mellow, and plaintive, +rather than biting like Stainer, bell-resonant like +Strad, or soft and sensitive like Nicolo Amati; but +great players like Vieuxtemps, Ole Bull, Leonard, +and De Beriot have found him sufficient, and if more +have not extolled Maggini, it may be on account of +the rareness and inaccessibility of his instruments.</p> + +<p>It has been said by a competent authority that not +more than fifty extant Magginis are known, and in +England at present (1897) about thirty violins, ten +violas, and but two violoncellos and one double-bass.</p> + +<p>Maggini died at the comparatively early age of fifty-one. +All researches made in the archives of S. Lorenzo, +his parish church, have failed to reveal the date of his +death, and the worst of it is that the registers of that +church prior to 1700 have disappeared.</p> + +<p>We hear plenty about his wife, Anna Foresti, who +died 1651, aged fifty-eight, and was buried in a neighbouring +parish.</p> + +<p>It is more than probable that Maggini himself was +a victim to the plague which raged at Brescia in 1632, +and that he was hastily interred, or, dying at the Pest +House, no official note of his death may have been +taken. At any rate, in 1632, the year of the plague, +his son describes himself as “filius quondam Johannis +Pauli”—the son of the late Gio. Paolo.</p> + +<p>His last income-tax return is dated 1626, and he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> +was dead in 1632, so he must have died at latest in +1632, and therefore could not have been more than +fifty-one. Maggini was doubtless well off, owned considerable +property in and out of town, was the father +of six children, and, what was of far more importance, +the father of the modern violin.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER IV</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLINS AT CREMONA</p> + + +<p>Cremona! Amati! two words making melody with their +very syllables, and a deeper harmony still for the lover +of music, from the association of ideas which they +excite.</p> + +<p>With the assumed immigration of makers from +Brescia—the emergence of the Amati family (the +name of Amati is not found in the Brescian archives), +and their final residence at Cremona—begins the classic +period of the violin.</p> + +<p>Cremona, ancient city of strife, which, owing to its +very situation (κρι μόνος, “high rock” and “alone”), +was the battle-point of the middle ages from the days +of the old Goths and Lombards down to quite modern +times; Cremona, with its stately cathedral so little +known or visited, yet possessing two of the finest red +lions couchant, supporting portico columns of one of +the noblest cathedral façades in Italy; Cremona, with +its antiquated back streets, its drowsy quiet life gliding +on apart from the beaten thoroughfares of travel—truly, +Cremona town is a place to set one dreaming!</p> + +<p>I have narrated elsewhere my pilgrimage to the place +which so ungratefully forgets almost the very tradition<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> +of the Amati, Stradivari, and Guarnerii, whose fabrics +alone have given it a musical immortality, and whose +names are hung up high like the stars, which no discords +of the middle ages, sieges, or brawls can ever reach.</p> + +<p>Let us now try and come face to face with these +immortal makers.</p> + +<p>Andrea Amati (<i lang="fr">père</i>) settled at Cremona, and made +violins from 1520-46. He brought with him his +brother Nicolo (not the great Nicolo, afterwards +master of Stradivari, <em>Italian</em>, or Stradiuarius, <em>Latin</em>).</p> + +<p>Andrea Amati had two sons, Antonio and Geronimo, +who made violins jointly as well as separately. When +Antonio married, the fiddles of neither seemed to improve. +The brothers ceased for a time at least to work +together (there being, it is said, a period in which there +are no joint reductions); but as there are much later +violins bearing their joint names, it has been assumed +that they again collaborated. If we trust some of these +late labels—the brothers being born about 1555-56, +and one of the joint violins being dated 1687—it would +follow that the venerable artificers were still making +violins at the age of 136 years, which beats Stradivari +himself, who only worked till he was ninety-three.</p> + +<p>Geronimo, according to one writer’s account of his +labels, went even one better, for there is a Geronimo +violin dated 1698; so if this Geronimo, brother of +Antonio, was born about 1556, which is tolerably +certain, he went on working even longer than Moses, +with his eye undimmed and his natural strength +unabated, down to the age of 148!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span></p> + +<p>The confusion has arisen from confounding Geronimo, +brother of Antonio, with Geronimo, son of the great +Nicolo (born 1649, died 1740). But if there exists a +signed Geronimo and Antonio dated 1698, which +seems very doubtful, it would be certainly easier to +believe that, as the demand for Italian instruments by +makers of repute had well set in before 1700, the late +Antonio and Geronimo label was stolen from the old +workshops—the last two figures of 16—being filled +in, and the label clapped on to cover the fraud; whilst +any Geronimo violin dated 1698 would be by Geronimo, +son of Nicolo; or at most, one made up by some enterprising +pupil out of the débris of the elder Geronimo’s +workshop—perhaps about the time that Nicolo the +Great, son of Geronimo and grandson of Andrea, +was working with his pupils, Stradivari and Andrea, +Guarnerii, and his own son, the younger Geronimo +or Girolamo Amati.</p> + +<p>But with this Geronimo Amati, son of Nicolo (born +1649), and a certain Don Nicolo Amati, an Italian +priest, we need not trouble ourselves beyond recording +their names.</p> + +<p>A good deal has been said about Andrea Amati and +his violins. He was certainly the founder of the family, +but not much is known about him except that he +probably, almost certainly, acquired from Brescia the +Maggini type, and that his violins are somewhat +smaller, arched in the belly, with a varnish that runs +out of the Brescian brown into the mellow and brilliant +gold and ruddy tints common to the Cremona varnish;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> +the later Amatis have a tendency to revert to the +browner hue.</p> + +<p>That Andrea made some choice violins for Charles +IX. of France—twenty-four violins, twelve large, twelve +small pattern, known as “les petits violons du roi”—there +can be no doubt, but they disappeared from +Versailles in the political disturbances about 1790. +The arms of France, we are told, were painted on the +backs, and they are said to have been of beautiful +workmanship.</p> + +<p>A ’cello, “Andrea Amati Cremonentis faciebat, +1572,” was sold amongst some others belonging to Sir +William Curtis, May 1827. This is known as the +“Bridge’s viollo.” Its history is romantic, it having +been presented by Pope Pius V. to Charles IX. of +France, and surnamed the “King.”</p> + +<p>The Amati characteristic, which culminates, along +with other qualities of sonority, in the great Nicolo, +1596-1684, is sweetness of tone; but a certain want +of power is noticeable, especially on the fourth string. +The “A” is beautiful, the “E” soft and delicate, and +the third very full and round—qualities which are also +conspicuous in the brothers Geronimo.</p> + +<p>But if Amati tone is of cabinet, not concert quality, +its quality is of a kind unequalled for charm and +sensitiveness, and although not loud, some violins made +by the brothers have a considerable carrying power.</p> + +<p>The Amati heads or scrolls retained a certain simplicity +and antique Brescian look even after the finish +and form of the body of the violin had left the Brescian<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> +school far behind. The double purfling of Brescia is +also gone, but the brothers purfled very beautifully, +with a bend of perfect regularity and smoothness.</p> + +<p>The violins of Antonio are better than his brother’s, +but the joint violins are the best, and have been +oftenest forged.</p> + +<p>The brothers indeed made excellent violas, but, as +the fashion then was, too large. They have been +sometimes cut down. Sir Frederick Gore Ousely once +had a fine specimen, which I remember playing upon +many years ago at Tenby—tone very full and mellow.</p> + +<p>Richard Blagrove, a brother of Henry Blagrove, the +admirable early Monday Popular violinist, was a viola +player, and used a reputed Amati, but it was really a +Gagliano. Many of us (1897) can remember how richly +it contributed to the triumph of a quartet, of which +Joachim, Riess, and Piatti were often the other members.</p> + +<p>Her late Majesty the Queen had a fine painted Amati, +unfortunately cut down; and Miss Seton’s Geronimo +Amati is a rare specimen, and from the MS. of Ascenzio, +a priest at Madrid, we learn that it was a favourite +violin of Charles IV. of Spain.</p> + +<p>Geronimo, after separating from Antonio, reduced +the arching of his bellies, but, singularly enough, without +improving his tone-power. The over-arching of +the early makers and scooped side-curves are generally +supposed to be a vice in acoustics finally overcome by +the gentle natural curve and flatter models of Nicolo, +but it is perhaps possible to ride a theory too hard. I +have certainly played on instruments deeply grooved,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> +with rounded bellies, powerful Dukes and piercing +Stainers, which, according to the orthodox theory, had +no business to sound as loud as they did. It is well +known that in both these Amati makers the late +Cremona flat curve is conspicuous by its absence; and +whilst I do not for a moment deny that the flatness of +the Stradivari model is preferable, I think the superiority +of the late Cremona tone may be due to a good +many other things beside that. It will always be a +question whether the man who makes possible the +last perfection of an art or the man who actually +achieves it is really the greater genius. Pietro Perugino +or Raffaello in painting; Chaucer or Shakespeare +in literature; Handel or Beethoven in music; Gasparo +and Maggini or Stradivari in violin-making; but +popular opinion generally plucks the blossom without +troubling itself much about the roots, and the prices +fetched by the finest Strad and the finest Gasparo, or +even Nicolo Amati, practically settle the question as +regards the violin-makers. £400 is an unusual price +for a fine Nicolo (£250 is nearer the mark, 1898); +£1000 is not an uncommon figure for a good Strad, +and his finest specimens command £2000 (1898).</p> + +<p>Nicolo, the great son of Geronimo, was born in +1596, and died close upon the seventeen hundreds, in +1684. Nicolo was quite aware that he resumed in +himself the fine qualities of his distinguished family +and improved upon them. It is true he did not +trouble himself much with his grandfather Andrea, +whom he probably regarded as a worthy old gentleman<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> +quite out of date. There could have been little in +those small, almost three-quarter size, brown varnished, +and sweet but feeble-sounding violins to attract the +aspiring grandson; but there were qualities in the somewhat +larger models of the famous brothers, Geronimo +and Antonio, which set his hand and head agoing, +when as a boy he fell to copying and carving backs +and bellies, and twisting ribs and throwing scrolls, in +his father’s little workshop at Cremona, opposite the +west front of the Saint Dominic Church.</p> + +<p>Nicolo the Great doubtless followed and imitated +his father Geronimo, but wishing to miss nothing, +and perhaps labouring under a sense of obligation or +merely out of genuine affection, his labels embody an +immortal acknowledgment of indebtedness to both +masters. They run thus:—“Nicolaus Amatus Cremonem +Hieronymi Fil, <em>ac Antonij Nepos</em> fecit, 1677.” +(The italics are mine.)</p> + +<p>Nicolo the Great’s smaller patterns made in his +father’s workshop are not unfrequently to be met with, +and can be picked up for between £80 and £100, or +even less.</p> + +<p>But as we watch his dates, the touch of Nicolo very +soon becomes distinctive. On the death of his father +and uncle he found himself in possession of a workshop +which inherited a great name, but which was +destined to transmit to future generations the greatest +violin names in the world. Among the pupils of +Nicolo in 1653 sat the brothers Guarneri, Andrea +Guarnerius having witnessed the marriage of his master<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span> +Nicolo and signed the register; and by the side of +Andrea Guarnerius sat a young man named Antonio +Stradivari, or, as we usually call him, Stradiuarius.</p> + +<p>Most of the Nicolo violins before 1645 are of the +smaller pattern, but after this date down to 1684, the +year of his death, the eye of a connoisseur will notice +an increase in size, a finish in workmanship, and a +more delicate purfle (never double). The model is +still somewhat high in back and belly, but with an +increasing tendency to get flatter; the side-grooving +is less pronounced, whilst the corners are noticeably +drawn out into finer points full of character, arresting +the eye, lightening as it were the model, and giving +the whole physiognomy of the instrument a grace and +piquancy hitherto unattempted.</p> + +<p>The sound-holes of Nicolo are pointed and somewhat +narrow; the scroll is cut a little too flat for the later +taste, but passes as the century wanes into a somewhat +larger and bolder style. The wood seems to be chosen +almost as much for its mottled or fine-grained beauty +as for its acoustical properties.</p> + +<p>The early Nicolo varnish is of brownish Brescian +type, but later on it glows with the rich amber tints +of Cremona, and those dragon-blood stains which give +to some Strads and Josephs such warm and generous +tints like the sunlit dashes of mellow red on a ripe +nectarine.</p> + +<p>Mr Somers Cocks (1898) has a most glorious Amati +violoncello, “one of the finest ever seen or heard,” so +said to me a distinguished connoisseur. Mr Marshall<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> +Bulley’s violoncello, a Jerome (the younger) Amati, is +also a rare gem of tone and workmanship.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>The grand Amati violin pattern runs some of the +Stradivari violins very hard, and is evidently the model +on which the 1700-35 Strads are “calqué,” as the +French say. The side-grooving, generally held to +interfere with the volume of tone, whilst supposed by +some to add to its sweetness, has not disappeared as +in the Strad grand model, but it has become less +pronounced. The tone is lovely and sensitive, and +the Nicolo is truly delightful to handle. It is <i lang="fr">par +excellence</i> the lady’s violin.</p> + +<p>The one before me, where the varnish still remains, +melts into light orange with clear golden gleams in it. +If Joseph is the strong male, Nicholas or Nicolo certainly +belongs to the softer and more yielding sex. +The tone is most delicate, and of ravishing sweetness. +It seems to leap out almost before the horse-hair has +feathered the strings. It continues to sing on like a +vibrating silver bell, as if intoxicated with itself, long +after the bow has ceased its contact. In the sweet +Nicolo the lover finds no bars, no obstacles; it is won +almost before ’tis wooed (Plate V.).</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp56" id="i_050a" style="max-width: 144.375em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_050a.jpg" alt="Picture of an old violin back and front."> +</figure> + + +<p>We are interested to know that in his own time +Nicolo’s work was carefully imitated, if not forged; +whilst his supremacy over one of his best pupils, +Francesco Rugereo, Rugieri, or Rugerius, was clearly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span>acknowledged; for we find that a certain Tomaso +Antonio Vitali, who seems to have bought a violin +with a Nicolo label inside, and paid twelve doubloons +(or about £12, 10s.) for it, complained bitterly that on +removing the false label he had discovered the name of +Ruggeri underneath it. The aggrieved Tomaso thereupon +applied to his liege sovereign, the Grand Duke of +Modena, for summary redress, avowing that he had +given a higher price because the violin had a label of +Nicolo, “who,” he adds, “was a maker of great repute +in his profession, but now it was proved to be only a +violin by Rugerius the pupil, a maker of less credit.” +The violin, he said, was scarce worth to him more than +three doubloons; the petitioner therefore prayed the +Duke for redress. Whether he got it or not was no +doubt very important to him, but of very little consequence +to us. The fact that he made the application +is the point.</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Guarnerii</span> family must have made violas or +violins as the sand of the sea in number, if the +frequency of their labels may be taken as any guide; +and in truth they were a long-lived and industrious +family, and doubtless made a good many instruments, +chiefly violins. But the reputation of Andrew and +Peter, and above all the great Giuseppe (Joseph) del +Gesù, led to the early fabrication of pseudo Josephs, +and labels in numbers far beyond what all the great +makers of Cremona together could have produced.</p> + +<p>Andrea Guarneri (Andrew Guarnerius) the apprentice, +as we have seen, was one of the witnesses to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> +great Nicolo Amati’s marriage in 1641, and Nicolo +enters his pupil’s name in the church register as aged +fifteen, which gives us the year of his birth, 1626. He +worked on till 1698; in 1652 he married, and two of his +sons, Giuseppe (not the great Giuseppe, his nephew) +and Pietro, worthily sustained and improved upon their +father’s reputation.</p> + +<p>Many of the violins of Andrea Guarneri are of the +smaller Nicolo pattern, but somewhat inferior, and not +always well finished. The wood of his rare ’cellos, +however, although plain in appearance, can boast of +singularly fine acoustic qualities.</p> + +<p>There is a well-known ’cello now (1897) belonging to +Miss Theobald, of his finest workmanship.</p> + +<p>Giuseppe, second son of Andrea Gianbattista +Giuseppe, born 1666 to 1739, as distinguished from +Del Gesù or “Jesus” Giuseppe, struck out a freer line +of work. His narrow-waisted boldly-curved instruments, +with their Brescian-looking sound-holes set low +down, his rich, almost too profusely rich, varnish and +fine wood, but not over-finished workmanship, give his +violins quite a characteristic appearance, and in power +of tone they are superior to his father’s. But next to +the great Giuseppe del Gesù, Pietro Guarneri is the +flower of the family, and most sought after by amateurs.</p> + +<p>The grain of his bellies is often wide, the distance +between the sound-holes is conspicuous, the sound-holes +themselves are rounder and less Brescian, the scrolls are +beautifully cut, and the varnish is superb, from golden +tints to pale red, which has thrown some writers into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> +rhapsodies about setting suns and the colours of the +rainbow.</p> + +<p>Passing over a lesser Pietro, son of the lesser Giuseppe, +son of Andrea, who worked at Mantua, we come to the +one man who, with the exception of the great Nicolo, +is worthy to measure swords (or bows) with Stradivari. +He came, singularly enough, from a side branch, and +not in direct descent from Andrea or any violin-maker, +being the son of one John Baptist Guarnerius, and was +born at Cremona in 1683.</p> + +<p>The father of the great Giuseppe was the son of one +Bernardo Guarnerius, who was a cousin of Andrea, +and therefore the great Joseph was nephew of Andrea +Guarnerius, just as the great Nicolo was the nephew of +Andrea Amati; but a distinguished fact separates our +Giuseppe from all his illustrious kinsfolk, and it is +this, that his father, Bernardo, does not seem to have +been a violin-maker at all, so the young Giuseppe owed +his teaching most probably to his uncle and cousins.</p> + +<p>Most writers have speculated blindly enough upon +his distinctive appendage “del Gesù” some talking +about the Jesuits or a supposed religious bent. This +is one of the many cases where sapient antiquaries, in +seeking for recondite origins, neglect the simplest facts +and ignore the easiest explanations. What can be +more simple than for the great Giuseppe, conscious +of his superiority to Gianbattista, son of Andrea +Guarneri, as well as anxious to distinguish himself +from Gianbattista, his father, and coming <em>after</em> both, +though <em>preferred</em> before them, should call himself the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> +“del Gesù” or Jesus, who followed after the John +Baptist of the family? So far from indicating any +particular reverence for religion, the assumption of +this bold title seems to me to partake more of a +certain irreverent levity; and if, as tradition says, the +great Giuseppe or Joseph was somewhat of a free liver, +and perhaps even a sceptic, he may have had small +scruples in so lightly treating sacred names and subjects.</p> + +<p>The question as to who may have been his master, +and the influence (or otherwise) of Stradivari upon him, +has also been involved, as I think, in needless mystery.</p> + +<p>Since Del Gesù worked at Cremona and must have +been, as a cousin and nephew, a good deal with his +uncle and cousins, Andrea, Giovanni, and Pietro, who +lived there, it is no great stretch of fancy to suppose +that when he showed the family bent for violin-making, +he should have been apprenticed to study the art with +his cousin Giuseppe, son of Andrea, in which case he +must have lived next door to where Stradivari was +working all through his finest period; and though +Giuseppe’s violins are rightly said to be in the style +of his cousin’s Gianbattista, and he may have drawn +his early inspirations from his cousin, it is impossible +to suppose that so able a man could be in daily contact +with and yet wholly insensible to the influence +of the greatest maker who ever lived. Why, he not +only worked next door to Strad, but probably met +him every afternoon at the neighbouring café, and was +doubtless often about his shop, year in year out.</p> + +<p>Of course the differences in the work of the two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> +great masters are obvious. The massive, bold, and +original lines and less scrupulous finish of Joseph +the Great, the powerful (almost brutally powerful) +scroll, the loud trumpet-like imperious tone, all mark +the masculine as contrasted with the sweeter and more +feminine qualities of the gentler, bell-like Strad. The +fact also before alluded to, that between the back and +the belly of the Strad there is usually but one note, +whilst between the back and belly of the Giuseppe del +Gesù there are sometimes more, all prove sterling and +distinct originality, as Rafael was distinct from Perugino +or Michael Angelo from Leonardo da Vinci. But +enough; for to draw these comparisons before describing +the master may seem like putting the cart before the +horse.</p> + +<p>So let us now, without further ado, locate the great +violin shops at Cremona and peep into workshop No. 6, +in the Piazza S. Domenico, now Piazza Roma.</p> + +<p>In about 1540, Andrea Amati had set up his modest +establishment, trained his sons, and taken apprentices, +bequeathing to Nicolo his plant and pupils.</p> + +<p>Stradivari and the early Guarnerii then worked +together, cheek by jowl; by-and-by Stradivari migrated +to No. 5, next door, and the Guarnerii with Giuseppe +del Gesù, who died in 1745, the latest and greatest of +that family (surviving Stradiuarius, who died in 1737, +eight years), then set up at No. 6.</p> + +<p>As I have had occasion to remark elsewhere, these +three names, Amati, the Guarnerii, Stradivari, there +be none like them; these three shops opposite the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> +big Church of S. Domenico, now demolished, there +never were nor will be three such violin shops.</p> + +<p>Here were made, in long, quiet years of peaceful +labour, between 1560 and 1760, in steady and friendly +rivalry, all the greatest violins in the world.</p> + +<p>The Giuseppe del Gesù on which Paganini played, +now in the Town Hall in Genoa, the Stradiuarius on +which Ernst, now Lady Hallé (1898), plays, Canon +Percy Hudson’s violoncello, Joachim and Wilhelmj’s +“Strads,” the Alard, the Betts, the Dolphin, the +Messie, the Pucelle, the Tuscan, the Fountaine, the +Rode, and the Viotti—these be the wonders of the +violin world.</p> + +<p>But in following the development of the Guarnerii +family into the seventeen hundreds, the position of +Giuseppe del Gesù, the king of the Guarneri, must be +clearly defined before we describe the rise and progress +of Stradivari, who ran parallel with, and who, in the +estimation of most violinists, seems to combine in himself, +the <i lang="fr">ne plus ultra</i> of all violin perfection.</p> + +<p>Nothing about Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù is more +remarkable than the determined way in which, after +examining the Amati types, he deliberately went back +to the Brescian Gasparo and Maggini models for inspiration. +The time had come when powerful tone +was wanted. The Amatis were sensitive, sweet, and +weak; in the larger and more massive Brescians +Giuseppe found the suggestion of what he was destined +to make perfect. If only he could add their +volume to the Amati sensitiveness—an hour more or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> +less spent on the cutting of corners or neater purfling—what +did it matter? Strength, power, was what he +wanted, and the sentiment is thrown off in the bulldog +type of his head or scroll, in the thickness of his +boards so much criticised, in the boldness rather than +the grace and delicacy of his curves.</p> + +<p>He tried many experiments: flat make, full make, +sound-holes cut almost perpendicularly, shortened, +slanting, and sometimes disproportionately long. He +was watching the effect on the volume and quality +of tone, and when he had in his own way conquered +that secret of grand sonority, whether empirically or +by calculation, then, and not till then, his workmanship +improves.</p> + +<p>He was like a man who had no time to think of the +delicate cooking till he had stayed his main appetite. +His frequent habit of cutting the wood upon the cross, +<i lang="fr">à contre sens</i>, as in the case of Mr Alfred Gibson’s +instrument (1897), a superb specimen of Del Gesù, +shows up the coruscations of the grain, and brings out +each pore and vein by the agate-like varnish—not +agate-like in the sense of the French chippy varnish, +but in its clear crystalline depth and transparency. +Del Gesù’s varnish is never clotted, but is laid on +thoroughly, yet with a light hand. Mr Ruskin used +to say that Sir Joshua Reynolds’ touch was so light +that he could paint on a gossamer veil; Del Gesù’s +brush is also as light as a feather. Some of Del Gesù’s +later violins, dating from about 1740, after the death +of Stradivarius, are amongst his finest. The one used<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> +by Professor Sauret, and the other lent to Mr Ludwig +by Mr Frazer, are particularly fine, and belong to this +period. Paganini’s Joseph, now in the Town Hall at +Genoa, Alard’s, in the Museum of the Conservatoire of +Music, Turin, and Vieuxtemps’, now in the possession +of Maurice Sons, also belong to this great period.</p> + +<p>The life of Joseph Guarnerius is more or less enveloped +in mystery. It seems, for instance, utterly +impossible to get at the truth about the so-called +prison fiddles. Whenever a Joseph or a presumed +Joseph which is not up to Joseph’s standard comes +into the market, it is dubbed a Del Gesù prison-fiddle.</p> + +<p>The story runs that Giuseppe, being a somewhat +reckless person, got into trouble and was locked up for +many years, during which time the gaoler’s daughter +got him any wood she could find, and he made these +inferior pot-boiling fiddles, which she disposed of for +such moderate sums as she was able.</p> + +<p>I prefer to put this legend wholly aside. Del Gesù +may not have held sacred things in high estimation, +and he may have been somewhat of a free liver—this +rests on the authority of Carlo Bergonzi’s grandson, +who was not even a contemporary of Del Gesù—still +he may have got the gossip from Bergonzi, his own +father, who was Stradivari’s pupil, and doubtless a +rival maker; and tongues may wag when interests are +or seem to be opposed, and stories will come forth +finely variegated when there is an extraordinary absence +of reliable facts, as there undoubtedly is in the case of +Del Gesù.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp58" id="i_058a" style="max-width: 50em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_058a.jpg" alt="Picture of an old violin back and front."> +</figure> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span></p> + +<p>There is, however, no direct evidence whatever that +Del Gesù was for years in prison and that he died +there, as says the legend; but Canon Bazzi of Cremona +has lately unearthed one Girolamo Guarneri who <em>did</em> +die in prison in 1715, and the names of two very +different men, one illustrious and the other obscure, +have before now got mixed up, to the detriment of +the illustrious one.</p> + +<p>Something similar is said to have happened to the +great Athanasius, whose name has been confounded +with that of the obscure Pope Anastasius, in whose +presence a creed was recited by one Bishop Victricius, +and the confession of faith thus recited by command of +<i lang="la">Anastasius</i> now passes as the creed of Saint <i lang="la">Athanasius</i>, +since it emphasises the Trinitarian doctrine chiefly +connected with the name of that illustrious doctor.</p> + +<p>A Giuseppe del Gesù is much more difficult to find +than a Strad—his output, as compared to that of +Stradivarius, is as one to six; his life was shorter, and +his working career probably more erratic. But he is +placed on a level with the immortal Antonio by some +who know how to handle him, and the prices of his +wares have already reached four figures.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER V</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLINS AT CREMONA—<em>continued</em></p> + + +<p>There is something inexorable about the concensus of +posterity.</p> + +<p>Individuals may chafe under it, and writers may +try to reverse its verdict. You even have crazes for +the revival of neglected poets, painters, and musicians, +but you will never succeed in pushing from their pedestals +the great gods whom posterity has once decided +to bow down to.</p> + +<p>De Beriot may choose to play on a Maggini, and +Paganini may prefer his Joseph, but even Maggini, +Nicolo Amati, and Giuseppe Guarnerius, who stand +round as it were saluting one another, leave Stradivari +apart by himself like a Colossus on a mountain, +and yet no one, not the greatest connoisseur, is +able to say exactly why. When so many esteem +individual violins above some Strads, and when Joseph +del Gesù is held to run the magic master very hard, +still Strad stands apart upon his mountain for all men +to look up to and wonder at. And why? We can +only say it is the way with all the greatest; there is +something of the mystery of heaven about the incommunicable +touch; the true aureole forms about no head +to order, and the lonely seats are kept for the mighty.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span></p> + +<p>Antonio Stradivari or Stradiuarius was born in 1644, +and died, in his ninety-third year, in 1737. We get the +date of his death from the register, and the date of his +birth is fixed by a violin label (1736) in his own handwriting, +in which he states that he was ninety-three +years old when he made the instrument.</p> + +<p>Stradiuarius married at the age of twenty-three a +woman of twenty-seven, who had been a widow for +three years, whose maiden name was Ferraboschi, and +he adopted her one little girl. By her he had six +children, some of whom died before him. His second +wife, whom he married several years later, bore him five +children, two of whom died before him—so that in all +Stradivari had eleven children. None of them seemed +to have inherited their father’s genius; only Omobono +and Francesco Stradivari made even decent fiddles, +and so far maintained the great name as to succeed at +first in selling their wares at their father’s prices. The +buyers probably hoped that at least the wood might +have been selected by Stradivari <i lang="fr">père</i>, and much of it +probably was; and if there was the chance of getting a +spare rib or back or belly with a touch of the master +upon it, it was surely worth a little speculation.</p> + +<p>Antonio Stradivari and Andrea Guarneri, as stated +before, were young <i lang="it">garzoni</i> or apprentices together in +the workshop of the great Nicolo Amati—sat on the +same work bench, used the same tools, and doubtless +discussed the same problems.</p> + +<p>In and out of that shop ran, no doubt, the boy +Giuseppe <a id="tn_61">Guarneri</a> to see his uncle Andrea. He must<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> +have always found Stradivari there; and when, later +on, Giuseppe imbibed a taste for fiddle-making, and +became himself the great Del Gesù, it is hard, I insist +upon it, to believe that what must have been a lifelong +acquaintance with the mighty Stradivari should have had +no influence whatever in forming his ideas and methods.</p> + +<p>There is no mention of the youthful Stradivari +having accompanied Andrea Guarneri to the wedding +of his master, Nicolo Amati; Andrea was doubtless the +older pupil, and Antonio Stradivari was taken on later.</p> + +<p>“If thou wouldst teach, learn; if thou wouldst create, +first copy.” It is generally held that for some years, +roughly between 1660-70, Stradiuarius simply made up, +blocked out, drew, glued, mixed varnish, and worked +generally, but without signing his own name to any +fiddles. He was <em>learning</em>; but in 1660 he begins to +sign his name, not from pride, but because his master +made him do so. From before that date to about +1670, which brings us to within fourteen years of +Nicolo Amati’s death, he made what are sometimes +called Amati Strads.</p> + +<p>At this time Antonio followed closely the violins of +the early Nicolo rather than the grand Amati pattern, +but he appears to have followed his master’s developments +continuously, slowly, but surely.</p> + +<p>There exists a Stradivari violin with a label Nicholai +Amati (anno 1667), and about that date (when he +married) Antonio seems to have left his master’s workshop, +but still continued closely to copy Nicolo, and +many violins of his between 1660 and 1670 pass as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> +Amatis, whilst others are called Amati Strads, and +some are apparently joint productions.</p> + +<p>When Stradiuarius married (about 1667) and left +Nicolo Amati, he set up round the corner in the same +street as the brothers Guarnerii, and almost next door +to them, in the square opposite the great Church of +S. Domenico. From about this time connoisseurs notice +a great improvement in Stradivari’s technique; but up +to 1672 at least, remaining a close copyist of Amati, +he doubtless kept on terms of the closest intimacy +with Nicolo, now in his decline, and benefited by the +abundance of orders flowing in for Amati violins which +the old master was unable to execute.</p> + +<p>From 1660 to 1684 was a period of great activity, +perhaps haste; even some pot-boiling Stradivari violins +may then have been made as the young family increased. +Antonio’s wood is often plain about this time, and not +up to the best taste and selection of his master, but he +evidently remained his right-hand man to the end; and +when Nicolo died, at the ripe age of eighty-eight, he +left all his tools and his plant not to his son Girolamo, +then about thirty-five, but to Antonio Stradivari, then +just forty years old.</p> + +<p>In 1680, four years before the death of Nicolo, +Antonio had so far prospered as to be able to buy his +house (which I visited in 1880), at 1 Piazza Roma, for +about £800. Desiderio Arisi, a Cremonese, has left an +interesting MS. in which he speaks of “his intimate +friend Antonio Stradivari.” The MS. is dated 1720, +or seventeen years before the death of Stradivari.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span></p> + +<p>Arisi alludes to a point of great interest which early +excited my attention and curiosity—the many-sidedness +of the man. “In Cremona,” writes Arisi, “is also +living my intimate friend Antonio Stradivari, an excellent +maker of <em>all kinds of musical instruments</em>.” Indeed, +he could make anything that was in demand, and +he did; he could “fancy-purfle” to order, inlay, make +fiddles in odd shapes, or with a twist in the curve +here or there, or longer or shorter for experiment, or +big or small.</p> + +<p>The Marquis Carlo dal Negro of Genoa owned a +Stradivari harp in 1820. The master was not above +making mandolines and lutes to order. Messrs Hill +own a perfectly plain Stradivari guitar in fine condition. +It is of exquisite close-grained wood. I have +often wanted to hear the sound of that guitar. I +noticed a Stradivari cithern in the South Kensington +Loan Collection with an elaborately carved female head +of great beauty. I did not wonder that he who could +carve such scrolls could carve a head or anything else.</p> + +<p>There are, or were, within the present century, other +gems of workmanship, some of which it is to be feared +have perished, children’s fiddles, instruments made with +small figures, flowers, arabesques. Everything that +comes from his hand is finely accurate in drawing. +Sometimes his decoration is merely painted in black, +sometimes ivory, ebony, or mother-of-pearl is used, +but everything Stradivari did was perfectly done; he +qualified himself to the <em>n</em>th, as mathematicians say, for +each branch of his art.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span></p> + +<p>In these days one man draws, another blocks out, +another inlays, another finishes. Stradivarius did all, +and did all consummately well. His heads and arabesques +are worthy of Cellini, his inlaying of the finest +Florentine marqueterie; his scrolls and curves are of +Pheidian beauty; his varnishing is his own.</p> + +<p>On the death of Amati, Stradiuarius and the Guarnerii +had the Cremona market to themselves, and +whilst the competition was quite wholesome, there is +no reason to suppose that their rivalry was other than +a friendly one. They had all been brought up together, +they had worked as boys together, they had +doubtless lent each other tools, touched up each other’s +backs and bellies, varnished each other’s ribs, criticised +each other’s scrolls from boyhood; and now that the +Cremona violin was in the ascendant, and kings and +nobles from Spain, France, Germany, Saxony, and +even England were anxious for Cremona fiddles, there +was a market for them all.</p> + +<p>The bitterness of competition is not always due to +rival makers, but often to over-production; and such +a thing as over-production of fiddles in those days +was unknown. Nay, the orders that came in could +not be executed fast enough. Music walked faster +than the instruments could follow it. When the +King of Poland wanted a Strad violin he knew his +man, and sent his Capelmeister Voleme to Cremona, +with orders to stop there and bring back the twelve +violins ordered for the court orchestra. “So,” says +Arisi, “Voleme arrived in 1715 on the 10th June, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> +remained there three months, and when all the instruments +were ready he took them with him to Poland.”</p> + +<p>But at this time Stradivari was at his zenith. +“There is not in the world,” writes Lorenzo Giustiniani, +a Venetian nobleman, to the great artificer in +1715, “a more skilled maker of musical instruments +than yourself, and as I wish to preserve a record of +such an illustrious man and famous artist, I trouble +you with this letter to ask whether you feel disposed +to make me a violin of the highest quality and finish +that you can bestow upon it.”</p> + +<p>But we must not anticipate.</p> + +<p>After the death of the illustrious Nicolo Amati, +this patient pupil, this careful copyist, this accurate +and tireless student and experimentalist, begins to +assert his strong individuality. His scroll departs +from the feminine Amati type, and becomes striking +and independent, his sound-holes recline more, his +corners are pronounced, his middle bout curves are +prolonged, his varnish is almost fancifully varied from +rich gold to soft velvety red. His wood is now invariably +chosen with the utmost care, and as he made +chiefly for the nobility, royalty, and the higher clerical +dignitaries, he was not only on his mettle, but he could +afford to work just as he chose.</p> + +<p>In 1682, Michele Monzi, a rich Venetian banker, +sent him an order for a chest of violins, altos and +’cellos, which were to be presented to our King +James II. They were so much liked that his Majesty +ordered a viol di gamba of Stradiuarius in 1686.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp47" id="i_066a" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_066a.jpg" alt="Picture of four violins"> + <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center">Rode Strad — Spanish Tenor — Spanish Strad<br>Christina Strad<br>CELO</p></figcaption> + </figure> + + +<p>In 1685, Cardinal Orsini, afterwards Pope Benedict +XIII., had ordered a violoncello and two violins of him, +besides making him “one of his private attendants,” an +honorary title, but equivalent to appointing Stradiuarius +instrument-maker to the Cardinal Archbishop. +We commend this fact to his Holiness Pope Leo XIII. +(1897), who has lately placed the violin on his <i lang="la">index +expurgatoritus</i> of instruments, as being too frivolous +for the solemnities of divine service! Yet Pius IX. +was a pretty good fiddler.</p> + +<p>In 1687 Stradivari makes his famous set of instruments +for the Spanish Court, inlaid with ivory, with a +scroll-work running round the sides. One of these +rarities—a violin—found its way into the hands of Ole +Bull, the famous violinist. It has been since sold in +England to Dr Charles Oldham of Brighton. The +tenor is, I believe, in existence. When last in the +market, it had lost its ivory purfling, which has since +been exquisitely replaced by Messrs Hill.</p> + +<p>There are extant several very small violins made +evidently to order about this period. The fallacy of +different sizes for different ages from childhood upwards +is one which will always smile to makers and those acute +persons who teach the violin and buy their pupils’ instruments, +which of course have to be changed as the +children grow up, for larger and larger ones. I have +always protested against this. A child of eight had +much better play the violin like a violoncello (at the +age of seven, as I did myself) than be given a small +one; but when I was eight I could hold a full-sized<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> +violin to my chin—not quite in the correct position, no +doubt, but near enough. Thus from the very first, +when at six or seven years of age, I played the violin +like the violoncello, I never had to <em>unlearn my intervals</em> in stopping the strings. <i>The brain learns intervals.</i> +An habitual tenor player never plays the violin quite +in tune, and <i lang="la">vice versâ</i>; and so every time a larger violin +is placed in the pupil’s hands, the brain is bothered with +the narrower stopping learned in the preceding period. +Still, no one can regret the exquisite cabinet, almost +toy specimens, made by the Amati and Guarnerii as +well as by Strad. Artistically they are gems; musically, +fallacies. I have never got anybody to agree with me +about not using dwarf fiddles. Joachim, I believe, contended +that for a child to use a large fiddle stiffens +his muscles. I don’t believe it; it certainly did not +stiffen mine. I believe I am also in a minority in my +partiality for old bridges. Neither theory is, in fact, +“good for trade.”</p> + +<p>In 1690 Stradivari executed a celebrated order for +the Prince of Tuscany, through the Marquis Bartholomeo +Aribati. Of these <i lang="it">chefs-d’œuvre</i> the Marquis +writes: “I assure you the Prince has accepted your +instruments with more pleasure than I could expect. +The players in the orchestra are unanimous in expressing +appreciation. They declare your instruments to +be quite perfect; they all say they never heard a violoncello +with such a tone as yours. My having brought +to the knowledge of such a person as his Highness your +great skill will doubtless procure you many orders from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> +his exalted house”—and then follow more orders for +two tenors. On this occasion, we learn, from the relics +of Stradivari in the possession of the Marquis della +Valle, that the great violin-maker characteristically +enough made the most beautiful cases for the royal +instruments, decorating them profusely with armorial +bearings and symbols appropriate to each instrument.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp47" id="i_068a" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_068a.jpg" alt="Picture of three violins"> +<figcaption class="caption"><p class="center">Rode Strad — Spanish Tenor — Spanish Strad</p></figcaption> + </figure> + + +<p>The order was given in 1684, but the instruments +were not handed in till 1690. The Grand Duke, it +seems, came back for more, as there was found amongst +his instruments a violin of the grand pattern bearing +the later date, 1716.</p> + +<p>I cannot forbear to call attention to the exquisite +chromo-lithographs of the Tuscan violin, and the lucid +description and history of this last-named famous +masterpiece, in Messrs Hill’s handsome monograph. +He declares it to be in the very finest preservation still, +with an unbroken and authentic record, and to possess +all the noblest qualities of the incomparable master. It +is on the very verge of his great period, bearing the date +1690, and was bought by Mr David Ker in 1794. The +Tuscan viola and violoncello are still in the Institute +at Florence, and I advise all lovers of Cremona who +get the chance to go and inspect them.</p> + +<p>The only other point of great general interest before +the year 1700, when Stradivarius enters on his golden +period, is the deliberate manufacture of a certain number +of violins on a pattern distinct from the Amati, +and from any patterns adopted by himself before 1686-1694, +or after 1700. These instruments are known as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> +long Strads, and they seem to be a sort of constructional +or experimental link between the smaller Amati +pattern and the grand Strad pattern of 1700-37—a +model evidently suggested by the grand Nicolo, but +not adopted by the cautious Strad till some years after +Nicolo’s death.</p> + +<p>From 1694 to 1700 Stradivari not only went out of +his way to make long Strads, which not only looked +longer because they were narrower and pinched in, but +actually were longer—<i lang="it">i.e.</i> 14-inch, as compared to the +1690 13-inch Strad. In other respects also he walked +through his own traditions. Having mastered all +violin lore, he was evidently at last trying a series of +daring experiments to settle in his own mind once and +for ever certain problems of tone.</p> + +<p>We have known painters trifle with colour in the +same way. Gainsborough would paint his blue boy, +and Whistler symphonies in green, mauve, or anything +else unexpected, and Turner would recreate the light +that never was on sea or land; but in reality it was no +trifling, but study in arrangement of colour. So you +can have study in construction, empirical ventures, and +a testing of tone problems, whether in sound or colour.</p> + +<p>As Stradivari mused and carved, and glued and varnished, +year after year, his meditations might run thus: +“Flatten the belly—thicker here or there according to +wood, density of fibre; air column restrained by narrow +width, as in the long pattern, but same cubic inches of air +allowed for in length or height of ribs, only differently +defined by different shapes of instruments. Enlarge<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> +width, thin planks, but try different thicknesses; see +how different densities of wood go together. Try old +seasoned wood for back, newer for belly, or <i lang="fr">vice versâ</i>; +if wood hard, thin it; if soft, thicken it; try effect of +higher ribs on flat curves; lower the ribs on more +bulgy curves and grooved sides. What did Nicolo +aim at with his grand pattern? Adopt his width and +size, and flatten his belly. Try and save his sweetness +(did the grooves give that?) with the flatter back and +belly, which gives louder tone, adopting the mathematical +curve of nature, suggested by the vibration of +a string; certainly that gives power. Is a joined back, +or a back in one piece, best or indifferent? That would +depend on wood attainable. How would it be to patch +bits of precious wood if inter-congenial? That generally +succeeds. A good secret that, but an open one—wanted +always the patcher!”</p> + +<p>This idea of patching was certainly one of the most +inspired thoughts that ever occurred to him. He seems +to have kept wood of the finest acoustic properties for +his best orders. He had favourite planks; we can +trace one of these by a stain that runs through the +grain, and the wood crops up again and again in some +of his best fiddles.</p> + +<p>The plank must have been known to his pupils, for +the remains of it were worked up after his death.</p> + +<p>“Now for the sound-bar,” ponders Stradivari; +“thick or thin, according to the density or elasticity +of the back and belly. And its position? A little +transverse, of course—slightly diagonal to be in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> +line of vibration. Study effect on power of different +strings by placing it a fraction of an inch one way or +another; place it slightly aslant for experiment. And +the varnish?” But that will call for a few separate +paragraphs by-and-by.</p> + +<p>I have tried to indicate the kind of observation and +meditation, demanding unlimited time, patience, and +love, which Stradivari devoted for the better part of a +century to his art, and without which those Cremona +<i lang="fr">chefs-d’œuvre</i>, the Dolphin, the Messie, Tuscan, Betts, +and Pucelle Strads, could never have come forth.</p> + +<p>I have alluded to Strad’s taking late to the large +Amati pattern for violins, inclining for some time to +the small size. I do not know that any one has yet +noticed that in violoncellos Strad reversed this order of +work, making his early violoncellos large, and diminishing +their size. As he reached his golden period he +probably felt that the demands made by virtuosity +and tone-power were quite alike consistent with a +larger type of violin and a smaller and more manageable +size of violoncello.</p> + +<p>The violinist is well aware of the value of Strad’s +golden period, which will cost him gold; for, after +about 1700, a fine Strad will be worth to him from +£1000 and upwards, according to its condition.</p> + +<p>The long apprenticeship was at last over, and in +1700 the master had reached the ripe age of fifty-six, +an age at which so many have achieved their greatest +work. He was at the acme of his power, experience, +and fame; no one could teach him anything now, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> +apparently he had nothing to learn. He could at last +wield his tools as a Millais or a Tadema wields his +brush, a Flaxman his pencil, a Canova his chisel, or as +a Mozart or Wagner handles his score. He knew what +he wanted, and he could do it, and do it with a spontaneous +ease and joy which seems even now to smile +to us from the saucy corners of his bouts, the free +daring curves of his grand pattern, and the lightly +tossed and lifted scrolls.</p> + +<p>No one has failed to notice the masterful ease, the +emancipation from all mannerism, the cool defiance of +precedent and uniformity, and even symmetry, which +characterises his great period from 1700 to 1730.</p> + +<p>The violins are not all alike. Strad knew that the +secret was not merely in the pattern or shape; he could +vary his curves, and yet produce masterpieces, because +he knew all about the air column, the wood densities, +and the proportions and quantities which should be +combined for the requisite result, and he could mix +them differently like a master colourist. He no more +treated every violin as if it had the same constitution +than does a physician treat every human body alike; +it is not so much nitrogenous or carbonaceous food, +and so much liquid, but it is these and other things +used in proportion, according to your digestion and +temperament, which will produce in that instrument, +your body, the harmony of health; and how close is +the analogy between the constitution of a violin and +that of a human body—how varied is the texture, the +tissue, quality, fibre, and density of the component<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> +parts of each—I have endeavoured to point out as +succinctly as I could.</p> + +<p>So, in the grand period, the grand pattern Strads +are all made with a trained, almost inspired instinct, +according to those laws which govern the tone qualities +aimed at; but the fiddles are by no means alike to look +at. They have the charm of imaginative variety, combined +with the unity of supreme excellence.</p> + +<p>To this great period belongs the Dolphin Strad, so +called, it is said, from the melting and almost iridescent +tints of the varnish. To me, however, the violin almost +suggests the life, freedom, and elegant poise of that +graceful fish whose name it bears. The beauty and +acoustic properties of the Dolphin wood are quite +special, and can easily be compared with other violins +of the same period, some of which are much plainer +to look at, and somewhat different in form, and though +very charming, hardly so bell-like in tone.</p> + +<p>The last time I had the privilege of touching the +Dolphin Strad was at my lecture on violins before the +Royal Institution in 1880. I shall never forget its +ringing notes and its exquisite sensibility. It seemed +anxious to speak before it was spoken to; when touched, +it seemed to do all for itself like magic. Instead of +the player showing it off, it shows off the player; he +begins to feel he has nothing to learn in tone production. +It is almost like sitting at those ingeniously +contrived pianos that make elaborate music, and you +merely have to put your hands on a dummy keyboard, +press the keys, and appear to be playing, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> +then you roll off Chopin and Mendelssohn perfectly, +though you can scarce play your scales! Since then +Vuillaume’s sound-bar has been replaced with a stronger +one by Messrs Hill. It seemed to me quite perfect +before, but I suppose one must bow to experts in +such matters.</p> + +<p>The best opinion limits the number of instruments +which Strad made to about two thousand, only eight +hundred of which at most are known to be extant. +Compared with any other maker except Vuillaume, +both as regards output and survival of work, Strad +probably bears the palm.</p> + +<p>An elaborate description, a careful portraiture of +every known Strad, together with its history, as far +as recoverable, I must leave for some more gifted and +industrious recorder. I believe Messrs Hill are preparing +the most complete monograph on Stradivari +which has ever yet or is ever likely to appear, and +I only wish I could dip into their MS. and steal a +few pages. It will certainly, when it appears, be a +monumental work, and there is no time to lose, as +many of these gems are known to have been destroyed, +others dismembered, whilst some are at the bottom of +the sea. There are, however, a few more famous specimens, +which are of such unique interest that they cannot +be passed over even in so general a survey as this.</p> + +<p>Mr Croall (1897) of Edinburgh is the happy owner +of M. Artôt’s Strad, varnished dark red, quite perfect, +and one of the finest known for tone; it is dated 1716. +Lady Hallé still plays on Ernst’s violin, bought for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span> +£500, and presented to her by the Earl of Dudley +and some others. I shall never forget the wonderful +effects elicited from it by the great magician Ernst +in his palmy days, nor can I understand the statement +recently made that its tone is difficult to elicit. I have +heard the faintest vanishing whisper of its strings on +the Covent Garden stage when, as a boy, I was seated +up in the top gallery at one of Benedict’s monster +season concerts early in the fifties.</p> + +<p>A romantic interest attaches to two Stradivari violins +which have come down to us in absolutely perfect condition: +one is called the Messie, the other the Pucelle +or the Virgin.</p> + +<p>The Messie was secured by Vuillaume after the death +of that remarkable man Luigi Tarisio, to whom further +on I devote a special section. It bears date 1716.</p> + +<p>Tarisio would never let it be seen till Vuillaume +possessed it; it had then never been touched or played +upon. He lengthened the neck, but, without <em>inserting</em> +his new neck, he fixed it to a block placed outside the +ribs. Count Cozio de Salabue had bought it in 1760, +but never allowed it to be played upon.</p> + +<p>Tarisio bought it after the Count’s death, and at +his own death in 1854 it passed to Vuillaume, and +was exhibited (No. 91) in the South Kensington Loan +Exhibition of 1872, and for the first time unveiled +beneath glass to the gaze of admiring thousands.</p> + +<p>When I first saw the Messie I could not believe my +eyes. It was covered throughout and uniformly with +thick rich red-brown varnish, laid on with a firm brush,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> +level and lavish. It seemed to have left the workshop +only the day before; the anointed glitter of the fresh +varnish was upon it, it looked hardly dry. It is of +the grand pattern, but not heavy and massive like +some of the great Del Gesù’s, but beautiful as a +Pheidian carving, full of a certain special grace and +elegance. One “∫” is a shade lower than the other—a +practice <em>so common</em> with Strad, especially in his later +period, that it must have been intentional, his artistic +eye not tolerating even the suggestion of mechanical +uniformity. The Greeks worked similarly, no two sides +of their Corinthian capitals ever quite matching.</p> + +<p>The “Messiah” back is in two pieces, the corners +are absolutely unrubbed, and completely covered with +varnish—of no other specimen can this be said. The +head is light and graceful, “the scroll,” as I have +elsewhere observed, thrown off like a ribbon lightly +curled about the finger, and drawn in, one side of +the scroll cut a little lower than the other; the lines +of the scroll are picked out with thick black paint; +only faint traces of this remain in other violin heads. +The black outline was artistically conceived, as it called +full attention to the scroll curve, always so characteristic +a part of violin physiognomy.</p> + +<p>As the Messiah recently bought by Mr Crawford +of Edinburgh for £2000 has now been played upon, +it seems a pity that the world should not sometimes +be allowed to hear its voice; and I venture to say that +a well-advertised concert, in which two of our finest +violinists should be invited to play on the Messiah<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span> +and the Pucelle—<i lang="la">i.e.</i>, each player upon each instrument +once, thus giving four solos, so that the audience +might hear the same violins under different fingers—would +be an epoch in the musical world. The announcement +would doubtless pack St James’s or any +other London hall.</p> + +<p>The Pucelle or Virgin is the last Stradivari violin +I have space to notice. The “Virgin” is so called +because its interior organism had, up to the time when +it came into M. Vuillaume’s hands, not been interfered +with—<i lang="la">i.e.</i>, the inside bass bar had never been touched. +All the old violins have had these bars strengthened, +and their necks lengthened, to meet the strain of the +modern high-pitch tension of the strings on the belly, +and the lengthened finger-board which the development +of advanced virtuosity demands.</p> + +<p>These readjustments the Pucelle owes to Vuillaume. +She is in fine preservation otherwise, although her +varnish is a good deal rubbed in places. Her contour, +so fanciful are even good judges, is by some considered +more graceful than that of the Messiah, but less graceful +by others. To me there seems to be little to choose +between them; each is a distinct conception.</p> + +<p>The Virgin’s varnish is of a rich soft brown and +yellow tone, rather contrasting with the Messiah’s +bright red. The head is stronger and less graceful +than that of some Strads (the Dolphin’s, for instance); +the Virgin’s back is in two parts, the belly is a little +higher than that of the Messiah. The only vestige of +repair about her is where the chin has rubbed into the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> +purfling, which has accordingly been renewed. The +corners are somewhat fancifully cut, running straight +out in the top bouts, and hanging away in the lower +bouts; there is a rather marked indentation of the +curve beneath them.</p> + +<p>The Virgin is labelled 1709, and she reached Paris +in 1840 (of course it is a Tarisio violin); it has been +owned by Mons. le Roy, a banker, and passed to his +heir, Mons. Glanday. She is now the property of +a member of the same family, and is very jealously +guarded by her owner.</p> + +<p>In vain does imagination seek to recover the image +of the great maker as he lived and moved and had +his being through ninety-three years of shower and +shine. Undisturbed by petty sieges and local disturbances +and changes of administration, sought for +and admired impartially by the friends and the foes +of his country, he wrought out calmly his own matchless +ideal.</p> + +<p>Violins have no politics, and the great republic of +Art dominates the ages, and comprehends whilst it +survives the rise and fall of dynasties and empires.</p> + +<p>I sometimes seem to see the grand old man standing +at the door of his modest but comfortable house—a +tall, thin, perhaps rather gaunt figure, most likely not +a man of many words, carrying on for ever mental processes +connected with his subtle handicraft, seldom seen +without a chisel in his hand.</p> + +<p>Behold him just risen from his stool, or come round +to superintend or criticise a carelessly cut scroll of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> +Bergonzi, his best pupil; and before he goes up into +that almost sacred attic, open to the air, at the top +of the house, where hang the varnished fiddles and +anointed strips a-drying, he mutters a rebuke or rectifies +a curve.</p> + +<p>The old man comes to the door, and stands for a +moment looking down the street. He wears his woollen +nightcap and his inevitable leather apron; he salutes +the neighbours as they pass, but they do not stop to +speak to him, they know he has no leisure for that. +Only later, at the café-cabaret, it may be, he will chat +with Joseph Guarnerius, and exhort him to more refinement; +or tell his sons they will never uphold the +reputation of the firm if they do not work harder; and +as it is known that the master detests interruptions +at home, in those moments of rare leisure when he +emerges with the regularity of clockwork to sip his +<i lang="it">vino</i> or <i lang="it">sirop</i> or coffee, Capelmeister A. or Padre B. +or Monsignor C. may surprise him for a chat, and +inquire timidly when the violoncello or quartet of +violins ordered are likely to be ready, and get for reply +something too enigmatic or oracular to be of any service; +so patrons or patrons’ emissaries had to sit down +at Cremona and wait on the master’s convenience for +the masterpieces that could be got nowhere else.</p> + +<p>His prices seem to have been altogether moderate, +but we must remember that the value of money was +far greater in those days, a sovereign going then nearly +as far as five go now.</p> + +<p>He sold his violins for £10 (= £40); the original<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> +price of his violoncellos and violas does not seem to +be known.</p> + +<p>Although he had a large family, he must have made, +if not inherited, money, for there seems to have been a +proverb current at Cremona, “As rich as Stradivari.”</p> + +<p>Some years ago, fresh from my visit to the house +of Stradivari, then still standing in the Piazza Roma, +Cremona, I gave a full description of the great maker’s +<i lang="fr">entourage</i>, which I need not here repeat; but a single +paragraph may serve better than anything that I +can now write, at the distance of over a decade, to +place the reader in the atmosphere in which Antonio +Stradivari worked for more than half a century.</p> + +<p>I stood in the open loft at the top of his house +where still in the old beams stuck the rusty old nails +upon which he hung up his violins. And I saw out +upon the north the wide blue sky, just mellowing to +rich purple, and flecked here and there with orange +streaks prophetic of sunset. Whenever Stradiuarius +looked up from his work, if he looked north his eye +fell on the old towers of S. Marcellino and S. Antonio, +if he looked west the Cathedral with its tall +campanile rose dark against the sky, and what a sky! +full of clear sun in the morning, full of pure heat all +day, and bathed with ineffable tints in the cool of the +evening when the light lay low upon vinery and hanging +garden, or spangled with ruddy gold the eaves—the +roofs and frescoed walls of the houses.</p> + +<p>Here, up in the high air, with the sun his helper, +the light his minister, the blessed soft airs his journeymen,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> +what time the work-a-day noise of the city +rose and the sound of matins and vespers was in his +ears, through the long warm days worked Antonio +Stradivari.</p> + +<p>Before the time came for the busy hand to fail, +Antonio ceased to sign all the violins that he made; +but, with an old man’s natural pride, he continued to +sign a few down to the year of his death, registering +the number of his years in each case, and it is from +one of the latest of these, dated 1736, that we know +his age.</p> + +<p>He sank quietly to rest, evidently worn out naturally +and nobly, if not with his eye quite undimmed +and his natural strength unabated, certainly still full +of marvellous vigour, unpalsied senses, and undulled +perception.</p> + +<p>When the Chapel of the Rosary in the Church of +S. Domenico, opposite to which he had lived all his +life, was pulled down, his funeral tablet was rescued, +and it is now in the Town Hall at Cremona; but +where are his ashes? Are they in the present family +vault of the Stradivaris, in the Campo Santo of +Cremona, or in the parish of S. Matthew? I was +unable to ascertain. The tablet bears the following +simple inscription:—“Sepolcro di Antonio Stradivari +E svoi Eredi, Anno 1729.”</p> + +<p>Many of his family had preceded him to the grave, +both of his wives and six of his eleven children, his +last wife dying only nine months before him, a significant +and painful event in a life so regular and uneventful, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span>and one which may not unnaturally have hastened +his own end. None of the family seem to have been +buried in the S. Domenico vault, but in one belonging +to Signor Francesco Vitani, in the parish of S. +Matthew; so it may be Antonio lies there.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="i_082a" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_082a.jpg" alt="Picture of a green landscape, +buildings."> +</figure> + + +<p>The Church of S. Domenico was pulled down several +years ago; the house of Stradiuarius was destroyed only +recently. The Piazza S. Domenico is now the Piazza +Roma, and when an average Cremonese is asked about +Stradivari, he thinks of the fashionable <i lang="fr">avocat</i> of that +name, who appears to spend his time chiefly at Milan, +and may possibly resent the notion that a man in good +society should ever have had ancestors connected with +fiddle-making. <i lang="la">Sic transit.</i></p> + +<p>The achievements in violin-making up to the first +quarter of the eighteenth century are clearly summed +up in the names of Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe +(del Gesù) Guarneri.</p> + +<p>It would be an interesting and thorny question to +debate whether any variations of importance or additions +in excellence have since been noticeable, and +of course we naturally look to the best Cremonese +makers, who followed these giants of tone-power and +sweetness.</p> + +<p>The name of Carlo Bergonzi at once stands out as +worthy, if not to be bracketed with that of the two +mighty men, at least to receive their mantle and +reflect something of their lustre. Carlo Bergonzi was +Stradivari’s favourite pupil; he lived next door, and +afterwards occupied Stradivari’s own house with his son.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span></p> + +<p>He finished many of his master’s late violins, and +issued some others after his death collected from the +débris of the great man’s workshop; and Stradivari +left him all his tools and plant.</p> + +<p>He worked at Cremona between 1720-47 or 50, and +followed at first Stradivari’s example; for as Antonio +made his early fiddles on the pattern of Nicolo Amati, +so did Bergonzi closely copy the grand Strad pattern. +But later on, and before the death of the old man, +Bergonzi conceived the ambition of attempting to weld +the power of Giuseppe Guarnerius with the round, +bright, bell-like sweetness of the Stradivari. To what +extent he succeeded must be left to the judgment and +decision of connoisseurs, but the grand quality for +which his violins are increasingly appreciated is, no +doubt, their powerful sonority; that he clearly saw +must be the indispensable quality for all violins of the +future.</p> + +<p>The old tinkling days were over; the feeble, scraping, +and muffled viol tone was a thing of the past. The +instrument had finally emerged from the cloister, was +no longer to be a mere adjunct to the voice in dim +sacristies and cathedral choirs; its sphere henceforth +was to be out in the wide, wide world, its triumphs +were to be won in the concert room, the opera house, +and the grand musical arenas of solo virtuosity.</p> + +<p>And so, undoubtedly, what Bergonzi aimed at was +body of tone and <em>carrying power</em>, and he won it. This +dominant idea has modified even his pattern. He +looks bold and loud. Yet is the pattern not Guarneri,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> +but Stradivari modified. Notice the larger breadth of +the top curve, a certain bold angularity about the +bouts, and a freer development of the lower part of the +violin as well; the sound-holes set lower and nearer +to the purfling, and the flat model which Stradivari +discovered to be favourable to loudness. The scroll is +also characteristic—flatter in some places than that +of his master, but made to look bold and full of self-assertion +by reason of the strongly-defined and prominent +curl of the ear, which stands out and at once +challenges attention.</p> + +<p>The whole build is massive. The Bergonzi will +outlast the Strad; it will be the survival, if not of +the fittest, of the strongest. The very varnish is +laid on with a lavish hand, to allow for wear and +tear; it is even clotted in places, and is said in some +specimens to have cracked and become scurfy. It +is of a red Cremona brown, velvety, and quite the +right sort.</p> + +<p>Until within the last few years Bergonzi has not +received his dues; the scarcity of his instruments may +in part account for this; but in France, and especially +in England, he is now fully recognised and much +sought after. There are, however, only about sixty +authentic instruments of his known. His working +life was but about twenty-five years. Two notable +Bergonzi violins are those in the possession of Miss +Eissler and Signor Simonetti. There is a famous +Bergonzi double-bass of singularly fine quality now in +possession of Mr I. Sears of Boston. In Count Cozio<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> +de Salabue’s collection there were two very fine Bergonzi +violins, dated 1731 and 1733.</p> + +<p>There were five other Bergonzis—a son and grandsons; +they all made fiddles, but they were of no account, +and were far surpassed by some other makers who themselves +belong to the decline period of the Cremona +school.</p> + +<p>Although I have called Bergonzi Stradivari’s best +pupil, it would be very unfair to ignore the merit of +Lorenzo Guadagnini (1695-1740), the only one of that +name who poses as a pupil of Stradivari. He was born +at Piacenza, but lived at Cremona till about 1740. In +about 1795 he removed to Milan after leaving his +master at Cremona, but returned to die in his native +town. His make is bold, his model flat, his varnish +not so rich as his master’s, his head original, but without +the grace of Antonio.</p> + +<p>His son, Giovanni Battista, born at Piacenza, 1711-1786, +made violins which are almost more highly +esteemed than his father’s. He imitated Stradivari +perhaps more closely than his father, but Count Cozio +de Salabue, who thought very highly of him and +bought several instruments from him, is careful to +mention that Giovanni Battista Guadagnini prided +himself upon being no mere copyist. In fact, the +Guadagnini in the hands of Mr Willy Hess is quite +equal to the best of Lorenzo’s work. He was always +changing his place of residence, and wandered from +Piacenza to Milan, and at last to Turin, where he died. +His own explanation was that the envy of rivals made<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span> +each town too hot for him, but his neighbours said +that his frequent migrations were due to his own +hot temper. There were seven Guadagninis who +made violins between 1695 and 1881, but of these +the first two, father and son, alone need be taken +account of.</p> + +<p>It has been the fashion to separate the Italian +makers into schools according to the place at which +they happened to live—the Milanese, the Venetian, the +Neapolitan, the Bolognese, etc.; but it is much more +important to notice the influences under which the +chief makers worked than to identify them with special +towns.</p> + +<p>A Cremonese who works at Venice but carries the +Cremonese traditions with him, is still a Cremonese, and +belongs to the Cremona school.</p> + +<p>Thus, the “mighty Montagnana,” as the novelist +Charles Reade called him, made Cremona violins and +violoncellos at Venice. He worked between 1700-40 +as a pupil of Stradivari, and survived his master only +three years. But he came to him when the Cremona +art was already perfected, and studied the finest models, +assisting in all probability at the very manufacture of +the most wonderful instruments in the world. With +such a training, on his arrival at Venice he easily took +the lead and kept it, and to this day his instruments, +especially his matchless violoncellos—alas! too few in +number—are little if at all inferior to the best of +Antonio.</p> + +<p>Montagnana’s outline is by no means a servile copy,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span> +of Stradivari. It is flattened at top and bottom, and +seems to the eye less graceful; but in his selection of +wood, his glorious varnish, the relative thickness of his +slabs, and in the cunning knowledge of those fibre densities +in back and belly which are likely to sound well +together, he is second to none.</p> + +<p>Montagnana no doubt embodies and transplants to +Venice the Cremona secrets. As I noticed in the case +of Bergonzi, Montagnana, owing to the paucity of his +instruments as well as to the splendour of his contemporaries, +Strad and Giuseppe Guarneri, has not until +lately received the honour which is due to him. He +suffers, too, from having often been labelled Guarnerius +or Bergonzi, makers who had the vogue of the day. +These frauds are now being unmasked, and the few +great successors of the Cremona giants, Bergonzi, +Montagnana, Guadagnini, and Balestrieri (very fine in +Guadagnini’s style, flat, big build, powerful tone), and +Storioni, have at last a chance of taking their proper +places and fetching their prices.</p> + +<p>When we come to Lorenzo Storioni (1769-99) we +come to the last maker of importance who can with +any show of plausibility be called even a second or +third rate master of Cremona. Storioni’s model was +Joseph Guarnerius, but he copied him more in his +rough work than in his great qualities. In his varnish +we notice the singular change which came over the +Cremona varnish after about 1760. Up till then all +the Cremona violins have the Cremona varnish; after +that time it simply disappears. Why is it? This<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> +interesting problem I shall have to consider in my +chapter on Cremona varnish.</p> + +<p>Storioni’s instruments are not much esteemed in +England as yet, but are thought a good deal more of +in Italy.</p> + +<p>I may here fitly mention the Gagliano family, who +are associated with the Neapolitan school, but really +derive their importance from Cremona. Alessandro +Gagliano, the first of the name, was distinguished for +his very fine red varnish, 1695-1730. A violin remarkable +for its tone is the Gennaro Gagliano that has +been used by Mr Otto Peiniger for solo purposes +during many years.</p> + +<p>Alessandro Gagliano was actually in early life a <i lang="it">bonâ +fide</i> pupil of Stradivari. Finding himself, no doubt, unmercifully +overshadowed by the prestige of the immortal +workshops in the square of S. Domenico at Cremona, +and being a person of native enterprise, Alessandro +Gagliano migrated to the South, carrying with him the +Cremona craft, and founded the so-called Neapolitan +school. His model was, of course, the approved flat +one of the golden age, 1700-37, but his scroll is +small and rather mean, the ∫ ∫ are set low down, and +the work is sometimes lacking in finish. It is in the +varnish of Alessandro Gagliano that we see some connection +with Stradivari, his varnish very often being +fine in colour and of the right texture.</p> + +<p>Attempts have been made to classify the various +towns in which Italian violins were made during the +Cremona period into schools, which is about as profitable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span> +an occupation as the attempts to divide the work +of individual makers into distinct periods—one period +runs into another, and one school runs into another.</p> + +<p>Roughly speaking, you find but two influences—the +Cremona, <i lang="la">i.e.</i>, the Nicolo, the great Giuseppe and +greater Antonio influence with its flat form, gentle +curves, and red and yellow varnish; and the German, <i lang="la">i.e.</i>, +the Stainer model, of which I shall presently speak, with +its elongated form, arched belly, deep side-grooves, and +brown-yellow varnish.</p> + +<p>Some fine Venetian and Milanese makers like Montagnana +and Serafino inclined to Stainer, whilst the +Roman and Neapolitan adhered more to the Cremona +type; but Stainer himself learnt at Cremona, and all +the best men like Tecchler (Rome) and Gagliano +(Naples) who went South copied either Stradivari or +Giuseppe Guarnerius. The Milanese school, on account +of the great importance of the capital, naturally +attracted good makers like Grancino, Testore (pupil +of Grancino), and Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza (1687-1720).</p> + +<p>Venice, Florence, and Bologna can also boast of a +few respectable names, but I prefer, for the sake of +completeness, to treat them later more in catalogue +style, for the guidance of the student, and not to mix +them up with the great central figures which have +formed the subject, and I hope absorbed the attention, +of the reader of this section.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER VI</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLINS IN GERMANY</p> + + +<p>Of course, by this time, “every schoolboy,” to use +Macaulay’s famous phrase, knows that most things—including, +alas! violins—can be made in Germany +faster and cheaper than anywhere else; and if we +trust to German writers like Dr Schebek, we might +almost believe that viols, not to say the violin, +originated in Germany.</p> + +<p>I am quite willing to leave the viol origin an open +question. If, on the one hand, Albert Dürer and his +father-in-law both made violins and dated back to +1500, Benvenuto Cellini tells us that long before 1500 +his father made the finest Italian viols at Florence; +and an ingenious writer has now unearthed a print +by Maso Fineguerra, the father of engraving about +1460, in which Thalia is represented playing on a +small violin pochette or kit—which, by the way, has +rather upset the idea that the kit was a reduced +violin, but seems to show, on the contrary, that the +violin followed the kit instead of the kit following +the violin, the kit being in reality a small violin. It +is thus triumphantly argued by Mr Fleming that +even the predecessor of, and every suggestion of, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> +violin came from Italy; but in his ardour he fails to +notice that although an Italian print shows a woman +playing on a kit, the kit she plays on might all the +same have been “made in Germany.”</p> + +<p>If I see an English picture with a tomahawk and +a boomerang, I do not assume at once that the objects +depicted were necessarily “made in England.”</p> + +<p>But, as far as this book is concerned, such questions +are of quite secondary importance. It is sufficient +to notice that the first instruments possessing the distinctive +features of what we call the viola and the +violin, as distinguished from the viol tribe, came from +Brescia and Cremona; and that the greatest, if not +the earliest, German maker, Jacobus Steiner or Stainer, +is commonly reputed to have studied at Venice, or, as +some say, learnt his art under Nicolo Amati at Cremona.</p> + +<p>As we approach the great figure of Stainer we are in +the presence of a man who stands only second in popular +estimation to the greatest of the Cremona masters. +Indeed, so great a musician and eminent an authority +as Sir John Hawkins writes in 1776: “The violins +of Cremona are <em>exceeded</em> [<em>sic</em>] only by those of Stainer +a German whose instruments are remarkable for a +full and piercing tone.” The popularity of an English +maker, Duke, who followed the German Stainer model, +and whose fiddles were all the rage when good Sir John +wrote, may have a little blinded his eyes to the Cremona +<i lang="fr">chefs-d’œuvre</i>—few of which, if any, he had ever seen. +But it is no small tribute to the power of the German +that for at least a hundred years he retarded the due<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> +recognition of the Cremonas and gave a faulty direction +to the violin pattern throughout England, France, and +Germany.</p> + +<p>The arguments in favour of Stainer having visited +Cremona in his early life rest a good deal on romance—the +story of his having been a pupil of the great +Nicolo, whose daughter he is said to have refused to +marry, is unreliable. Whether he went home or stayed +at home and married the village belle whom he appears +first to have compromised, and who bore him seven +daughters and one son after marriage and one daughter +before, it matters very little to us.</p> + +<p>Poems and novels have been written about this +unhappy child of genius, but, as far as I can gather, +the only reliable facts seem to be these, and they have +been quite recently unearthed and sifted by Herr Ruf, +who died at Hall in 1877:—</p> + +<p>Jacob Steiner or Stainer was undoubtedly born at +Absam, a village not far from Hall. The townlet lay +on the high-road between the Tyrol and Italy, and +doubtless nothing that went on in the northern cities of +Lombardy was long in finding its way to Hall, for mules +and pedlars constantly carried all sorts of merchandise—viols, +and violins, and lutes amongst other things—to +and fro. The great argument against Steiner ever +having received early instruction at Cremona seems +to be that he affected the tubby raised bellies and +deep side-grooves of the old German viols; but it must +be remembered that if as a boy he came under Nicolo +Amati’s influence, it was at a time when Nicolo himself<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span> +approached far more nearly the raised viol form +than he did later on when his own model improved. +The Steiner pattern is therefore consistent with all +these theories:—</p> + +<p>Firstly, that Steiner adopted the raised pattern +which he found at Cremona, and which was then +common throughout the violin-making world; that, +returning early to Absam, he adhered to it, and, +perhaps from motives of national pride, accentuated +it <i lang="it">Germano more</i>.</p> + +<p>Secondly, that he visited Cremona later, when his +own model was already formed, and was too proud +to alter it.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, that German he was, and German he remained, +and never went to Cremona at all.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>All these questions, upon which much ink and paper +have been spent, remain more interesting to the antiquarian +than to the collector. Still, an indescribable +interest and a deep human pathos seem to cling about +the meagre facts of this remarkable man’s life.</p> + +<p>Stainer’s popularity was so enormous that ten times +the number of violins he could ever have made have +been attributed to him, and his name has been forged +quite as often as that of the great Stradivari.</p> + +<p>Stainer married in 1645, and was appointed one of +the Archducal servants, 1669; he advanced rapidly in +favour, became violin-maker to the Emperor’s court, +and was turning out instruments as fast as he could +make them, forming such admirable pupils as Klotz<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> +and Albani, when he fell a victim to the <i lang="la">odium +theologicum</i>.</p> + +<p>Heretical books were found in his possession, or +heretical opinions were expressed by him, or both. He +was, in fact, a Lutheran, and a Lutheran in Absam was +far too near to the preserves of Mother Church, and +very soon, like a hawk on a pheasant run, he was +shot down. Stainer was also miserably in debt, and +perhaps somewhat litigious, as people of genius and +independence of character are wont to be.</p> + +<p>In 1677, having got out of prison, Jacobus petitioned +the Emperor Leopold, whose protégé and employé he +had been, and who was a great musical amateur, for +money. Leopold lost his opportunity; unlike Ludwig +of Bavaria, who won for himself an easy immortality +by supplying Wagner with funds, Leopold turned a +deaf ear to the immortal violin-maker.</p> + +<p>Stainer seems to have dragged on a wretched existence +for six years longer, overburdened with care and debt. +The attentions of his wife and eight daughters did not +prevent him from going mad with worry and want; +nay, a helpless and incompetent family may even have +contributed to this so unhappy close of a splendid but +blighted career.</p> + +<p>They show even now at Absam the bench to which +the wretched man is said to have been bound when his +paroxysms came on. He died in 1683, not only insane +but insolvent. His wife died in great poverty six years +afterwards, in 1689.</p> + +<p>There seems no room in this sad life-story for his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> +sentimental retreat into a monastery on account of his +inconsolable grief for the death (?) of his wife. Had +she been such an inestimable blessing, we might have +expected her to have kept her gifted husband alive, +managed his household more thriftily, rescued him from +his debts, moved the hearts of his great patrons, or at +least saved him from going mad.</p> + +<p>But, on the other hand, eight daughters were doubtless +a trial to a couple who seemed always hard up; and +the one son, born in 1657 and dying in infancy, as we +learn from a tombstone in the Pilgrims’ Church at +Absam, deprived the great artificer of a coadjutor who +might have been interested in building up the firm, +and, perhaps, brought into it those business faculties +without which the most brilliant abilities in every department +of life so often make shipwreck.</p> + +<p>A certain Marcus Stainer, whose reputed date is +about 1665-69, and who called himself citizen and +violin-maker, it is difficult to connect with the illustrious +Jacob, although he has been called his brother, +and some say he was a monk and actually assisted Jacob +Stainer in the workshop.</p> + +<p>The great violinist Tartini is said to have possessed +two of this man’s instruments, called Peter and Paul.</p> + +<p>Veracini, another eminent soloist, is said to have lost +both of them in a shipwreck.</p> + +<p>Herr von Reimer possesses a violin with label “Markus +Steiner Burger und Geigenmacher, anno 1659” (not a +very clerical label, by the way), and that is all that +can be ascertained about this other Stainer; for of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span> +an Andreas Stainer, 1660, nothing but the name is +known.</p> + +<p>So everything tends to keep the ill-fated genius Jacob +apart. Alone he remains as the one important rival of +the Cremonese school; alone he stands at the head of +all the Germans. Genuine Stainer instruments are +rare; Stainer labels, copies, and forgeries are innumerable, +and one of the greatest curses of the fiddle +market.</p> + +<p>The general look of a Stainer is so distinct from that +of any maker except such as copied him, that it must +arrest the attention of even a casual observer.</p> + +<p>The Stainer belly is much higher than the back, the +rise is kept up through half its length; the varnish is +yellow (or as in the Elector Stainers), with a sort of +pale-rose flush in it.</p> + +<p>The early pattern, deep Amati side-grooves, the long-shaped, +beautifully thrown end of the scroll, sometimes +a lion’s head carved with the art of a Stradivari, the +narrow purfling lying close to the sides of the strong, +roundly moulded edges, the circular-topped sound-holes +rather shorter than the Cremonese, peg-box often dark +brown, contrasting with the palish-yellow belly—such +are the leading characteristics of the great Jacob.</p> + +<p>His earlier specimens bear varnish something akin to +the Amatis; they are also of the smaller pattern. A +good example of them is one in the possession of Mr +Russell of Bedale, Yorkshire, dated 1645.</p> + +<p>Jacob’s finest type may be seen in the famous Elector +Stainer; of these he is said to have made twelve, one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> +for each of the Electors. The popular legend refers +them to his Benedictine monastery, but there is no +shadow of proof that he ever was there at all; perhaps, +however, if one Markus Stainer who is reputed to have +made Peter and Paul was a monk, <em>he</em> may have been a +Benedictine monk, and as the obscure Guarneri who +did get locked up seems to be responsible by transference +for the great Joseph del Gesù’s legendary +incarceration, so Monk Markus may do duty for +J. Stainer’s reputed sojourn and residence in a Benedictine +monastery. It matters very little when the +Elector Stainers were made; most connoisseurs are +agreed that the two quite authentic “survivals of the +fittest” are miracles of workmanship, beauty, and the +perfection of Stainer tone.</p> + +<p>The Stainer tone! What is there about that tone, +which for 150 years so fascinated the musical world +as to dull the perceptions of so experienced a professor +as Sir John Hawkins to the more exquisite timbre of +the finest Cremonas? No one but myself is responsible +for the following conjecture.</p> + +<p>Perhaps there is less tonal difference between the +early Amati and the later Strad than between the +early Amati and the full-blown Stainer; and it may +have been the sharp, pungent contrast—the type of +tone that was <em>quite new</em>, as it were an original +creation—which at once arrested and held the ear of +that epoch. For, after all, musicians in the seventeenth +century were only beginning to be cultivated in the +delicate appreciation of tone <em>nuances</em>. The proof of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span> +this would not be far to seek. It is quite notorious, +though to us amazing, that the differences between +the Amati, the Strad, the Guarnerius, and the Bergonzi +or Ruggerius, should not have been more clearly +apprehended. When, for instance, a man—an orchestral +leader, too—had bought a Ruggerius and paid for +a Joseph, we do not find that he was dissatisfied with +it until he discovered that the <em>label</em> was false. The +superb qualities of the great Joseph have been appreciated +only since the Strad craze; but the world-wide +cult of Strad dates from Tarisio, who began his work +of violin exploration and discovery in 1827, dying only +in 1854. But any tyro would be arrested by the clear, +sharp, biting tone of Stainer. A violinist in the +orchestra could make his Stainer cut through all the +first fiddles, and once the taste for that sort of tone +was excited, it would be to the ear what curry, or +vinegar, or quinine bitter, or absinthe is to the palate. +The Stainer tone is a sort of drastic, stinging stimulant +to the ear, almost an intoxication; and the ear that has +been once caught by it craves for it, and misses it even +in the loud richness of Joseph, the exquisite velvety +timbre of Amati, or the superb ringing brightness of +the great Antonio.</p> + +<p>Thus, in his own original way, Stainer met the crying +want of his age for loud and piercing tone. He +was the very antipodes of the tubby, muffled sound of +the old viols. With a bound he reached the opposite +pole. The coarse ears of the multitude were at once +tickled and “grisé,” as the French say, by his wiry<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> +intensity; and soloists soon found that it was an +immense help to wield a novel and stinging timbre +which, without any special gift of theirs, awakened +attention like the roll of a drum, or the blast of a +cornet, or the tinkle of a triangle.</p> + +<p>These considerations alone, in my opinion, account +for the popularity of Stainer in all ages; the bulk of +hearers belong to the musically untrained, who like +pungency, and desire above all to have their ears +tickled.</p> + +<p>Just in proportion as music developed and the +musical ear got trained to higher and higher refinement, +so that specialities of tone became a cult for +the ear, as specialities of colour for the eye, just in +that measure did the great and subtle qualities of the +Cremona school emerge, whilst the rage for Stainer, +Klotz, and Duke declined.</p> + +<p>I have no wish to disparage these last-named fine +artificers. The increasing rarity of their instruments, +and the really splendid qualities which we grant ungrudgingly +to the best of them, must always make +them much prized, and I fully expect that in a few +years there will be a revival of the Stainer craze, and +that his violins may then touch Cremona prices. I +shall be very glad if they do; it will mean that at last +we shall get something like a definite sifting of this +great master’s best specimens, and that in this shaking +in auction rooms, and in the cabinets of collectors, the +forged parasites and impudent copies which have for +years sailed under false colours—labels (libels, I mean)—will<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> +fall off into the limbo of violin refuse and other +things “made in Germany.”</p> + +<p>The best pupils and followers of Stainer were Klotz +and Albani; but as it became the fashion to dub every +one who made respectable violins in Germany about +that time, and showed traces of the Stainer model, +“pupils” of the great man, modern writers have grown +properly cautious about dogmatising.</p> + +<p>If all Stainer’s reputed pupils had really worked with +him, they ought certainly to have married his eight +daughters and relieved him of some of his heavy family +responsibilities.</p> + +<p>Sebastian Klotz or Kloz (1675) and his son Mathias +(1696-1709) made excellent violins, and some prefer +the son’s to the father’s. There were, besides, four +other Klotz, relationship uncertain. Sebastian of Mittenwald +visited Florence and Cremona; but although +when he returned to his native town he announced his +intention of making a second Cremona of Mittenwald, +he and his family adhered mainly to the Stainer +model, and reproduced very successfully the Stainer +tone. Vidal says that his sons inundated Germany +with false Stainers. Of the great violin manufactory +which, on the suppression of the Mittenwald Fair in +the seventeenth century, is said to have revived the +commercial prosperity of the town, no trace now remains; +but it is certain that, whilst the Klotz family +lived and worked, a pretty steady stream of pseudo- +(or <i lang="it">scuola</i>) Stainers poured forth from Mittenwald till +about the year 1750.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span></p> + +<p>The Albani family, like the Tecchler, stand midway +between the Cremona and the Absam school, but +Albani <i lang="fr">père</i> (1621-73) was certainly Italian, though +he was born and lived at Botzen, in the Italian +Tyrol, where he made German fiddles in the Italian +style and for the Italian market, although his son +Joseph was also bitten with the Cremona model. +Albani’s violins pass for Italian; they are varnished +red, and rival the Amati tone, and the Joseph +Albanis are more highly esteemed than the violins +of Albani <i lang="fr">père</i>.</p> + +<p>It is further significant of Albani’s popularity in +Italy, that the most accomplished maestro and composer +of the early part of the eighteenth century, Corelli, +played on an Albani. This appears certain from an +examination made by Mr Arthur Hill of the will of the +late William Corbet, who had a large collection of rare +fiddles, and disposed of them in his will, where mention +is made of an Albani fiddle, which he left with the +memorandum that it had <em>belonged to Corelli</em>. This +is a very interesting example of a carefully excavated +fact, and does Mr Arthur Hill great credit.</p> + +<p>Tecchler, also called a pupil of Stainer, is perhaps +most esteemed for his violoncellos, the best of which +run the Strad ’cellos very hard. A very fine Tecchler +’cello is in the possession of Mr E. W. Hennell (1898), +and there are several others in this country. Tecchler +seems to have made few, if any, violins, which is strange, +as his master made few, if any, violoncellos; he worked +in Rome between 1695 and 1735. His instruments<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span> +are sometimes rather cumbrous; his varnish is yellow, +like Stainer’s.</p> + +<p>The subsequent history of “violins made in Germany” +is, to say the least, very mixed; nothing so +good as Stainer was done there before him, and nothing +equal to him has been done there since.</p> + +<p>The golden age of German violin-making begins and +ends with Jacobus Stainer.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER VII</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLINS IN FRANCE</p> + + +<p>Italy and Germany have to look back to their golden +age, but it seems as if France and England had to look +forward.</p> + +<p>France and England have never yet gone beyond +a doubtful silver age, but there is good reason to +think that the manipulation and alchemy of time, +whilst thinning out by wear and tear and loss the +older gems, will not only transform the Piques and +Lupôts, and perhaps the Vuillaumes and Chanots, but +also the Banks, Forsters, and Fendts, and probably +the Dukes and Hills, into golden quality, with very +advanced prices; and so, instead of being, like Artemus +Ward’s future, <em>behind</em> them, they may still be found +to have their future <em>before</em> them.</p> + +<p>The French work contemporaneous with the Cremona +period is not nearly so interesting, nor do the +makers appear to have been nearly so capable as the +men who followed them towards the close of the +seventeen hundreds. This is no doubt accounted for +by the streams of violins pouring out of the Italian +and German workshops, the superior reputation of +Cremona, which drew at once the patronage of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span> +Spanish and French Courts, and perhaps the small demand +for stringed instruments in France compared with +the huge demand in Italy and throughout Germany.</p> + +<p>So there was a poor market as yet for French work.</p> + +<p>In Italy, in the luxurious little Duchies and Principalities, +as well as in the churches, and in Germany in +the small Electorates, each of which supported its band +and gave an indirect impetus to the churches, Reformed +and Roman Catholic, violin-making flourished, and so +it came to pass that Italy and Germany made for all +the world.</p> + +<p>The Cremona period in France can boast of but +two considerable names, <a id="tn_105">Jacques</a> Boquay (1705-30) and +Pieray (1700-25). Boquay worked on the early Cremonese +model, which had already been left behind by +the modified forms of Stradivari (1700 great period). +His violins have not yet reached a high selling figure, +but may possibly rise; they are by no means scarce; +his varnish is reddish-brown, transparent, warm and +soft. He reverted to the Jerome Amati type, arching +even a little more than Jerome.</p> + +<p>The quality of his tone is good, but it lacks power, +which in these advanced days tells against him except +for cabinet playing.</p> + +<p>Claude Pieray (1700-25) worked in Paris, and followed +the later Amati contour, but he was far enough +removed from the Cremonese influence to follow a line +of his own. Whilst varying, some think capriciously, +the thickness of his wood, and not always securing +the best quality of wood, he varnished pale red, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span> +turned out a small and large pattern; but he evidently +inclined to the larger pattern of the late Amati +Strad.</p> + +<p>A violin of Pieray’s was advertised in the sale of +Tom Britton, the musical coal-heaver, as “a very +beautiful violin, and <em>as good as a Cremona</em>,” which +shows that even at that date the Stainer influence, +then so strong in England, had not dimmed the fame +of Cremona. However, it would of course have been +absurd to compare him to Stainer, the affinity between +Pieray and Amati being too obvious.</p> + +<p>But the really great silver-gilt if not golden age of +French violin-making dawned with Lupôt (1736-58), +was extended by Pique (1788-1822), Vuillaume (1798-1875), +Chanot (1801), Gand (1802), and Aldric (1792-1840), +famous for his varnish; and Fent,<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> an admirable +copyist, whose violins often sell as Lupôt’s copies of +Strad.</p> + +<p>The labours of these great French disciples of +Cremona, copyists and occasional forgers as they were, +are sufficient to decide for ever the superiority of the +Strad model over all others. Their lives were chiefly +occupied in reproducing the unique Antonio minutely +without attempting the least modification of the ultimate +Cremona form, which he had defined.</p> + +<p>The firm of Lupôt, immortalised by Nicolas Lupôt +(1758-1824), dates back to 1696 or somewhat earlier. +The father and grandfather of Nicolas Lupôt resided +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span>at different times at Plombiers, Luneville, and Orleans, +but Nicolas was born at Stuttgart in 1758. He +returned to Orleans in 1770.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="i_106a" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_106a.jpg" alt="Portrait of F. Tourte, N. Lupot"> + <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center">F. TOURTE - N. LUPOT</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Nicolas Lupôt was a man of great discernment, and +not carried away with the fashion of the times. Although +during the first twenty years of his life he +must have seen and heard the German model of Stainer +extolled, neither his own work nor yet his father’s +show any leaning towards it. His eye was enamoured +with the Stradivari grand pattern, and his best violins +are such loving and faithful copies of the great Antonio +that many amateurs and some professional +judges have been deceived by them. But Lupôt +never got rid of the glassy, chippy French varnish, +and although his warm orange tints are generous +and the varnish has been laid on with a lavish hand, +the rubbing bare by time of a Lupôt is very different +from that fading away upon the fibres of a Strad, +where always a subtler film protecting the wood +seems to linger, a sort of mist of varnish to the end.</p> + +<p>But Nicolas Lupôt was a great workman, and, as +Hamlet modestly puts it, “indifferently honest”—that +is, honest as violin copyists go. He did not imitate, +he <em>copied</em>, and varnished throughout; he never aged +his copies prematurely, or tried to take in buyers; +he reverenced his great Cremona model too much to +palm off his own work as those of the master. Of +course his violins have rubbed since and aged since, +but they have aged and rubbed honestly, and are +every year increasing in value, and distinctly mellowing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span> +in tone and sensitive quality. The moment Nicolas +Lupôt arrived in Paris, early in this century, his talents +were recognised; orders flowed in, and he remained +and remains without a rival in the French school.</p> + +<p>He was appointed maker to the Paris Conservatoire, +which involved the manufacture of the annual prize +violin to be presented to the gold medallist of the +year, and to this academic privilege we are doubtless +indebted for some of his finest efforts. A violin +which would annually at the time be associated with +one of the chief musical events of the year, and come +under the criticism of all musical Paris, would certainly +call forth the mettle of one who admittedly +“took the cake,” but was not without formidable +rivals.</p> + +<p>One of these rivals was Pique. He was in the habit, +it is said, of buying Lupôt’s fiddles unvarnished, +varnishing them, and labelling them with his own +name. He had better have left the varnishing alone +and contented himself with a fraudulent label. It +is surprising that he should have stooped to such a +device. Pique is quite a considerable person, second +only to Lupôt as a maker. He must have been +influenced by commercial considerations, but his dishonesty +is a great tribute to the superior popularity +and merit of Lupôt. Still Pique was so clever that +he could have afforded to be honest.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>François Gand, who entered as Lupôt’s pupil in 1802, +was much beloved by his master. He became his best<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span> +pupil, married his daughter, and succeeded to his business +in the Rue Croix des Petits Champs in 1824.</p> + +<p>Time has invented a new industry—the art of repairing—which +François Gand raised to a veritable fine art +(Mennégand, Kolliker, Rambeaux and W. Ebsworth Hill +have since rivalled him). Pique would join and split +mutilated grain in such a way that, without the aid of +a microscope, the patch or closed fissure cannot be +spotted. He would spend days over mending a crack; +it became with him a sort of passion of ingenuity.</p> + +<p>It was almost worth breaking a fiddle to have it +mended by Gand, and his exquisite skill and profound +knowledge as a repairer no doubt gave rise to the +common but risky notion that an old violin was improved +by being mended, as some surgeons pretend +that a skilful operation will not only prolong life, but +positively improve the constitution. The firm of Gand +and Bernadel is still of high standing in Paris. The +violins of François are useful and solidly built, but +lack altogether the Italian grace and finish of his +master, Lupôt.</p> + +<p>Pique (1788-1822) is by some held to have run Lupôt +very hard as a copyist of Stradivari. Pique avoids at +once the error of the vulgar copyist, who cannot refrain +from emphasising the peculiarities of his model, and +the sin of the brazen forger, who bakes and rubs, treats +with acids, and simulates the cracks and the wear and +tear of time. But Pique had some conscience. He +may have passed himself off as Lupôt, but at least he +never posed as Stradivari.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span></p> + +<p>Those conversant with Pique’s instruments observe a +very high and conscientious finish throughout. Spohr, +the violinist and composer, played for many years on a +Lupôt, and was never tired of extolling both Lupôt +and Pique. Pique died in 1822, two years before +Lupôt, and his violins improve every year, and will +by-and-by fetch prices second only to those of Lupôt, +which are already up to £200 (1897).</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">A Vignette of J. B. Vuillaume.</span></p> + +<p>If I were to seek for an appropriate pendant to the +figure of William Ebsworth Hill in London, I could +not find a better one than Jean Baptiste Vuillaume of +Paris. Yet the two men were very different;—the +careful, neat, systematic enthusiast, with a shrewd eye +to business, and the dreamy worker always apparently +in the midst of a chaos of material, out of which he +alone could select at a moment’s notice what he required; +the ready purveyor of whatever sort of article +happened to be wanted, and the careless distributor of +his wares, who forgot what he owed his customers, and +kept them waiting for months; the clever copyist, the +reverent repairer, the ingenious brain for ever evolving +new sorts of bows, fiddle shapes, screws; and the +idolater of the old forms, who had so firmly grasped +the truth that violins and all that belonged to them +had culminated at Cremona before the middle of the +eighteenth century, that he never aspired to invent +anything new or alter anything old;—the Parisian, who +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span>made many fiddles, and died rich; the Londoner, who +made few fiddles, but repaired innumerable antiques, +and died with but a moderate competence. The force +of contrast could go no further; nay, you can look at +the two men’s faces, and see the secret of their characters +writ plain enough.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="i_110a" style="max-width: 65.25em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_110a.jpg" alt="Portrait of J. B. Vuillaume, +William Ebsworth Hill"> + <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center">J. B. VUILLAUME - WILLIAM EBSWORTH HILL</p></figcaption> +</figure> + + +<p>I can remember old Hill’s dreamy gaze, peering at +me with screwed-up eyes through his spectacles. You +were nothing in particular to him, duke or pauper; it +was your fiddle that gave you the importance or the +reverse in his eyes. But look at Jean Baptiste Vuillaume’s +portrait—it lies before me as I write: the +jaunty embroidered and tasselled velvet skull-cap, the +well-arranged black satin tie, the well-cut coat, the +grave sharp look and keen eye, not dreaming at all, +but taking everything in at a glance; the mouth a +little aslant, as we often see it in men of speculative +and ingenious minds; the firm fine nose, and the strong +quiet face, but a face that betrays a mind ever alert, +capable of dominating its owner’s gifts, his customers, +and the market generally, whilst the man was genuinely +devoted to the art and craft which made him great, +and rich, and famous. Yes, the two great connoisseurs +might well hang side by side in twin frames, for they +are two types, united by a like enthusiasm and speciality +of craft and knowledge, but differently interesting, +variously unique each in his own way.</p> + +<p>Both were hereditary violin-makers, and the tendency—I +had almost said the cult—was born and bred in +the blood.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span></p> + +<p>Vuillaume was early saturated, in his father’s workshop +at Mirecourt, with all the secrets and arts of the +trade, long before he served his apprenticeship. But +Paris drew the young fellow, then only nineteen, with +an irresistible magnetism.</p> + +<p>Victor Hugo, that typical Parisian of Parisians, has +somewhere described the Frenchman’s inborn love of +his capital, the centre to him of life, art, pleasure, +movement, industry, and invention. So to Paris must +your Jean Baptiste go. But to whom?—to whom +but Chanot (Francis), incomparable worker, copyist, +forger, suitable adept, indeed, for such a bright novice.</p> + +<p>With Chanot, Vuillaume remained till 1821, when +he went over to Lété, the organ-builder, who also +dabbled in fiddles, and was glad to have at his +beck and call as a foreman such a specialist, with all +the experience of Mirecourt and the craft of Chanot +at his back; in fact, he lost no time in taking the +young man into partnership, and the partner throve so +well that he married in 1828, being then just thirty +years old.</p> + +<p>Things ran smoothly with Vuillaume; his wife did +not drink, or abuse him, or waste his money. His home +was happy, and, in the sunshine of domestic peace, his +talents expanded in the direction of that growing +market which was created by the taste for old fiddles, +excited by Tarisio, and supplied by the not always +scrupulous skill of Chanot.</p> + +<p>But Vuillaume went one better than Chanot. Chanot’s +trick was to produce such deceptive copies or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span> +patch with counterfeit backs and bellies of his own—or +to forge downright a whole antique, to be foisted +upon some unwary but ill-informed enthusiast. But +Vuillaume, to his honour be it said, soon discerned +that the world at large could not be won by fraud, +but that men were the slaves of imagination and sentiment. +This timely and philosophic discovery made +him famous and wealthy, almost at a bound. He +loved the old Italian fiddles; he had the best opportunities +of seeing them; his admirable technique +enabled him to copy them accurately—to counterfeit +the wear and tear, even the cracks and worm-holes, the +inlaying, the rubbed varnish, the old wood; and for +about five pounds, or even less, he proposed to provide +people with new fiddles, which looked like old ones worth +fifty or a hundred pounds.</p> + +<p>The device succeeded beyond the dreams of avarice. +Orders poured in faster than they could be executed. +Just look at the old man’s face. Can you not see the +shrewdness, betrayed by that slight pucker in the lip, +which discovered and worked this now familiar tendency +of human nature to possess what <em>seems</em>, if you +can’t afford to buy what <em>is</em> really good? It is the secret +of cheap art, shoddy satsuma, coarse blue china, common +silks, oleographs, and sham Palais Royal jewellery +galore—every bazaar reeks with it; whilst the biggest +warehouses are not above selling a made-up wine that +deceives the palate, a walking-stick not ebony, only +paint or stain, and furniture not really inlaid, but +ditto ditto. So Vuillaume began early those amazing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span> +copies, chiefly of Stradiuarius, which even now deceive +the innocent, and for a moment may even puzzle a +connoisseur. Well, it was no doubt shoddy, but shoddy +of the best sort; shoddy raised to a fine art, like those +roses so subtly made out of silk or cambric that we +might easily pop them into water to prevent them from +fading.</p> + +<p>This new-found copying industry was a delight as +well as a profit to the clever French craftsman.</p> + +<p>He loved a Cremona; he copied it as men copy the +old masters again and again, till they know every touch +of the immortal workman, and revel in its reproduction.</p> + +<p>“I have completed,” remarked Vuillaume in his declining +years, “three thousand instruments, all sold, all +paid for, and the money spent, and it affords me great +satisfaction.”</p> + +<p>Like Ebsworth Hill, Jean Baptiste loved to do it all +himself. Every instrument was varnished carefully by +his own hands, and many are made throughout by him.</p> + +<p>But what is the actual merit of Vuillaume’s violins? +Fine work, yes; admirable counterfeits, yes; but the +great expectations raised by the appearances are unfortunately +not always answered by the tone. His best +are good, and will run into forty pounds, perhaps more; +but his worst are dear at five pounds. Nor can Vuillaume +pretend to rival in power his great French predecessors, +Pique or Lupôt, who copied, but without +registering the defects of age, accident, and decay, +which are so cleverly reproduced in Vuillaume’s typical +specimens.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span></p> + +<p>It is an exaggeration to say that Vuillaume baked +his fiddles; but he treated the wood chemically in +various ways, besides reproducing cracks and even +worm-holes; and this artificial age put upon his planks +not only fails to carry the mellowness and timbre of +wood grown naturally old, but seems actually to impair +instead of improving its quality, and this is +but too apparent as the instruments recede in time +farther and farther from the hand of the too cunning +artificer.</p> + +<p>There are, however, a few fine quartets of instruments, +one of which, made for the Comte de Chimay, +was lately exposed to public view in Messrs Hill’s windows +in Bond Street. These are varnished equally +throughout, and no attempt at aging the wood or +tampering with the surface is visible. The work +throughout is charming and finished, as in the best +Cremonese models, and the only wonder is, that as +everything about them is so good, the tone is not +better; still, everything is relative. But Vuillaume +claims to be judged by a high standard, and so we +judge him.</p> + +<p>Vuillaume’s ingenious brain was ever devising improvements +and novelties, but few of them have turned +out successes.</p> + +<p>He made a violin tenor, but it never came into +use, it being too cumbrous. He made a steel bow; +but, although hollow, it was found to be too heavy. +He made a sourdine tailpiece which acted on the +bridge, but it has never superseded the usual simple<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> +dummy contrivance. He made a self-hairing bow, +which is still sold by Mr Withers; but most violinists +prefer to pay a small sum and get their bows haired, +just as most men prefer to get themselves shaved—it +is less trouble, and does not cost much.</p> + +<p>Apart from his undoubted finish as a workman, and +skill as a copyist, Jean Baptiste Vuillaume’s title to +fame will rest largely on his connection with Tarisio. +As we have seen, he not only dealt with him living, +but bought all the violins found in the bedroom along +with the peasant carpenter’s lifeless body.</p> + +<p>His possession of the Messie, which he kept in a +glass case, and never allowed any one to touch, was a +source of great anxiety to him during the Paris Commune +in 1870.</p> + +<p>He writes to Madame Alard, his daughter, who +married the celebrated violinist of that name: “In my +last I spoke to you of Alard’s violin and my Messie, +and of certain valuables I have here. I do not know +what to do with them, for if one survives, one will be +able to recover the valuables when the hubbub is over; +and some <i lang="fr">sous</i> can be buried, but violins cannot be +buried.” And again: “Where ought I to place all +these in case of pillage?”</p> + +<p>He referred chiefly to his violins, and old medals +received in the Paris Exhibition from 1827 to 1855, +and the Great Exhibition medal in London, 1851.</p> + +<p>Later on we are relieved by reading: “I have found +quite a safe hiding-place protected from fire, <i lang="fr">et puis à +la grace de Dieu</i>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span></p> + +<p>All went well with the treasures, and in 1875, when he +died, the Messie fell to the joint share of his only two +children, Jeanne and Claire. Jeanne (Madame Alard) +bought out Claire’s interest for five hundred pounds, +the violin at that time being valued at one thousand. +In 1890 Messrs Hill bought it for Mr R. Crawford for +the unprecedented figure of two thousand pounds, the +largest sum ever given by a dealer for a single instrument. +Mr Charles Reade valued it at six hundred, +but that was several years ago, when a first-class Strad +could be obtained for about three hundred and twenty +pounds. Prices have run up since then, and (like +“Charley’s Aunt”<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> as we write) are “still running”!</p> + +<p>Down to the end of his life Vuillaume was a great +dealer, and he hurried over to London when quite an +old man to attend the sale of Mr Gillot’s fiddles. He +mistook the date, and arrived a day after the sale. He +came into Mr Hill’s shop in Wardour Street, and gave +vent to his disappointment. Mr Hill, whom he always +visited when in London, had bought several instruments, +and had a second deal with Vuillaume then and +there, much to the Frenchman’s gratification. It is +interesting to catch this glimpse of the two greatest +dealers and artificers of the age face to face for +one moment, and in such friendly and characteristic +relations.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER VIII</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLINS IN ENGLAND</p> + + +<p>It is an amusing fact that hardly a Continental writer +on musical instruments, M. Vidal excepted, has thought +it worth while to give any reasoned account of the +English viol and violin-makers who have occupied such +a distinguished place in the history of the art.</p> + +<p>I heard the other day of an American school atlas +which left out all the islands in the world as unimportant +details calculated to confuse the minds of +young students. England, of course, being a small +island, was one of the first to disappear.</p> + +<p>The names of Barak Norman, Banks, Forster, and +Duke may be somewhat confusing, but we must risk +the mention of them just for the sake of an approximate +completeness.</p> + +<p>The fact is, that in Queen Elizabeth’s time the English +were really almost a musical people. Whether +the viols came across from the Low Countries or Germany +or from Italy has never seemed to me a matter +of much importance. Undoubtedly the viol and its +descendants is cloisteral, and that means Italian, since +all the arts along with Christianity spread from the +great Italian centres—Rome, Florence, Milan, Brescia;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span> +and in Elizabeth’s time Italian influence is as marked +in English music as it is in the Shakspearian drama, or +in these gorgeous brocades, silks, and tapestries that +still dazzle us behind glass at the South Kensington +Museum, or in such Elizabethan gems of Renaissance +architecture as Knole and Hatfield, which seem to +touch as with the glory of a foreign world the palatial +seats “of our old nobility.”</p> + +<p>Modern music rises in Elizabeth’s reign with Monte +Verde and the discovery of the octave and the perfect +cadence.</p> + +<p>Along with it rise the Italian singing-schools of +Naples; whilst the viols, improved to meet the new +demands, culminate in the Brescian, Maggini and the +Cremonese Amati patterns (the very word Madrigala, +the hymn of the Mother of God, is Italian and cloisteral), +and the viols which accompanied such part-songs +were doubtless of Italian origin.</p> + +<p>But, for all that, the viols were genuinely naturalised +and acclimatised in England, and for a short time it +seemed as if England were even going to lead the art +of viol manufacture.</p> + +<p>The father of Galileo the astronomer declared in +1583 that the best lutes were at that time <em>made in +England</em>, and we know that lute-making and viol-making +so invariably went together that in France +and Italy the violin-maker is to this day called a +“lutier”; and J. J. Rousseau remarks, a little loosely +perhaps: “The viol passed from the Italians to the +English, who <em>first</em> began to compose and play harmonised<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span> +pieces for it, and who imparted the knowledge +to other kingdoms.”</p> + +<p>Mace, an old writer and quite a musical expert +(1676), mentions the viols of Ross (1598) and Smith +(1633) as “old instruments” in his day. But the movement +did not go on, and I cannot for a moment doubt +that what checked the rise of music and the manufacture +of musical instruments in this country was that +same Puritan craze which snubbed art, smashed the +stained glass, and mutilated our cathedrals throughout +the land.</p> + +<p>Viols had by this time crept out of the cloister and +joined hands with the frivolous Rebek, used at fairs +and pothouses. At all events, in Cromwell’s time and +the “Barebones-praise-God period,” everything that +savoured of festivity was tabooed, and the fury against +art seemed part and parcel of all sincere religion, +according to the masses at least.</p> + +<p>To Cromwell’s honour be it set down that he was +personally no such extremist, and that he, moreover, +saved for us Raffael’s cartoons; but still music in any +of its secular forms was mightily discouraged by the +Puritans, whilst in its higher religious form it was +associated with Prelacy and Papacy, and we have to +wait for that reaction in favour of the world, the flesh, +and the devil, which marked the Restoration, and which +also made provision for the more innocent as well as +the more perilous delights of music in the home, the +concert room, the theatre, and the sanctuary.</p> + +<p>In Charles I.’s band (1625) there were “eleven<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> +violins and four viols,” so at last the violin was +creeping up; but not until Charles II.’s restoration +did the full-fledged violin come in with a rush of +“four-and-twenty” fiddlers, over whom presided no +less a person than the immortal Thomas Purcell, who, +in a brief span of life, achieved his almost Mozartian +fame, and died at the early age of twenty-seven, just +ten years younger than the incomparable Wolfgang +Amadeus.</p> + +<p>The King had no doubt got his notion of fiddle +bands from Louis XIII.’s “petits violons du roi”; and +from the French Court, our “merrie monarch” borrowed +a good many other ideas of a less respectable +and harmless character.</p> + +<p>The King was so seriously addicted to music that +he could hardly hear a sermon and never eat his dinner +without the solatium of his four-and-twenty fiddlers.</p> + +<p>“They played before him at his meals,” writes +Anthony Wood in the diary of his life, “as being more +airy and brisk than the viols”; and the grave Evelyn +much resents the invasion of the upstart “petit violon” +and its profane intrusion. He writes in 1662: “One +of his Majesty’s chaplains preached, after which, instead +of anthem or solemn wind music accompanying the +organ, was introduced a concert of twenty-four violins +between every pause, in the French fantastical light +way, better suiting a tavern or a playhouse than a +church.”</p> + +<p>’Tis an ill wind that blows nobody and nothing any +good, and we cannot doubt that his Majesty’s royal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span> +mistresses, like the Duchess of Cleveland (Barbara +Palmer), the Duchess of St Albans (Nell Gwynn, the +actress), the mother of the Duke of Monmouth (Lucy +Walters), the Duchess of Portsmouth (Louise de +Querouaille, a French girl), greatly favoured all the +more frivolous diversions with which secular music, +and especially the new-fangled violin, were associated.</p> + +<p>These ladies were bound to be musical, as music +undoubtedly delighted the “merrie monarch,” and +flattered his jaded tastes by its frequent novelty and +emotional excitations.</p> + +<p>The revellers at Whitehall soon attracted to the +capital the greatest violin players from foreign parts. +The supremacy of the new violin pattern was achieved, +and the rage of virtuosity began.</p> + +<p>Even John Evelyn succumbed to the witchery of +Thomas Balzar, a Swede, who arrived in 1656. He +seems to have been the Paganini of the period, and +electrified the Court. Evelyn calls him “incomparable”; +he played off at sight the most amazing difficulties +with ravishing sweetness and “improvements”; +he played a full concert on his single instrument, so +that the rest flung down their violins, acknowledging +the victory. As to worthy Mr Paul Wheeler and +Mr Mell, who were the Spohrs and De Beriots of +their day, they had to hide their diminished heads.</p> + +<p>We are not surprised to hear after this that his +Majesty installed the great Balzar as director of his +twenty-four violins, retained his services at court, and +buried him in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span></p> + +<p>It will be convenient to focus our attention on +English violin-making about this time, for doubtless +the arrival of these foreign players, and the popularity +of the king’s band, gave a great impetus to our native +manufacture. The supply of foreign violins, for which +there was now a growing demand abroad—<i lang="la">i.e.</i>, in +England and France—began to give out as the century +waned. There were plenty of old <i lang="fr">viols</i>, but no <em>old +violins</em> to fall back upon; the violin was a new product; +and, as the court set the fashion, we should +naturally expect the English viol-makers would be +wide awake to the importance of supplying the new +want, and such was the case.</p> + +<p>The Brescian and Cremonese fiddles were hardly +known in England, and what the Italians made were +chiefly for home consumption.</p> + +<p>As the English were great viol-makers in Elizabeth’s +time, we may ask: Why did they allow the Italians to +take the lead in violins? Why is the English school +of violins at least fifty, and the best English violins +a hundred years later than the early Cremona <i lang="fr">chefs-d’œuvre</i>? +Why is Nicolo Amati’s date 1596-1684, +whilst W. Forster is 1713-1801, Duke 1769, and Banks +1795? The answer is not far to seek: the fact that +violin manufacture was checked by the Puritan movement +in England, whilst its progress in Italy was +steady and continuous, enabled the Italians to steal +a march upon us which turned us into pupils, and +pupils afar off too, when we resumed the industry. +I do not say that the superior climatic conditions and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> +generally the art atmosphere of the small Italian +courts must not also be taken into account; but when +attention was called to improved tonal quality, and +a timbre, power, and sensibility undreamed of by the +old viol-makers became <i lang="fr">de rigueur</i>, in response to the +demands of virtuosity and the advance of the musical +art, Italy was bound to win; such Tyrolean woods, +such varnish, such sun, such sentiment, as was required +for the perfect evolution of the violin, could hardly be +found outside Italy. Both Spain and Germany confessed +to the fact, nor could England put it aside. +Accordingly, the highest praise that was ever given +to an English maker was given to Benjamin Banks +(1727-95), who was called “The English Amati”; but +to this day no one has ever been called “The English +Stradivari”!</p> + +<p>Passing by Aireton (died in 1807), who copied Amati, +but used yellow varnish; Henry Jay (1744-77); the +famous kit-makers (the kit is a tiny instrument with +normal neck and finger-board, used chiefly by dancing-masters), +the Kennedys, father and son (1730-1870), +most prolific but mediocre fabricators, chiefly of violins +and tenors; Panormo and Parker, the two first excellent +eighteenth-century makers; we make special mention +of John Rayman, one of, if not the earliest, English +violin-maker. “An extraordinary Rayman” was +amongst the violins owned by Britton, the musical +coal-heaver. Urquhart was also a maker of exceptional +originality.</p> + +<p>Pamphilon (1685) was a fair and excellent workman,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span> +high model, moderate tone, with quite splendid varnish. +“Peter Walmsley, at Ye Golden Harp in Piccadilly,” +good copyist of Stainer and an excellent maker, we +are bound to notice on account of his early date and +more solid reputation.</p> + +<p>“Barak Norman” worked and sold fiddles at St +Paul’s Churchyard (1683-1740). His label runs thus, +with a ✠ and crown above it, similar to the labels of +Del Gesù, some of which he may have seen: “Barak +Norman and Nathaniel Cross, at the Bass Viol in S. +Paul’s Churchyard, London, fecit 1702.”</p> + +<p>Mr Walter Brooksbank of Windermere had one of +the Cross viol da gamba, in which, after the style +of the early bell founders, the instrument is supposed +thus to speak for itself. “Nathaniel Cross wrought +my back and belly” (the scroll and sides being by +Barak Norman).</p> + +<p>Meares, about whom little to speak of is known, +except that he was probably a pupil of Rayman’s, is +reputed to have taught Barak Norman.</p> + +<p>Meares is known to have adopted the Brescian +model. He was probably the earliest English maker +of violoncellos. He retains some of the decorative use +of purfling, which rapidly went out as the new violins +came in. He runs his purfle into his monogram with +attendant flourishes. Meares made at first chiefly +viols, after that tenors of excellent quality.</p> + +<p>His violins are much esteemed. He was a close +copyist of Maggini.</p> + +<p>Three of his viols were exhibited in the South<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span> +Kensington Loan Collection of 1872, but one of them, +dated 1690, had been cut down.</p> + +<p>It remained for Stradiuarius, in the dawning year of +the eighteenth century, to discover and fix the model +of the bass viol that needed no cutting down.</p> + +<p>The musical world owes a debt of eternal gratitude +to the Forster family; there were four of them.</p> + +<p>“Great-grandfather John (1683), maker of spinning-wheels +and violins.</p> + +<p>“Grandfather William, <em>the</em> Forster, commonly called +‘Old Forster.’</p> + +<p>“Father William, No. 2, who also made spinning-wheels.</p> + +<p>“William, No. 3 (1764-1824).”</p> + +<p>His sons, the two brothers William (1733-1824), and +Simon Andrew (1731-1869).</p> + +<p>The second Forster (1739-1807), William, called +“Old Forster,” bears off the palm.</p> + +<p>Born in the north, a native of Brampton, he made +his market, like his father, out of the spinning-wheel +industry of Cumberland, but he was a many-sided +man, a great repairer of viols, and afterwards a maker +of violins, the greatest maker in the north—the greatest +maker in all England.</p> + +<p>He commended his violins to the public by playing +on them himself. He was not beneath playing at +country dances and on village greens.</p> + +<p>We may be sure he never lost an opportunity of +parting, for a consideration, with the violin he played +upon—since naturally, people would often be seized<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> +with a desire to possess themselves of an instrument +which they had heard discourse such excellent music +and to the purpose.</p> + +<p>Indeed, I have sometimes known professors in these +days who would so cunningly play to their pupils that +they have been able to palm off for considerable sums +quite inferior instruments.</p> + +<p>How much more easy must it have been for the man +who made them, and made none but the best, and +played them on occasions when his purchasers’ spirits +were high and their dispositions yielding, to dispose of +his exceptional wares.</p> + +<p>About 1759 Forster seems to have concluded that +Cumberland was played out, and, sighing for new worlds +to conquer, he came south. He was quite a young man, +but in the great whirlpool of London, as it was even +then, he seems to have sunk so low as cattle-driving, +but that is in itself a tribute to his versatility and +pluck. Presently he sets up in the Commercial Road, +East, but finding there neither demands for spinning-wheels +nor fiddles, takes to gunstock-making, till he at +last “strikes ile” with one Beck, of Tower Hill, and +there makes such fiddles that Beck grows fat while +Forster remains lean.</p> + +<p>Unable to get his wages raised, he leaves Beck in +1762, and sets up at Duke’s Court, a site now occupied +by the National Gallery.</p> + +<p>For about ten years Forster adopted the high Stainer +pattern, then so popular in England, and attracted the +patronage of amateurs like Colonel West. Afterwards<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> +he set up in St Martin’s Lane, and then went to +348 Strand. He had by this time attracted the +attention of royalty, and the Duke of Cumberland, +George III.’s son, is said even to have once dined with +him off black pudding.</p> + +<p>Old Forster’s versatility and enterprise is still further +shown by his opening communications with the great +Joseph Haydn, and it is chiefly to him that England +owes the introduction and publication of Haydn’s immortal +Symphonies.</p> + +<p>The shrewd old man doubtless saw the profit which +lay hid in a scheme which would popularise the greatest +<em>writer</em> for stringed instruments who ever lived, and he +had not miscalculated.</p> + +<p>The same cleverness which prompted him to give the +English a dose of the Stainer model when Stainer was +the rage, prompted him to revert to the later Amati +grand pattern as he reached his ripe maturity. He +also changed his varnish before the close of his life, +and is said to have found the secret of solving amber +with the assistance of the chemist Delaporte, who invented +some stuff known as the Verins Martin.</p> + +<p>Amongst his patrons were George III., who, as +Prince of Wales, was fond of playing the violoncello, +probably one of “Old Forster’s,” and who, when he +asked Haydn, who had been listening to him, how he +thought he played, received the altogether diplomatic +reply, “Vy, your ’ighness do play like a Brince.”</p> + +<p>Peter Pindar (Dr Walcot) and Bartolozzi the engraver +were also amongst Forster’s patrons. He made<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span> +but four double-basses, and his tenors and ’cellos are +thought better of than his violins. They are steadily +rising in value. He died in the same year as Haydn +(1808). His son William already suffered much from +the foreign competition, which was just beginning to +tell, the duty which protected the English manufactures +having been removed.</p> + +<p>William made some very good instruments, but they +do not equal his father’s; and he made a great deal +of rubbish for the trade besides.</p> + +<p>There was no doubt a certain erratic vein in the +Forster family, which in Old Forster took the shape of +amazing versatility and profitable enterprise, but which +in his son and grandson degenerated into speculative +eccentricity. The son went in for buying grocery, +and invested in other bad businesses. The grandson +turned out very unmanageable, but clever and many-sided; +he worked for a time with Thomas Kennedy, +but got away from him and went in for play-acting, +sometimes taking a turn in the orchestra at the violoncello +desk. He made about fifteen instruments altogether, +two or three of which only approached the +Forster high level. He died in 1824, suddenly, whilst +still quite a young man.</p> + +<p>His brother Simon made a large number of violins—tenors +and ’cellos; they are those signed S. A. +Forster, but they do not rank very high. He was +the first to write a history of the violin, and has +deserved well of all succeeding writers, who quote +him with a touching simplicity of faith, as though,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span> +forsooth, because the first, he must needs be the best +authority.</p> + +<p>At the name of Benjamin Banks all tenor and +’cello players lift their hats; for although the later +importation into England of Cremonas has somewhat +obscured our countryman’s fame, his splendid work—even +surpassed, as some think, by his sons James and +Henry—is bound to hold the market again; and a +name extolled by the great virtuoso Lindley, whose +favourite instrument was a Banks, is not likely to be +neglected by Lindley’s successors, even though they +may be the happy possessors of Stradivari basses.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Banks (1727-1795) was a contemporary +of Old Forster (1713-1801), but there is no reason +to suppose that the two artificers ever met or materially +interfered with each other; for Banks worked at +Salisbury, whilst Forster worked in London, and no +express trains bore fiddles or fiddle-buyers swiftly to +and fro in those days.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Banks copied Nicolo Amati very closely; +but Mr Sandys speaks of a rare long-shaped violoncello +of his quite of the Stainer pattern, with the +round-topped Stainer sound-holes. This was none +other than the great Lindley’s famous instrument +which so nearly escaped destruction in a coach accident. +The passengers had a bad shaking and a bad +spill, and Lindley and his violoncello among them; +but the rare enthusiast, in the midst of the confusion, +had but one thought. He flew to his ’cello-case, +and was found seated in a ditch, quietly playing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span> +away to assure himself that his beloved was +uninjured.</p> + +<p>Mr Lucas had an excellent Benjamin Banks violin, +but Banks tenors and violoncellos are more esteemed. +Banks made no double-basses; his varnish is yellow-brown, +of excellent quality, but badly laid on, that on +his bellies being often clotted, so that, in technical +parlance, it is said to kill the grain.</p> + +<p>The Earl of Pembroke, who presumably knew no +better, ordered a violoncello of Banks to be made entirely +out of an old cedar-tree, which had been blown +down in his lordship’s park (Wilton). It was, as might +have been foreseen, a great failure in tone. Of course +Banks made it “right enough,” and pocketed the +money, but it is doubtful whether the Earl ever got +his money’s worth.</p> + +<p>I remember a very carefully made violin, all of silver, +another expensive freak of ignorance and eccentricity; +doubtless it sounded like a tin kettle, and was musically +of no use whatever. Some of us may have heard an +ingenious itinerant violinist playing on a tin biscuit-box +with similar results.</p> + +<p>Benjamin’s scrolls are not very elegant, but that +does not affect his tone. Benjamin had a very good +idea of his own importance, and probably, too, a suspicion +of the extent to which his name would be taken +in vain after his death. He tried to make this more +difficult by not only varying his labels in about four +different ways, but also stamping his instruments in +several places with his own peculiar seal, B.B.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span></p> + +<p>Benjamin’s sons fell far below their father, but the +old man left quite a number of white unvarnished +instruments in a cellar when the business was sold, all +of which were duly completed and sent forth with his +name, to which, however, they have but a partial right; +for, as his sons worked with him, it is by no means +certain that every fiddle in Bank’s shop at the time of +his death was made by Benjamin <i lang="fr">père</i>.</p> + +<p>Duke (1754-69) was remarkable as having largely +contributed to create in England the Stainer furore +which so confused the judgment of amateurs in this +country, and retarded for at least fifty years the +triumph of the Stradivari grand pattern. In reality the +best Dukes are on the Amati pattern, but they are few +in number, and though there are innumerable fraudulent +Dukes about, a real Duke is seldom seen. The +fraudulent Dukes exaggerate the high bellies and deep +grooving of the earlier Amati, and thus pass for Stainer +pattern. Duke’s varnish is also of a yellow or yellow-brown +hue. It is not likely that Duke’s reputation +will increase, though the rarity of genuine Dukes and +the plentiful number of counterfeits may still run up +a few real specimens to fancy prices.</p> + +<p>I cannot close this brief survey of the old English +makers without a mention of Bernard Fendt (1756-1832). +He was originally a Swiss cabinet-maker, but +coming to London, went into business with Thomas +Dodd, for whom, and with whom, he began to make +violins. Fendt soon got hold of another cabinet-maker, +a compatriot, and Dodd took him also into the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span> +business. These two clever artificers soon raised Dodd’s +business to great prosperity, and Dodd thus had the +honour of putting his own name in their violins. All +he had done, however, was to varnish them, but he did +that superlatively well, so that Dodd’s varnish became +as famous as Dodd’s bows.</p> + +<p>Fendt afterwards left Dodd and worked for John +Betts, who was famous for his imitations of Amati, +which he said paid better than making fiddles with his +own name in them. Many of his best imitations were +made by Fendt, who has thus created the reputation of +two makers besides himself. His son, who died only +in 1851, would have equalled his father had he not +been seduced by the vicious practice of prematurely +aging his violins, thus pandering to the taste for old +fiddles at the expense of the fiddles themselves—for it +is notorious that such frauds do not improve by age.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">A Vignette of W. E. Hill.</span></p> + +<p>Dark—yes, to my eyes very dark; but the light in +William Ebsworth Hill’s old shop in Wardour Street +was good enough for him; a greater glare might have +flouted those hundreds of old brown fiddles, and dusty +débris of fiddles, which that very moderately sized establishment +was hung, lined, strewn, and littered o’er with.</p> + +<p>So the dim light, relieved on foggy days with a +casual gas-jet, or even a candle-end, seemed better than +the garish sunlight for that dusky brood—even as the +moonbeam, according to Sir Walter Scott, touched the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> +grey ruins of Melrose more tenderly than the light +of day.</p> + +<p>There were no electric lamps in those days (in 1870), +consequently no patent asbestos appliances for converting +the impure London gas into a specious and +blazing rival.</p> + +<p>Mr Hill tried to do too much. In his back shop +he conducted repairs, and frequently brought his “repairs” +into the front shop. I have seen him there, +behind the counter, busy with gouge, knife, or scraper. +When customers or applicants for advice arrived—some +with cheap German fiddles which they fondly believed +to be rare specimens of Cremona, others with their own +good, bad, and indifferent instruments to be done up—they +were received one and all with the same mild +and tolerant inattention, born not of incivility, but of +abstraction. Such as knew Mr Hill in those days, +knew the nearest approach we shall perhaps ever see +to the great Cremona makers. I do not say that +any of Mr Hill’s work (barring his exquisite repairs +and carving) is likely to rank with theirs; he was an +admirable maker, but he very soon left off making. +When the duty on foreign violins was removed there +poured into England a continuous stream of fiddles, +which entirely swamped the demand for new ones of +English make. Mr Hill, following the market, turned +his attention to repairing and dealing; but the art +and craft atmosphere, the knowledge, the familiarity +with violin constitution, the infallible intuition and +single-minded love of the violin for its own sake,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span> +as a thing of beauty, wonder, mystery, more than +enough to monopolise a lifetime of devotion—this is +what made Mr Ebsworth Hill the spiritual heir of +the grand old fiddle-makers. “Why,” he said to me +once, “talk about not knowing the touch of this or +that maker? I know the sort of tools Stradivari or +Joseph used. I can see the mark of a special favourite +knife here or gouge there. I know which way he used +to cut and slice, and how he held his tool for such and +such a kind of finish. I can see ’em at work, and the +handling of one is no more like another’s than the +touch of one painter is like another’s.”</p> + +<p>When you took a fiddle in to show Mr Hill, you +had to wait Mr Hill’s good time; he seldom answered +immediately he was spoken to, but would look up +dreamily through his spectacles without laying down +his file or knife, and let off some such dogmatic and +oracular sentence as: “You want to know how I can +tell a fiddle. Well, I don’t know how I can tell; and +there are days when I don’t trust my judgment—days +I can’t see, for instance. I leave off looking at fiddles +for a day or two; and when I come back I take up +this fiddle and that, and just at first I can’t see anything—those +fiddles tell me nothing; it’s a peculiar +state of mind—just as a player or a surgeon’s hand +gets out, so a judge’s eye gets out. I know exactly +when I see and when I can’t see, and when I can’t see +I hold my tongue; and I know exactly how much I +can see, but I don’t tell everybody.” The casual visitor +could make very little of old Hill at first. There<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> +was a curious sort of inner otherwhereness—to coin a +word—about him. Some people found him very trying +indeed. You never knew whether he heard what you +said; but when at last he favoured you with a remark, +you discovered that he had not only heard your words, +but that he had accurately gauged <em>you</em>.</p> + +<p>His action was often unexpected and sometimes +alarming. I one day entered his shop with a friend +who had a fiddle which he much prized, and indeed +it was a really valuable instrument, but needed overhauling.</p> + +<p>We both stood in front of the counter, and old Hill +was bending over a scroll that he was fitting on to a +new neck. I addressed him on behalf of my friend, but +he took no notice whatever; he remained absorbed in +his delicate adjustments; and no Prince of the blood +would have fared any better than we did until he had +finished what he was about. Again I mentioned my +friend’s name: “Mr —— has brought you his fiddle to +look at by my advice. Perhaps you can tell him what +ought to be done.” Hill looked up, nodded, eyed my +friend through his spectacles with cold interest, and +then resumed his work. I had to rouse him a second +time before he seemed to grasp the fact that my +anxious friend had taken his precious Cremona from +its case and was standing with it in his hand ready for +the magician’s inspection.</p> + +<p>At last Hill laid down his tool, and taking the +instrument in his hands, gave it one quick glance and +a couple of taps; he then deliberately looked in its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span> +astonished owner’s face, tore off the finger-board, +loosened the neck, and drove a knife under the belly. +The fiddle was soon in pieces, and he threw the loose +fragments aside in a heap, took up his repairs again, +and said he would attend to the matter by-and-by, +and the gentleman need not stop; and we got no more +out of old Hill that day, who immediately became reabsorbed +in his work.</p> + +<p>I shall never forget the rueful and amazed look with +which my poor friend beheld the tearing to pieces of +his Cremona, but I touched him on the arm, and seeing +that Hill was in no mood for talk, got him out of the +shop, assuring him that it was all right, and that the +great repairer had shown more interest than usual in +his valuable instrument, or he would never have torn +it to pieces then and there; and with such words I +strove to comfort my perplexed and anxious friend.</p> + +<p>I am bound to add that although Hill kept him +waiting several months, when the fiddle came back its +owner was more than satisfied, and declared that he +then heard his Cremona for the first time.</p> + +<p>Mr William Ebsworth Hill came of a family of +violin-makers and violin-players. Joseph Hill, who +was born 1715, was proud to trace his descent from +the “Mr Hill” mentioned in Pepys’ Diary as being +employed to alter his lute and viall.</p> + +<p>Joseph was a prolific and excellent violin-maker, and +carried on business in the early part of the eighteenth +century at the sign of the Harp and Flute in the +Haymarket.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span></p> + +<p>He had five sons; all made violins and three played +professionally, whilst the other two, like the present +four brothers Hill in Bond Street, followed their +father’s vocation alone. The third son, Lockey Hill, +was the father of Henry Lockey Hill, who became in +his turn the father of William Ebsworth Hill, known +in the middle of this century as Mr Hill of Wardour +Street. Hill’s father, Henry Lockey, an excellent +violin-maker, died in 1835. The Hills seem prolific +in sons, and Lockey left four sons. Henry distinguished +himself as an admirable quartet player, and +well do I remember the splendid tone of his Barak +Norman tenor at Willis’ Rooms as far back I think as +1848, when, with Sainton, Piatti, and Cooper—one of +the best, as it was almost the earliest string quartet cast +in London—he assisted in delighting and educating a +select public in the mysteries of chamber music, which +has been since so freely expounded by Ella’s Musical +Union and the Monday Popular Concerts.</p> + +<p>Berlioz always spoke of Henry Hill in terms of the +highest praise; he even went so far as to say that he +considered him one of the first performers in Europe.</p> + +<p>It is seldom that a tenor player ever comes in for +direct commendation. He acts as a sort of go-between +to violoncello and violin; but his individual efforts, +although so important to the combined effect, are +usually lost sight of between the grand work of the +bass and the brilliant lead and musical embroideries of +the first and second violins.</p> + +<p>There are too few concertos or strong parts written<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span> +for the poor tenor, the Cinderella of the establishment, +which is regrettable when one thinks of the glorious +violas of Maggini and the Amati. Mr Hill’s Barak +Norman is now the property of Mr Doyle.</p> + +<p>William Ebsworth Hill, our great repairer, connoisseur, +and dealer all in one, was born in 1817. He was +educated at the Borough Road School, under the well-known +Dr Lancaster, but it is certain that he went early +to the bench, for at the age of fourteen we find him +employed in cutting bridges in his father’s workshop.</p> + +<p>For this purpose he used only a bradawl and a knife, +and towards the end of his life he returned to bridge-cutting, +and has left many beautiful specimens. His +sons have a collection of two hundred, and no two of +the same pattern; they have also reverently preserved +under glass his simple tools. He worked with extraordinary +rapidity, equalled by his fastidious finish. +He preferred the commonest tools, so only they were +of the finest metal. He used to scorn the mechanical +labour-saving appliances which now enable workmen +to turn out hundreds instead of dozens of fiddles, and +he heartily despised artificers who needed an elaborate +plant before they could produce anything decent. +A good maker, he was wont to say, could make a +fiddle “with a knife and fork.” Mr Hill’s skill in +bridge-making on one occasion misled so eminent a +judge as Monsieur Fétis, of the Brussels Conservatoire. +In 1851, the Prince Consort having expressed a wish +to hear a concert of old instruments, a viol d’amore +which was to be played by Ebsworth’s brother, Henry<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span> +Hill, required a new bridge, which Ebsworth very +quickly made. I remember hearing Hill perform on +this viol d’amore with seven strings, at one of Monsieur +Julien’s Popular Concerts at the old Surrey Gardens. +The elaborate arpeggios were most fascinating, and +unlike anything I ever listened to before or have ever +heard since. In due time the viol d’amore, which had +been lent by the Brussels Conservatoire, was returned, +and Monsieur Fétis, who was the Principal, and engaged +at that time in writing his valuable monograph on +Stradivari, was very much bent upon hunting up old +bridges. He happened to pitch upon the viol d’amore +bridge, which he declared to be a highly interesting +specimen of the artistic work of the great Cremona +period. Mr Alfred Hill, one of Ebsworth Hill’s sons, +happened to be at Brussels, and his attention was called +to Monsieur Fétis’ eulogium on the antique viol d’amore +bridge. “That,” says Mr Alfred to Monsieur Victor +Mahillon the curator, “is not an old bridge; it was +cut by my father.” An incredulous smile overspread +the worthy curator’s face, which was quickly changed +into a look of apologetic admiration and surprise when +Mr Hill, junior, turning up the bridge, pointed to +“W. E. Hill” stamped upon it.</p> + +<p>Ebsworth Hill’s father died in 1835, and not long +afterwards Ebsworth, wishing to perfect himself in the +technique of his art, went to study under the accomplished +maker Charles Harris, of Oxford.</p> + +<p>About 1838 he set up for himself in St George’s +Road, Southwark.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span></p> + +<p>Mr Woolhouse, the well-known collector, was one of +his earliest patrons; but his fame soon spread, and he +found he had more work than he could well manage. +He was also much resorted to as one of the few men +whose judgment on a violin admitted of no appeal, +and who could be trusted to give an honest opinion.</p> + +<p>From Southwark, Hill went to Wardour Street, which +for many years was as much the violin quarter in +London as the Rue Croix des Petits Champs is in +Paris. It was there, when I was little more than a +boy, that I first made Mr Hill’s acquaintance. I used +to take him my fiddles, and I was always drawn to the +young boys, his sons, who frequented their father’s +shop, and had the profoundest sense of his importance +and ability. It is not too much to say that Arthur, +Alfred, William, and Walter Hill have enjoyed unique +opportunities from their earliest childhood, and have +not failed to qualify themselves assiduously for the high +position that the firm of Hill & Sons now holds in the +violin world.</p> + +<p>The boys inherited violin tendencies. They were +steeped from childhood in violin tradition. They had +special chances for seeing, handling, and diagnosing +most of the great violins now extant. No time or +money was spared by their father on the boys’ education, +and certainly no boys ever made a better use of +their privileges.</p> + +<p>Alfred and Walter went to Mirecourt, to study all +that could be taught in the most scientific and celebrated +workshop in the world.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span></p> + +<p>Arthur stayed at home and kept his eye in, being +always in close attendance on his father, and never +missing an opportunity of acquiring a new fact, or a +fiddle, old or new, which was likely to bring grist to +the mill or credit to the firm.</p> + +<p>From what has been said it may have been inferred, +and not erroneously, that Ebsworth Hill was not, +financially speaking, a business man—though he did +all his own business. For years everything that came +into the shop passed through his hands; he made every +repair, doctored every fiddle, adjusted every screw, +regulated or replaced every sound-bar and sound-post, +and even strung the fiddles for his clients with his own +hand—in short, he did or closely superintended everything; +division of labour, to the extent to which it +is now carried, being a thing unknown in those early +days.</p> + +<p>That such a system could not bring in large profits +was obvious. Hill had many bad debts; his memory +for fiddles was infallible, but his memory for accounts +shocking, and he was cheated right and left.</p> + +<p>His fame was so widespread that orders poured in +which could not be executed; and when the old man’s +apparently inexhaustible powers of work began to give +out, the sons, who had watched proceedings for years +and slowly qualified themselves for every department, +came in and broke up the one-man system—not before +financially confusion was becoming worse confounded. +They trained their workmen, distributed the work, +kept proper accounts for the first time, and in a few<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span> +years built up what is, perhaps, when considered in all +its branches, the largest individual violin-dealing industry +in the world.</p> + +<p>Mr Hill was a man of striking appearance: thin, +spare, with light hair, and moustache early gone grey; +blue-grey eyes, very keen; a thoughtful face, often +lighted up with a whimsical smile—for the man was +full of humour, though mostly of a genial sort.</p> + +<p>He was very much more of an all-round man than +people who merely conversed with him on violins would +suppose. Highly educated, in the usual sense of the +word, he was certainly not; but he had a great acquaintance +with human nature, and an extraordinary +insight into character.</p> + +<p>His sly remarks on men and their manners, including +their morals, were a perpetual feast to all who were +admitted to his intimacy. In his own special line he +was without a rival. He did not always say what he +knew, but he never said what he did not know.</p> + +<p>He was frequently appealed to in doubtful cases, +but was greatly opposed to litigation, and it was +difficult to extract from him any opinion likely to +lead to it.</p> + +<p>Once in the witness-box he was what the lawyers +call a dangerous customer. His manner was perfectly +quiet, assured, and straightforward. He was +absolutely decided, and would never budge from his +opinion, and under pressure of cross-examination often +raised a laugh at the expense of counsel.</p> + +<p>His sons have treasured many of his wise and witty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span> +sayings. On one occasion he refused to sell to a customer +who already owed more than he could pay. +Hill remarked dryly when the gentleman had left the +shop, “That man’s complaint is wind in the pockets.” +Of an amateur who was proud of showing off his style +on his fiddles, Hill, looking up from his work, would +say with a comical twinkle, “Hark, now, he’s doing +the lovely.”</p> + +<p>The manner was often worth more than the matter.</p> + +<p>His memory was as extraordinary as Tarisio’s. On +one occasion a claim was brought against a railway +company for sixty pounds’ damage to the belly of a +violoncello. The company demanded a valuation, and +damages to be assessed by Hill. The claimant at last +angrily submitted. Hill reported on the instrument, +which he repaired for about thirty shillings. Five +pounds he thought would be very liberal damages. +The owner was furious, and would not even accept +fifteen guineas. Mr Hill was at last called up, and +made the following unpleasant statement: “This instrument +does not belong to this man at all. It is one +of the instruments belonging to her Majesty, and used +by the members of the private band.” The <i lang="fr">soi-disant</i> +owner was perfectly dumbfounded, but was obliged to +confess that he had actually borrowed the instrument +when employed as deputy in the Queen’s Band several +years before, and had never restored it. Mr Hill had +only seen it once before.</p> + +<p>A violin, said to be by F. Panormo, was sold as +such by a dealer in Pentonville Road. It came into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span> +Hill’s hands many years afterwards, who was asked +to take it in part payment for another violin. He +said: “This fiddle was not made by Panormo; it was +made by my father about the year 1812 for my brother +Henry, and owing to the difficulty of getting good +foreign wood, my father made the back and ribs from +English maple. It could not possibly have a good +tone, but I should like to have it, and will allow £10 +for it.” Mr Hill immediately proceeded to remove the +belly. On the inside was written in pencil, “Made for +my son Henry in the year 1812.”</p> + +<p>Mr Hill led an extremely abstemious life. His +only relaxations were reading and long walks on +Sundays. Towards the close of his life he found +himself surrounded by his sons, superintending a large +staff of workmen, and his workshops at Hanwell, +adjoining his country home, are well known. For +some years before he died the direction of affairs had +practically passed into the hands of his sons, whom +he had so admirably trained to succeed him, and to +them is entirely due the present great commercial +prosperity of the firm.</p> + +<p>William Ebsworth Hill sank gradually from senile +exhaustion of brain power, and died in 1895, aged +seventy-seven.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER IX</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLIN VARNISH</p> + + +<p>When a true chemist enters a laboratory fitted up +with the usual mysterious tubes, crucibles, “baths,” +and general apparatus for distillation, and his nose +scents the aroma of gums, spirits, essential oils, and +what not, he experiences an atmospheric sensation +which enthuses him for his work. What the odour +of stables is to the lover of horses, or the smell of +paint to the artist, that is the laboratory aroma to +the chemist.</p> + +<p>I have no insight into crucibles, and I don’t like +smells. The proportion of subtle weights and measures, +avoirdupois or troy, are beyond me; the disputations +of science and the general incapacity of scientists to +agree about mixed problems puzzles and sometimes +“impatients” me, as the French say.</p> + +<p>In wading through various treatises on Cremona +varnish I regret to say I have experienced vague +emotions of annoyance and perplexity which I would +fain conceal from the reader. I should like to pose +as the clear exponent of the famous Cremona secret, +or hold some one fixed opinion, buttressed by arguments +weighty enough to confound all opponents, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span> +based upon the “triumphs of modern research.” The +triumph of modern research seems to me to consist in +the discovery that we have as yet failed to discover +the Cremona varnish, as, although we may speculate +about it and at moments seem to come very near +the mark, as yet we cannot make the stuff, or, at all +events, apply it in Cremona fashion to our new fiddles.</p> + +<p>It may be consoling, but not very satisfactory, to +reflect that no one has mixed it or applied it in +Cremona fashion since about 1750; but that fact only +serves to whet the curious appetite, and each writer +braces himself for renewed disquisitions, visits workshops, +and scrapes bits off Cremonas when he can, +perhaps dabbles himself with gums and alcohol, and +pumps fiddle-makers with a view to wringing the +secret out of the Cremona sphynx.</p> + +<p>So entirely mixed is the whole subject that the +violin world can’t even decide in what the proper +functions of the varnish consist. One maintains that +it is merely for the preservation of the wood, another +that it greatly affects the tone, and the third that +it is chiefly decorative.</p> + +<p>To me it seems almost a truism to say that the +varnish is good for all three purposes: that it preserves +the wood is certain, though exactly how is +open to discussion; that it affects the tone is equally +certain, though exactly how is still a moot point; +that it is decorative is obvious, though taste in the +colouring has varied with each school of makers as +much as some makers have varied with themselves.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span></p> + +<p>For my part, after reading a dozen disquisitions on +the Cremona varnish, and inspecting hundreds of fiddles +for a quarter of a century, I applaud the courage and +reticence of Mr George Hart, who, in his valuable +book on old violins, gives just five pages on Italian +varnish, with an intelligent description of its various +appearances, a brief quotation from the inimitable +writer Charles Reade, and not a single recipe.</p> + +<p>As I am not writing for violin-makers, but only +for collectors, I shall certainly not rush in where +authorities like Mr Hart fear to tread, and shall +content myself with a few probable suppositions and +a few more generally descriptive remarks.</p> + +<p>Some authorities maintain that the wood should +be first saturated with oil before the colouring varnish +is applied, a practice which has a tendency to clog +the pores, so that until some age has been put on and +the wood has become desiccated and shaken free from +the grosser oily particles, the vibrations are stifled and +the tone consequently dull.</p> + +<p>Others declare that the sizing of oil should not +penetrate the wood far, but leave it free to desiccate +by itself, and merely act as a sort of veneer for the +colour varnish which has got to be spread over the +transparent oil covering. The wood, in fact, has to be +sized first and varnished afterwards. Taking this view, +the process would be something of this kind: The +white belly is cut from fine pine which has been six +or seven years drying in the sun, but never exposed +to rain and waits patiently for its anointing. A stick<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span> +of that resinous gum beloved of artists, gamboge +yellow, from Gamboga, Siam, or China, is then powdered +and dissolved in pure alcohol; sloes are sometimes +added, or when a yellow ground is not desired, +sandarak and the long resinous tears of benzoin are +treated with pure alcohol. When the back, belly, +and ribs are thoroughly dry, the colouring, like a +flavouring to taste, is added.</p> + +<p>The chief colouring ingredients appear to be of +two kinds of sandal-wood, one yielding red orange +tints, from Calcutta, and the other a deeper red, from +the Coromandel Coast. An alcoholic solution of these +is mixed with essential oil of turpentine, freely oxydised +(or exposed to the air) and laid on the perfectly dry +surface in successive layers, each layer being allowed +to dry separately.</p> + +<p>The colour coating thus lies like an agate film over +the oil sizing, and through the top varnish as through +coloured glass may be seen—dyed orange, or red, or +brown—all the delicate curls and fibres of the wood, +shown up as by a kind of Röntgen rays by the oil size.</p> + +<p>We are told that the resins used may be divided into +hard and soft, and that of these the soft, such as mastic +and dammar, are the best, because the most elastic and +friendly to the waves of vibration. The mastic and +dammar resins seem to unite, in the greatest perfection, +the three essential properties most suitable for varnish—elasticity, +solidity, and transparency.</p> + +<p>The Cremonese are said to have used nothing but +the soft resins. The much-talked-of, old-fashioned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span> +dragon’s blood, a resinous gum from the Draconian +Draco, does not seem now to be commonly forthcoming. +The Calami Draco of Borneo has taken its place. The +old dragon’s blood has been much talked about, and +credited with giving a certain splendid sanguineous +flush to some of the rare Cremonese bellies upon which +the judicious amateur dotes.</p> + +<p>And now, what is amber varnish? The usual answer +is, there is no such thing. Certainly it was never used +by Stradivari, for it is said the secret of fusing that +hard gum was only discovered by Martin the chemist +in 1737, the year of Stradivari’s death. On the other +hand, I hear that amber has been found in the varnish +of Giuseppe del Gesù—by what analysis I do not know. +The usual way of rubbing a violin and smelling the +surface has always seemed to me to furnish a most unreliable +test. One saith, “I smell benzoin”; or another, +“I smell mastic”; and a third, “I smell amber”; and a +fourth, “I smell nought”; and this battle of olfactory +organs is like to go on, as saith the poet—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“As long as man has passions,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As long as life has woes”;</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>or, as we may say—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“As long as man has nose.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>So here I desire to take my leave of this thorny subject, +and with a sense of relief I abandon crucibles to +the expert, and oils and resins to the disputatious, +merely reminding our collectors for practical purpose +that the Brescian varnish is soft and brown, but without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span> +the magical Cremonese transparency; the Cremona +is amber-coloured (early) or (later) light red orange, +and sometimes velvety brown, and very soft and glossy +as it rubs away.</p> + +<p>The Venetian varnish of many shades is very clear; +the Stainer, yellow-brown, with a subtle roseate flush +at times; the normal German, brown and muddy; +the French, Cremonese in colour, but glassy and chipping +rather than soft and glossy. Some of the English +varnish is remarkable, that of Dodd even approximating +closely to the Cremona school, etc.</p> + +<p>On the whole, the best solution of the Cremona +mystery seems to me that it was probably no mystery +at all, which also best accounts for the disappearance +of the varnish towards the middle of the eighteenth +century. It is absurd to suppose that the varnish used +by at least one hundred makers for more than one hundred +years (for Italian violins from 1550 to 1660 up to +1740 all have it) could have been a secret; it was probably +the ordinary varnish of commerce, superseded by +the quicker and more convenient spirit-varnishes which +came in and thrust it out of the market, and these +ready-made compounds proved excellent for furniture +which is not prized for its resonant or variously tinted +qualities, but they unfortunately put out of court the +kind of varnish best suited for violins—the yielding, +soft, elastic oil varnish; and the very ingredients, <em>e.g.</em> +dragon blood (of the liliaceæ trees), ceased to be in demand, +and consequently disappeared from the Italian +markets.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span></p> + +<p>The materials being now absent, the varnish was +differently composed. The trick of mixing it got lost +along with the stuff to be mixed, and the Cremonese +secret, once an open secret, lapsed and lapsed, as it +seems, most irrecoverably.</p> + +<p>At one time every one knew how the ancient war-galleys +were rowed; how the Pyramids were built; how +Stonehenge was poised; how the Medicean poisons were +distilled, and how the old masters mixed their colours; +now no one knows.</p> + +<p>Of the Cremona varnish it must be written, as we +have to write of these unexplained disappearances of +the lost and missing—</p> + +<p class="center"> +“Gone, and made no sign.”<br> +</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER X</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLIN STRINGS</p> + + +<p>“To scrape the inside of a cat with the outside of a +horse” is far from an accurate or exhaustive description +of violin playing, nor can I understand why violin +strings are called cat-gut at all, since they are made +from the intestines of the sheep, goat, or lamb, and +have absolutely nothing to do with pussy.</p> + +<p>I can only suppose that the frightful and melancholy +tones habitually elicited by inexperienced players may +have reminded people of the nocturnal cat sufficiently +to credit that maligned animal with providing part of +the mechanical apparatus for their production.</p> + +<p>Of late years a great deal has been said about the +extreme importance of the strings, of adapting the +player to the fiddle’s constitution, etc. I freely admit +that some players with very strong hands, like Lindley +and Dragonetti, can manage thicker strings with effect +better than people with weaker muscles. I also admit +generally that it would be a mistake to string a sensitive +old Nicolo Amati with thick strings, which a robust +Joseph or Bergonzi might be able to bear; that a raw +new fiddle to be rubbed down in the orchestra will also +take to thick strings; and that it is pretty obvious, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> +every player knows, that one cannot stop fifths in +good tune if the strings are not relatively well proportioned.</p> + +<p>It is also a truism that it is best to buy the best +strings, and that false strings are abominable. But I +do not go much beyond this, and I would say about +strings what I say about bows, that bad workmen +always complain of their tools, and that, as Paganini was +able—although as a mere trick—to discourse excellent +music with a tobacco-pipe or a reed, so his admirers +were often surprised to notice that he would go into +the concert room with his strings very much out of +condition.</p> + +<p>Practically I do not suppose that one violinist in +fifty uses a string-gauge; he soon learns to judge +sufficiently by the eye what his fingers want, what his +tone requires, and what his violin exacts.</p> + +<p>Still, in these days of analysis and detail, there +being nothing left untalked about, writers have fastened +quite within the last thirty years on the strings; +but I have often noticed that players who fuss most +over these details, which are doubtless of importance, +are those who are least able to avail themselves of the +perfect conditions which they seek. Perfect gut, rosin +by rule, and an exquisitely poised bow, no more make a +fiddler than scientific sanitation makes a healthy subject. +I cannot too persistently urge that the violinist +bends conditions to the magic of his will and his +skill.</p> + +<p>His business is to qualify <em>himself</em>, and then get the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span> +best fiddle, bow, and strings that he can. This ought +he to do, and not to leave the others undone.</p> + +<p>There is no reason to suppose that any advance in +the manufacture of gut-strings has been made since +the seventeenth century. Even a work by Le Roy, +dated 1570, gives the best recipe yet known for the +detection of false strings.</p> + +<p>“It is needful,” he says, “to prove them between +the hands in the manner set forth in the figure” (which +we reproduce); and he goes on to explain what everybody +now knows—that if two lines only appear, the +string is true; if more, false. But he fails to add that +such a rough test only holds good for the thinner and +simpler woven cords. In Doni’s book (1647) we find +such subtleties as these: “There are many particulars +relating to the construction of instruments which are +unknown to modern artificers, as, namely, that the best +strings are made when the north (and the worst when +the south) wind blows”—a suggestive hint relating to +the acknowledged importance of atmospheric, perhaps +magnetic, and at any rate climatic, conditions.</p> + +<p>How do we make our strings?</p> + +<p>Putting aside mature sheep and goats, we kill our +young Italian lamb in September. We open him at +once, and take the intestine whilst still warm; stretch +it on an inclined plane; scrape it and clean it +thoroughly without delay. We then steep it for +about fifteen hours in cold water, with a little carbonate +of soda, and then substitute tepid water for a +few hours more.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span></p> + +<p>Now we are ready to remove the fibrous or muscular +membrane from between the peritoneal and mucous +membrane. This is done by women, who scrape it +with a cane. The precious selected membranes are +then soaked in jars containing an ammoniacal solution; +they are then rubbed through the fingers three times +a day, treated with permanganate of potash, cleaned, +sorted, cut, and split; and, finally, the threads are +spun—three or four thin threads for first violin strings, +three or four thicknesses for the second, six or seven +for “D” string. Double-bass strings take up to eighty-five +threads. Further twistings, soakings, and polishings +take place, into which we need not enter, and the +strings are finally dressed with olive oil and then +coiled.</p> + +<p>I have gone into these details to show with what +care and complex elaboration string manufacture is +carried on.</p> + +<p>The false string is due to inequalities, lumps, and +varieties of texture in the gut; and if only the defective +part can be distributed either near the head or +the tailpiece, outside the vibratory length, your false +string becomes true. This is why the experiment of +reversing the string, putting tail portion headwise or +<i lang="la">vice versâ</i>, will sometimes remedy the defect.</p> + +<p>For the fourth or silver string the gut or silk (which +is used) is wrapped with pure silver, or copper, or alternate +silver and copper wire. The beautiful French +patent silver fourth, as smooth as polished steel, is +incomparably best for solo playing; it is also thinner,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span> +in my opinion too much thinner, than the mixed silver +and copper fourths, which are very serviceable for +rougher orchestral work.</p> + +<p>The vice of silver strings is to rise (and of gut strings +to fall) with heat; but if your screws are in perfect order, +and you are expert enough, you will remedy either by +a rapid subtle twist during a bar’s rest, or a quick +nipping the head of the peg between the first and +third joint of your left-hand forefinger. I have seen +Sarasate tune two pegs thus in the course of a very +brief “tutti.”</p> + +<p>Mr Hart may be accepted as a final authority on +the relative merits and the different schools of violin +strings at present in the market, and his dicta substantially +agree with my own experience. Of course +he gives the palm to the Italian strings, which is largely +due to the good climatic conditions, which enable their +manufacture to be carried on in the open air and sunlight +of that favoured clime.</p> + +<p>In Rome strings are yellowish, hard, and brilliant, +and a little rough in finish.</p> + +<p>The Neapolitans are smooth, soft in texture, and +whiter in appearance.</p> + +<p>The Paduans polished, durable, and frequently +“false.” Strings “made in Germany” (Saxony), as a +set off against the swarms of trade German fiddles, +rank next to Italian.</p> + +<p>The French rank third. Their larger strings are +better than their seconds, which are often brittle; +their patent first <i lang="fr">accribelles</i>, made of silk, are hard<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span> +and brilliant, but not comparable, in my opinion, to a +fine Roman gut “E” string.</p> + +<p>The English make a good, serviceable, dull green +looking string, durable, uneven, and not unfrequently +false. To my mind, English strings are only fit for rank-and-file +orchestral fiddling, but not good enough for the +loader. Mr Heron Allen, who has given great attention +to such details, says that the best strings in the market +are imported from Signor Andrew Ruffini of Naples, +but I have always had a weakness for Roman strings.</p> + +<p>Too great caution, however, cannot be used in +buying strings. Never buy from any but the best +firms; they can’t afford to keep “job lots, going vera +chep”—these may be bought up by provincial houses +and retailed to an undiscerning public.</p> + +<p>Notice that small “job lot” people do not know +how to keep their strings—or, I should rather say, +they keep them too long and too dry.</p> + +<p>It does not follow that even the best strings will +turn out successes if they have been kept too long or +too dry.</p> + +<p>I once ordered £1 worth of Roman “E” strings for +myself, and another £1 worth for a friend. They all +arrived as dry and brittle as mummy wood; they all +snapped as I put them on. In about a week I got a +furious letter from my unfortunate friend who had +trusted me—all his strings had snapped.</p> + +<p>I have but one counsel to give. Take the best +firm’s advice and pay the best firm’s price—if you +can afford it. Always keep a couple of tested, <em>i.e.</em><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span> +stretched “E” lengths in your case. If you are a soloist +this will save you some annoyance and delay should +your “E” string go in the middle of a performance.</p> + +<p>So far, then, and no further, need I discuss violin +strings; but there are two other violin adjuncts not +important enough to call for a separate chapter. I allude +to the mute and the chin-rest. The mute is occasionally +fixed on the bridge to give the sound that singular +faint far-off twang like the whisper of a ghostly violin. +The mute has the singular property of making the +violin abnormally sensitive for the time. The mute +is made of wood, metal, or vulcanite; personally, I +much prefer the metal mute—it does the business +more thoroughly. It is not a good practice to use the +mute habitually while practising to subdue the sound. +The violin really resents the use of the mute at all, +but will put up with it for a short time (just as a +good horse will not resent a spur or a bearing-rein in +moderation). For a minute or two after the removal +of the mute the violin does not quite recover its tone; +some of the particles in its wood have been exposed +to a different or eccentric vibration by the dominating +mute, and the full tonal vibration is not immediately +recoverable. It is as though you had put a man in +boots with leaden soles for a time, and then suddenly +freed him; he would not at once regain his full suppleness +of movement.</p> + +<p>Quite within the last thirty years the cult of chin-rests +has become almost universal. When I was a boy +people held the violin honestly under their chins, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span> +a few used a silk pocket handkerchief. I much prefer +it to this day; but something between the chin and +the violin is no doubt good for the protection of old +instruments already too much rubbed by centuries of +beards and bristles.</p> + +<p>I have nothing to say against the various velvet, +vulcanite, and ebony fixed substitutes for the homely +pocket-handkerchief, except that in my eyes they are +extremely ugly, and to my chin extremely uncomfortable; +but I may be very much out of date, and in such +minor matters “<i lang="fr">chacun à son goût</i>,” or, as Pepys +would say, “there’s an end on’t.”</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER XI</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLIN BOWS</p> + + +<p>He who wields the violin bow aright wields the wand +of a magician. If ever mortal could call the spirits +from the vasty deep, it is the virtuoso who throws into +sympathetic vibrations the cords of a Cremona.</p> + +<p>The wood of his wand, from the forests of Fernambuc +or Pernambuco, choice and seasoned, and delicately +graduated and tapering, receives through the varying +pressure of his five fingers the waves of his personal +magnetism.</p> + +<p>The back of his thumb will often touch even the +hairs which are in direct contact with the strings, and +therefore the psychic and emotional vibrations of the +artist’s soul are wedded closely to the physical pulses +of sound which throb in the agitated air column of the +Cremona, and flow forth in the air waves (like light +and heat), filling space with their musical magnetism, +and seeking only the medium of kindred spirits and +suitable organisms to utter through the vibrating +human nerve tissues of others the open secrets of the +player’s soul.</p> + +<p>No Mesmer, or magician of the East, controls a more +subtle force than does the violinist, who, face to face<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span> +with his audience, lifts his tapering wand and rules +therewith the</p> + +<p class="center"> +“<em>Tides of music’s golden sea setting towards eternity.</em>”<br> +</p> + +<p>By those who indite exhaustive historical or constructive +treatises on the violin—the bow, like the +violin, has been treated archæologically—we have been +led up to ancient monuments and shown bows (or things +supposed to be bows) on vases, sculptured frescoes, +missals and other monkish manuscripts. We have +been sent out to wild islands and continents, and introduced +to the Ravanastron bow of ancient Ceylon; the +bow of the Moorish rebab; the ninth, eleventh, twelfth, +and thirteenth century viol bows of Europe—all more +or less primitive, with sometimes gut for hair, or hair +loose, hair limp, and with no means of regulating its +tension except by the introduction of the fingers to +press the hair or tighten it for a moment.</p> + +<p>In Paul Veronese’s Marriage at Cana (Versailles) this +is well shown. Paul himself was a viol player, and +apparently held his bow chiefly by the hair for this +same regulative purpose.</p> + +<p>C. Simpson (the division “viol”), 1667, gives a somewhat +more advanced viol bow, in which the hand splits +the difference between wood and hair and rests on +both (Fig. iii). Of course, when held to the chin, this +clumsy finger regulation of the hair tension would be +less convenient to manage, and hence we come upon +the eighteenth century with a strip of notched metal +(Fig. iv.) and a movable sliding nut.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp52" id="i_162a" style="max-width: 68.75em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_162a.jpg" alt="Sketchings of violins, bows."> + <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center">I<br> + Maggini, 1630 — Nic Amati, 1641 — Dolphin Strad, 1714 — Joseph Guarnerius, 1734</p> + <p class="center">II<br> + Corelli, 1700 — Cramer, 1770 — Viotti, 1780 — Tartini, 1740</p> + <p class="center">III<br> + Finger control, 17th cent.</p> + <p class="center">IV<br> + Cremabliere control, 18th cent.</p> + <p class="center">V<br> + Screw control 19th cent.:<br> + Paganini’s bow Tourte 29 inch ’34</p> + <p class="center">VI<br> + 19th cent.:<br> + Hair control.<br> + head. handle.</p></figcaption> +</figure> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span></p> + +<p>As for our purpose the violin proper began in the +eighteenth century with the emergence of its true type +from the viol tribe, so for our purpose the violin bow +begins with the emergence of the violin. A glance at +the bows of Corelli (1700), Cramer (1770), Viotti (1780), +and Tartini (1740) (Fig. vi.) will show the evolution in +the direction of the Tourte bow; and although Tourte +(1740) is generally credited with substituting the screw +for the crémaillère, it will be noticed that Corelli’s +bow (1700) has already got the screw. But is the +Corelli bow authentic, or in reality a bow subsequent +to 1740, the earliest working date of Tourte <i lang="fr">père</i>?</p> + +<p>With François Tourte, the younger son, culminated +the art of violin bow making. He is the Stradivari of +the bow. We give his portrait, but father and son +were both master-workers. Although the Stentor (Fig. +vi.) bow’s head has superseded, for some reason, the +more rounded form of François Tourte, nothing has been +done since in advance of Tourte, and “after Tourte” +is still the greatest recommendation a bow can have.</p> + +<p>It is easy to see what called forth François Tourte. +He came in answer to a need. He doubtless heard of +Tartini and examined his bow. It was comparatively +short and cumbrous. Forty years afterwards Viotti +comes to Paris, and with him dawns a new era in +violin playing. Refinements and delicacies of tone, +upper shifts and varieties of execution, various styles +of bowing, dealing with staccato, arpeggio, and rubato, +methods varied and brought to perfection, demanded +qualities of balance, lightness, and elasticity which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span> +would have been quite thrown away on the old sawing +and scraping school of the seventeenth century. The +very Cremona violins, beginning to mature as the +century waned, called aloud for a suitable and sympathetic +companion to caress, excite, charm, draw +from them their sweetest tones and most vigorous +powers.</p> + +<p>François Tourte was rescued from the clock-making +business, to which he had been early apprenticed, by +the sheer bent of his own genius. His brother, who +worked with his father, was not the genius, and, as is +often the case, the father failed to see which of the +two sons was to carry on the fame of the house, and +there may have been jealousies and disputes besides. +The poor stuff given François to work upon when, +after eight years of watch-making, he was allowed to +enter the parental workshop a little, suggests that he +was the male Cinderella of the family.</p> + +<p>He had to deal with strips of old sugar-barrels and +fashion them into bows, which he sold for about fifteen-pence +each. But as soon as he got a free hand he experimented +with all kinds of wood, and arrived at the +conclusion that the only wood suitable for his purpose +was Fernambuc wood. It combined stiffness and lightness, +but was very difficult to obtain, on account of so +many ports being in those disturbed times blockaded. +Fernambuc wood was only imported for dyeing purposes, +and the price had risen in Paris to five francs a +pound. Then, as only pieces with straight grain were +required, whole trees might be cut up in search of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span> +few likely strips. This accounts for the high prices +of Tourte bows, even when first produced.</p> + +<p>They were doubtless largely labours of love with this +matchless artificer, who could neither read nor write. +The nut would be often made of tortoise-shell, jewelled +with mother-of-pearl, and gleaming with a gold screw +button. These cost £12, and would now fetch, if ever +they came into the open market, fancy prices. His +bows, mounted in silver with ebon nuts, sold for three +guineas, and now fetch £30.</p> + +<p>Tourte <i lang="fr">père</i> originated the backward bend of the +bow, which is not cut but artificially bent by heat; but +both the father’s and the eldest son’s bows are held to +be now too short for the strain of execution put upon +them by modern players—not so François Tourte’s, +and all bows made “after Tourte.”</p> + +<p>He fixed the proportions—length, between 29·134 +inches and 29·528 inches. The weight of the bend is +nicely poised with the gold, tortoise-shell, or ebon of +the nut; in each is a small wedge, as may be seen in +Fig. viii., which nips the hairs and keeps them flat. The +fine selection of hairs, 150 to 200 (modern exigencies +require more, or up to 250), the careful flattening of it +out, the preference for live hair, or hair combed out +and not taken from dead horses who may have lain +some time in the shambles; above all, the exquisitely +graduated thicknesses, now held to be <i lang="fr">de rigueur</i>, all +characterise the intuitive genius of Tourte.</p> + +<p>I say advisedly “intuitive genius,” for Tourte had +no education but that of a watch-maker. This may,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span> +indeed, have given him his fine sense of delicate and +exact proportions, but it is still remarkable that examinations +of the diameter of Tourte bows in different +places give uniform results. The bows swell or taper +in the same place, and as the air columns in the violins +of Strad give the same note, so do the bows of Tourte +yield the same proportions, which it has not been found +safe or expedient to depart from.</p> + +<p>Violin bows may be smaller or larger, <em>i.e.</em> shorter +or longer, as far as I can see, without any detriment +to Tourte’s principle; children, women, and exceptionally +long armed men may have to use them, +but the proportions, the wood, the balance, even +the mechanique, must be left as Tourte left them—perfect.</p> + +<p>The one point in mechanique in which the invention +of F. B. Vuillaume may be thought to have improved +upon Tourte is in his fixed nut for viola, tenor, or +violoncello bows. This consists of a metal nut, which +alone is moved by the screw up and down inside the +main nut, which remains rigid; thus the length of the +hair exposed for playing always remains the same.</p> + +<p>The only other original maker of the first rank and +excellence, who has been nicknamed the English Tourte, +was John Dodd. He was born in 1752, and lived chiefly +at Kew, and there he was buried. He was always out +at elbows, even when his reputation was at its height. +Poor Dodd had his friends and admirers. He was his +own worst enemy; he was undersized in stature, and +walked with a shuffling gait. He wore his clothes until<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span> +they were in rags, and a broad-brimmed hat somehow +gave him an additionally dilapidated air.</p> + +<p>I am afraid he drank, for although his habits were +said to be regular, the most regular of them all was +his four daily visits to the public-house, where he +consumed what to less experienced topers seemed an +immoderate quantity of a drink called “pearl.”</p> + +<p>When the old fellow was known to be excessively +hard up, kind Mr Richard Platt, a musical professor +of the town, and Dr Sellé, who has given us some of +the above details, came to the rescue. But the bow-maker +tired them all out, and ended at last in the +Richmond Workhouse.</p> + +<p>I will not say whether he can be exactly cited as a +frightful example of the degrading effects of liquor, +for he died of bronchitis at the altogether respectable +age of eighty-four.</p> + +<p>Indeed, he had his qualities; no bribe or stress of +want could make him swerve from his sense of what +was due to his art.</p> + +<p>His wood is as magnificent as his workmanship. He +doubtless had his secret, but it was possibly one that +he could not impart. He would take no apprentice, +for fear he should learn the trick; and whether he +could or could not teach it, he refused £1000 offered +him by some one who wanted to learn it. Dodd’s bows +are not very uncommon; he died only in 1836, and, +strange to say, these true musical wands do not run +into a five-pound note yet (1898).</p> + +<p>John Dodd the bow-maker must not be confounded<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span> +with Thomas Dodd the fiddle dealer and varnisher, +who employed Fendt and Lott to make the fiddles. +John Dodd the bow-maker was the brother of Thomas +Dodd. John lived in Blue Bell Alley, Mint Street, +Southwark, before he went to Kew, but the rustic +suburbs suited his habits, and as he had acquired a +European reputation before he died, it little mattered +where he lived.</p> + +<p>Vuillaume of Paris made excellent bows, and even +founded a school of bow-making. Many bows that +don’t sell as his are stamped “d’après Vuillaume,” +“scuola de,” which is certainly more respectable than +a forged label to which violin dealers do so commonly +resort.</p> + +<p>Vuillaume’s hollow steel bows have never “caught +on,” though good players have used them now and +again. But then a good player can use any bow, +and whilst a good bow is a luxury, a real violinist will +be able to perform very respectably with a bad one. +It is said that Paganini on one occasion excited the +wonder and enthusiasm of his audience by performing +on his instrument with a long churchwarden clay pipe, +and at another time with a rush!</p> + +<p>It would be unfair even in a sketch like this, which +only professes to seize the salient point of general +interest to collectors and amateurs, not to mention +Jacques Lafleur (1760-1832), an admirable imitator +of Tourte.</p> + +<p>Lupôt, brother of the great violin-maker (1774-1837), +was the first to line with metal the groove in the underside<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span> +of the nut, to prevent wear and tear of the ebony +or tortoise-shell.</p> + +<p>Domminique Peccate (1810-74) is also thought to +have almost rivalled Tourte. He was originally a barber, +and transferred the delicacy of hand required in tonsorial +operations to the fine adjustments and elegant +tapering and octagonal proportions of violin bows.</p> + +<p>Peccate went to Vuillaume in 1826, stayed with +him eleven years, and then became foreman to François +Lupôt. He ended his life at Mirecourt, where he +began it; latterly he worked entirely on his own +account.</p> + +<p>We have now among us one James Tubbs, whose +bows are already known throughout the world owing +to their attractive appearance and good balance. Time +will alone decide Tubbs’ position in the scale of bow-makers, +for time alone will determine the question +of “last,” “warp,” and flexibility, and general endurance +of efficiency.</p> + +<p>On rosin, about which pages have been unnecessarily +written, I have but one word to say—get it pure. +You can do this by confining yourself to the best +shops, or those who deal with them. Go to Hill, +Chanot, Hart, Withers, and Vuillaume.</p> + +<p>Some ignorant people talk of rosin as “greasing +the bow.” Smooth horsehair or greased horsehair is, +of course, useless. It is not the absence but the presence +of friction which sets the strings in vibration; +it is the surface of the horsehair, roughened by infinitesimal +particles of rosin, which prevents the horsehair<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span> +touching the string with a continuous pressure, +so that it receives in reality a succession of tiny shocks. +This is what renders the succession of vibrations so +rapid as to sound continuous.</p> + +<p>Without rosin, the violin, in spite of strings and +bow, and the art of all Cremona, would be mute.</p> + +<p>To average rosiners let me give a word of advice, +early given me by my old master, Ouri, pupil of Frank +Mori: “Don’t rub the horsehair down smooth with +long sweeps, but powder the rosin off into the hair +with quick rubs and a light hand; in this way you +avoid rubbing the oleaginous particles of the gum +into stickiness.”</p> + +<p>I notice that the best players use plenty of rosin +and never let the bow get thirsty. I remember the +matchless violinist Remenye taking up my violin and +bow and calling aloud for rosin. “Why, you have +no rosin on; you cannot expect the violin to speak +without.” Yet I thought my bow had plenty of +rosin on, but it was not enough for Remenye, who +powdered it away in clouds. But please to remember +that, however thirsty the bow may be, the <em>violin</em> +does not require to drink, and the habit of smothering +and smearing its beautiful smooth belly with thin glutinous +dust is a most vile one, and worthy only of third-rate +second violins at fourth-rate music halls. These +musical galley-slaves may not have time to clean up; +you of the Stradivari and the Amati violins and the +Tourte and the Dodd bows <em>ought</em> to have, or you +are no fit guardian of such treasures.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER XII</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLIN TARISIO</p> + + +<p>This extraordinary man, originally an obscure Italian +carpenter, at once created and answered that demand +for Italian violins which followed both in England, +and to a great extent in France, the rage for the +German, and especially German of the Stainer and +Klotz pattern.</p> + +<p>Luigi Tarisio, like W. Forster, eked out the scanty +income which he derived from making tables and +benches for the peasants by playing dance music on +a very poor fiddle at village routs.</p> + +<p>He wandered from place to place, what time the +vintages were being gathered in, and the simple folk, +who turned out in their Sunday finery for a little relaxation +and merriment, doubtless regaled the Italian +carpenter with open-hearted hospitality, whilst he, in +return, mended their benches and fiddled for them at +the vineyard cabarets.</p> + +<p>Our Charles Mathews has given in his delightful +autobiography interesting glimpses of that free, open-air, +open-hearted life; for he also, for a time, lived +amongst these rustics of a favoured clime, enjoying +their simple pleasures, and contributing in his own<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> +peculiar way, by his histrionic gifts and a somewhat +free-handed distribution of coin, to their revels and +their needs.</p> + +<p>Luigi Tarisio soon began to be dominated by the +spell of his violin; he got to notice other violins, to +repair them all in the way of trade, to possess them, +not always very honestly, pitting his own growing +knowledge of their merits against the ignorance or +necessity of their owners. Gradually Tarisio the carpenter +and Tarisio the fiddler seemed to be merged +in Tarisio the cunning repairer and Tarisio the still +more knowing buyer.</p> + +<p>He bought chiefly by exchange, for money he had +little or none; but he began in the early years of +this nineteenth century to lead that nomad life—as +it seemed to outsiders, the life of a common pedlar—which +enabled him to glide without suspicion into +half the sacristies and convents in Italy.</p> + +<p>Wherever he went, bag on shoulder, and basket of +tools in hand, his cry was not “knives to grind,” nor +“shoes to mend,” but “violins to repair.”</p> + +<p>He usually had with him a decoy violin or two, in +the shape of common fiddles in good playing order; +and over a glass of lemonade or a bottle of wine, in +some local café or monasterial domicile of priest or +cathedral musician, the cunning Tarisio would view +with unaffected pity the miserable old battered Cremonas +which were then lurking in a thousand ecclesiastical +nooks, split as with the “wolf,” ill-adjusted, +ill-strung, and generally out of sorts, and whipping out<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span> +his common fiddle in perfect order, would play a few +notes on each, so manifestly to the disadvantage of +the Cremona that an exchange was soon effected, and +Tarisio would decamp with an Amati, a Strad, a Joseph +or Bergonzi treasure, which, after a little clever mending, +might be worth a fortune; and in this way he +possessed himself, often for a few francs, of instruments +which now fetch over £1000 in the open market—if +ever they get there.</p> + +<p>Tarisio, with the infallible instinct of a born collector +and connoisseur, in a few years was able to gauge +accurately the merits of the different great Italian +makers. He knew exactly where to rank the Amatis, +and how to separate the qualities of the great Nicolo +from those of Andrea; he understood the supreme +excellence of Antonio and the power of Giuseppe, and +all other grades of merit of which even the admirers +of the Cremona school in England seemed entirely +ignorant of. All Amatis at that time were lumped +together, and Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri were +hardly known at all.</p> + +<p>But Tarisio knew all this, and a good deal more, +before he tossed his heavy bag of old violins one day +over his shoulder and set out, they say, on foot, or +anyhow else he could, for Paris; for what market +was there in Italy for such priceless Cremonas when +their owners were prepared to give them up for fiddles +worth from five to twenty shillings?</p> + +<p>But why did Tarisio go to Paris? He probably +judged wisely that the Stainer craze, and the huge<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span> +crop of common violins then being made in Germany, +would have killed his market nearer home. Then he +must have heard when a boy how Napoleon I. had +ransacked the art treasures of Italy, and how, under +the advice of the cultivated Marquis d’Avèze, who +had narrowly enough escaped the guillotine in 1793, +the great conqueror had inaugurated a high Art +Exhibition for the people.</p> + +<p>The famous bronze-gilt horses from S. Marco, Venice, +the Dying Gladiator, the Apollo Belvedere, the Cupid +and Psyche from Rome, and Raffaello’s Transfiguration +itself, had been carried in triumphant procession +through the streets of Paris, and installed in a vast +hall for the benefit and instruction of the people. Of +course a rage for everything Italian was the result, and +the shrewd Tarisio may have thought, why not a rage +for old Italian fiddles?</p> + +<p>One day in the year 1827 there arrived at the shop +of M. Aldric, at that time a famous violin dealer in +Paris, a travel-worn man in ragged clothes, who had +begged and fiddled his way for days and weeks across +country. He carried a huge dustman’s sack over his +shoulder. He seemed to M. Aldric a very poor sort +of pedlar, grimy and unkempt enough to claim kinship +with the man who had “used somebody’s soap sixteen +years ago, since when he had used no other.”</p> + +<p>The fashionable violin dealer was at first inclined to +show him the door, but probably something in Tarisio’s +independent manner betrayed that indefinable quality +we call character, and, more in amusement or out of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span> +pity than with any serious intent to make a deal, M. +Aldric allowed the pedlar to empty his sack of fiddles +on his counter. It is easy to imagine his astonishment +at what he saw; but he seems to have kept up his indifferent +manner, not supposing the poor creature before +him could be in the least aware of the treasures he +sought to dispose of.</p> + +<p>M. Aldric was soon undeceived.</p> + +<p>He quickly found the tables turned upon him.</p> + +<p>The clever French tradesman was conversing with the +greatest violin connoisseur that the world has ever seen, +or in all human probability ever will see, for no one can +ever again have Tarisio’s opportunities, even should he +unite in himself Tarisio’s extraordinary qualities.</p> + +<p>Now, the pedlar, with all his enthusiasm and self-sacrifice, +was a man of exceeding cunning, and had that +tact, quickness, affability, and bonhomie which is well +known to tourists in Italy, and has often proved so +fatal to the amateur of old laces, pottery, and objects +de vertu, or to such as may have tried to do a little +fancy collecting as they passed through the Italian +towns, and haggled over bargains in small curiosity-shops +and market-places. So, with due astuteness, the +shrewd carpenter had not brought his <em>best</em> wares on +this his first visit; he had come on a voyage of discovery, +and only produced a small pattern Nicolo +Amati, and half a dozen Maggini, Ruggerii, and such-like. +He had with him no Strad, no Joseph, not even +a grand pattern Nicolo, but he had brought enough.</p> + +<p>M. Aldric, concealing his emotion, and fervently<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span> +hoping the shabby man did not know the value of +his wares, offered him a small sum for the lot, which +Tarisio refused, doubtless with those picturesque invocations +of horror to the Virgin and all the Saints +which seem necessary to the Italian who attempts to +convey to a “screw” the mingled indignation and pity +excited in his generous and artistic breast by a mean +offer.</p> + +<p>Tarisio was certainly disappointed; but he forgot +that he himself had to <em>create</em> the market; and so at +last he left, with his empty bag indeed, but with his +ragged pockets far from full.</p> + +<p>Back to Italy, back to his monasteries and cabarets, +a little dazzled; but, with unabated energy, he recommenced +his search.</p> + +<p>He was now beginning to be known far and wide as +a clever repairer and a convenient dealer. As his stock +of good, bad, and indifferent fiddles increased he could +offer a greater selection, and readily parted with the +worst ones, nicely done up, to his ignorant and confiding +but not over-wealthy Italian patrons.</p> + +<p>When next he journeyed to Paris he met with a different +reception. Vuillaume, Thibaut, and Chanot the +elder opened their privileged doors to him, and especially +Vuillaume had the acumen to see that in Tarisio +he had lighted upon what gold-diggers call a veritable +“pocket,” and gave him higher and higher prices for the +harvest of Amatis, Strads, Guarneri, and Bergonzis which +now flowed steadily into Paris through this odd medium.</p> + +<p>Tarisio was far more than a connoisseur and dealer;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> +he was a singular and most whole-hearted enthusiast. +As the novelist Charles Reade (who was himself a great +fiddle dealer and knew Tarisio) has well said, “The +man’s whole soul was in his fiddles. He was a great +dealer, but a greater amateur. He had gems by him +which no money would buy from him.” Mr Reade +then goes on to relate how once, when a splendid +equipage rolled by him in Paris, the carpenter remarked, +“He would sooner possess one Strad than +twenty such carriages.” He would stalk the back +or the belly of a valuable fiddle until he recovered +the whole, just as the Roman antiquary stalked the +fragments of the Hercules Farnese, finding the trunk +in one place and the head in a ditch miles away.</p> + +<p>Chanot had stumbled upon the cracked belly of a +Strad violin in Spain. Ortega, the fiddle-maker, had +sold the remainder, ribs and back, to a Spanish lady, +fitting them nicely with a brand-new back made by +himself! The precious belly caught Tarisio’s eye in +the shop window, and he at last worried Chanot into +parting with it for 1000 francs. Off went Tarisio to +Madrid, extracted from the bewildered Ortega, who +had sold the patched Strad, the required information, +interviewed the donna who possessed the patched +Strad, and who, after the fashion of the high-born +Spaniard, at once said, “Sir, the instrument is at your +disposition,” which only meant that she would part +with it for a consideration, or what she considered +to be the good round sum of 4000 francs. This was +a mere bagatelle for such a treasure, which, refitted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span> +with its own belly by Vuillaume, is now known as the +Spanish Bass.</p> + +<p>It was sold for £800, and exhibited in the south +Kensington Collection of 1872 (No. 188).</p> + +<p>On one occasion, says Charles Reade, Tarisio was +crossing the Bay of Biscay with his famous Spanish +Bass. The ship rolled; Tarisio clasped his treasure +tightly and trembled. It was a terrible gale, and for +one whole day they were in real danger. “Tarisio spoke +of it to me,” continues his friend, “with a shudder. +‘Ah! my poor Mr Reade,’ he exclaimed, ‘the Bass +of Spain was all but lost!’” As to Tarisio also being +lost, that did not seem to matter so much!</p> + +<p>It is not too much to say that, with hardly a +memorable exception, all the great Cremonese and +Brescian fiddles, which now command such <i lang="fr">prix fous</i>, +have passed through the cunning hands of Luigi +Tarisio the pedlar, and most of them have at one +time been benefited by the tender and artistic skill +of Vuillaume, his great patron.</p> + +<p>When Tarisio, who by this time wore a decent +coat, and no longer carried Cremonas in a sack on +his back, visited England in 1851, he was received by +the whole trade as a person of rare quality, as indeed +he was.</p> + +<p>Mr John Hart took him to see Mr Goding’s unique +collection. As one by one the owner took his treasures +out of a glass cabinet, before ever he had got within +two paces of Tarisio, he was amazed at hearing their +names called out. A glance was sufficient. Tarisio had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span> +had them all through his hands—the “King” Guarnerius, +Lafont’s Guarnerius, the matchless Bergonzi, +the Marquis de la Rosa’s Amati, Ole Bull’s Guarnerius, +the famous Serafino ’cello, called the Beauty—all of +which might never have reached Mr Goding had it +not been for the enterprise and indomitable energy of +the Italian carpenter who now stood before him.</p> + +<p>Barring a narrow circle of dealers, it may seem +strange that so remarkable a man should not have +been more widely known and esteemed during his lifetime; +but we can well understand that the restricted +circle of dealers amongst whom he moved, did not +find it to their interest to place their special Cremona +“pocket” within reach of the wealthy amateurs out of +whom they themselves were busy making their market.</p> + +<p>Tarisio, had he been dealer first and enthusiast +second, might have done better financially; but he did +not do badly, and he wanted little except the privilege +of handling Cremonas to the end of his life and dying +in their good company.</p> + +<p>He did both. Although there was a strain of geniality +about Tarisio, he never seemed to unbend except +in the company of fellow-enthusiasts; and as he was +too cautious to give himself away to Italians, from +whom he was gradually securing the spoils which +built up his fortune, fame, and immortality, the +only people who really knew Tarisio were the few +foreigners like Vuillaume, the Chanots in France, +John Hart the dealer and Charles Reade the novelist +in England.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span></p> + +<p>In his own land he remained to the end nothing but +the quiet, unobtrusive repairer and occasional dealer in +dilapidated fiddles.</p> + +<p>It seems he had removed to Milan, where he was +quite safely hidden, along with his fiddles, up in an +attic at the top of a second-class restaurant in the Via +Legnano Porta Tegnaglia.</p> + +<p>No one was ever allowed to enter his room. He +locked himself in, and he locked himself out. They +saw him going up and down the staircase, and that is +all they saw of him.</p> + +<p>One day in 1854 Tarisio dragged himself up those +stairs for the last time. Whether he had any premonition +of his end, none may know—certainly no one +was with him when he died—only it was noticed that +he locked himself in, but came out no more; nor +had he gone down to the restaurant for any of the +necessaries of life.</p> + +<p>At last the neighbours thought it time to ascertain +what was taking place in that mysterious attic. They +seemed to have watched his strange movements closely, +but their efforts to find out who he was and how he lived +had been hitherto fruitless, as he made a point of carrying +on his particular and nomadic business at a distance +from his abode. They were not going to be baulked +any longer, so they knocked, but there was no answer.</p> + +<p>At last they broke open the door, and a strange and +piteous sight burst upon them. There, on a squalid +couch, lay the pedlar, quite dead.</p> + +<p>Around him all seemed chaos—piles of fiddle-boxes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span> +fiddles in and out of cases, tenors, ’cellos, violins in +pieces and violins whole. Half a dozen Strads there; +a Gasparo (afterwards Mr Bennett’s), a Ruggieri (Mr +T. R. Bradson’s); about a hundred Italian fiddles, by +different makers.</p> + +<p>Here, too, was found the “Messie” or “Messiah.”</p> + +<p>These trophies created little enthusiasm at the time, +but to the joy of the relatives, two nephews, who had +been hunted up with difficulty by the municipal authorities, +a sealed packet was found containing valuable +securities and a considerable amount of gold.</p> + +<p>The rest is matter of common history.</p> + +<p>The instant his friend and patron Vuillaume heard +of the magician’s death he hurried to Milan, and visited +the nephews at their farmhouse.</p> + +<p>“Where are the fiddles?”</p> + +<p>“At Milan; but we have six here.”</p> + +<p>On the spot Vuillaume opened the cases. The first +contained a splendid Strad, the second a Joseph del +Gesù, the third a Carlo Bergonzi, the fourth and fifth +two Guadagninis, and the last the famous Messiah, +preserved by Count Cozio de Salabue, intact until +1824, when it was bought by Tarisio.</p> + +<p>Vuillaume came to terms with the nephews for these +six, and then lost not a moment in visiting the famous +attic at Milan, where he found 246 more, which he +bought at once for £3166, leaving the astonished heirs +no doubt laughing in their sleeves, under the impression +that the <i lang="fr">gobe-mouche</i> of a Frenchman had been nicely +hi-diddle-diddled by the wily Italians.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span></p> + +<p>When we remember that a couple only of these gems +would realise now more than the sum Vuillaume paid +for the lot, we may well remember the proverb, “He +laughs best who laughs last.”</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">A Vignette of Paganini.</span></p> + +<p>I have advisedly steered clear in this collector’s +volume of violin-players and violin-music, excepting +in so far as they acted or reacted in any way upon the +violin and its progress towards perfection. From this +point of view, the growth of music appears to be responsible +for the definition and survival (as the fittest) +of the violin, violoncello, and double bass; and virtuosity +is certainly responsible for the lengthening of the +violin-neck and finger-board, the strengthening of the +sound-bar to resist an increased string-tension, and +the lengthening of the bow. But virtuosity can claim +nothing more than these trifling details. The Strad +pattern of 1684 to 1700 has remained completely +unaffected by the feats, vagaries, or demands of +soloists.</p> + +<p>In this the grand pattern violin stands out in sharp +and singular contrast to the old grand pianoforte. The +imperious demands of Liszt and Thalberg, Rubinstein +and his followers, have compelled a series of improvements +in strength, sonority, delicate mechanism, and +sensibility, undreamed of by the old firms, and only +perfected by the later Erards, Broadwoods, Collards, +and Steinways. But not a single substantial improvement +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span>has been made in the violin since the last one left +the hand of the great Antonio at Cremona, and not +even a trifling modification of any sort has been adopted +or applied to the grand violin of the golden period for +at least a century. The excuse then for introducing +the name and portrait of Paganini into this book is +not because he reacted in the least degree upon the +art of violin-making, but because he accepted it as an +absolutely finished art, and asked for nothing which +he found not in Strad and Joseph.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp55" id="i_182a" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_182a.jpg" alt="Portrait of Nicolo Paganini"> + <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center">NICOLO PAGANINI</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Now this is important and interesting, because +Paganini was the greatest of all players in this culminating +century of the musical art—a man admittedly +unsurpassed in the opinion of violin experts like John +Ella, Cipriani Potter, Onry, and others, who, for forty +years after his death, listened to all the phenomenal +violinists of an age which boasts of Ernst, Joachim, +Wieinawski, and Sarasate and Ysaye. As it has not +been possible to produce the face and figure of any of +these great old makers, with the one exception of Lupôt, +who belongs at best to the silver age, I have thought +it worth while to glorify their work by reproducing the +grand though eccentric face and figure of the one man +who has invested their <i lang="fr">chef-d’œuvres</i> with that romantic +glamour, that almost unearthly prestige which the violin +alone amongst instruments can lay claim to.</p> + +<p>Paganini’s favourite violin, a Joseph Guarnerius, lies +in its case under glass to this hour, open for all eyes +to inspect, in the Town Hall at Genoa, his native town, +to which he has bequeathed it. His dying directions,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span> +that no one should ever play upon it, recall Shakespeare’s +curse upon those who should move his bones. +The great musician’s orders have not been quite so +scrupulously observed as those of the immortal bard +of Avon. In “My Musical Life” will be found my +“Homage à Paganini,” together with a woodcut of +Danton’s very fine bust, given to me by John Ella, +who played in the orchestra among the violins when +first Paganini visited England.</p> + +<p>Nothing is so ephemeral as the fame of an orator, +actor, or musician, unless they leave books or music +behind them. Henceforth the phonograph may do +something to give future generations some idea of the +fascination which lived and died with them; but no +phonograph will ever give us even a faint echo of +Siddons’ declamation or Paganini’s playing; these are +alike buried with the generation which they charmed +and electrified. But in Leigh Hunt’s description of +Paganini’s performance we have something like a pictorial +phonograph, if I may hazard the hibernianism, of +the “Pale Musician’s” mighty personality and power. +Somewhere between the forties and fifties, I remember, +as a very young boy, standing awestruck before a thin, +gaunt, dislocated wax effigy of Paganini in an ill-fitting +dresscoat, with wild dreamy eyes and arm uplifted high—just +as Leigh Hunt describes him—before his bow +came down like a crash of thunder on the strings; but +let the lively and graphic essayist who heard him, speak +for himself:—</p> + +<p>“Paganini, the first time I saw and heard him, and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span> +first time he struck a note, seemed literally to strike it, to +give it a blow. The house was so crammed that, being +among the squeezers in the standing-room at the side of +the pit, I happened to catch the first glance of his face, +through the arm akimbo of a man who was perched up +before me, which made a kind of frame for it; and there, +on the stage in that frame, as through a perspective glass, +were the face bent and the raised hand of the wonderful +musician, with the instrument at his chin, just going to +commence, and looking exactly as I described him—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent22">—‘His hand,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Loading the air with dumb expectancy,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Suspending ere it fell a nation’s breath,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He smote, and clinging to the serious chords,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With godlike ravishment drew forth a breath</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So deep, so strong, so fervid thick with love,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Blissful yet laden as with twenty prayers,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That Juno yearned with no diviner soul</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To the first burthen of the lips of Jove.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Th’ exceeding mystery of the loveliness</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sadden’d delight, and with his mournful look</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dreary and gaunt, hanging his pallid face</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Twixt his dark flowing locks, he almost seem’d</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Too feeble, or to melancholy eyes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">One that has parted with his soul for pride</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And in the sable secret lived forlorn.’</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>To show the depth and identicalness of the impression +which he made upon everybody, foreign or native, an +Italian, who stood near me, said to himself after a sigh, +‘<i lang="it">O Dio!</i>’ and this had not been said long when another +person in the same manner exclaimed, ‘<em>O Christ!</em>’ +Musicians pressed forward from behind the scenes to +get as close to him as possible, and they could not +sleep at night for thinking of him.”</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER XIII</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLINS AT MIRECOURT, MITTENWALD, +AND MARKNEUKIRCHEN</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mirecourt</span></p> + +<p>Mirecourt in Lorraine has the glory of being associated +from so early a date as 1566 with the Cremona +workshops.</p> + +<p>Andrew Amati, who made six small fiddles for +Charles IX. about that time, employed Nicolas Renauld +of Nancy, who was a pupil of the celebrated +Mirecourt lutist Tywersus, to assist him in finishing +these important court orders, which did so much to +establish the supremacy of the “petit violon” over +the crowd of competing viols which then held the +popular ear, and, as we have seen, died very hard.</p> + +<p>The great princes of Lorraine occupied a castle of +pleasure called Ravenel, at a short distance from +Mirecourt.</p> + +<p>These accomplished noblemen, touched with Florentine +culture, often made excursions into Lombardy, +and delighted in the refinements of the Italian princedoms +and duchies.</p> + +<p>They brought back with them pictures, ironwork, +laces, musical instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span></p> + +<p>Tywersus, their private lute-maker, was deeply influenced +by the work and models of the early Amatis, +and from the school of Tywersus came Nicolas Renauld, +Jean Medard, and Nicolas Medard. When +Amati left Paris, whither he had gone to present his +violins in person to Charles IX., he left behind him +Nicolas Renauld, who slipped into the lucrative post +of luthier to his French Majesty, and we find his +friend and co-worker Medard installed in the same +fat office under the Grand Monarque, Louis XIV., +who, with his expensive mistresses, certainly spared no +money or patronage to secure those who could in any +way minister to the extravagant court pomp and artistic +amusements of the Pompadour and the Petit Trianon.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Mirecourt, in the heart of the Vosges +mountains, with easy access to the grand timbers of +their ancient forests, within beck and call of Lombardy, +and in close touch with the great Italian fiddle-makers, +Mirecourt long held supremacy as one of, if +not the most important mart of fiddle manufacture.</p> + +<p>It shared with Mittenwald and Markneukirchen +the honour of supplying that rapidly growing violin +market which was now springing up, and whilst +Cremona made largely for home consumption and a +few foreign courts, Mirecourt undertook the more +modest but equally useful duty of multiplying Cremona +school violins, which circulated far and wide throughout +the French provinces, and frequently reached our own +shores; indeed the fiddles often passed for Cremonas.</p> + +<p>The popularity of these Cremona replicas brought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span> +on that inevitable deterioration in quality which always +follows over-rapid production and cheap wares, and +at one time Mirecourt, in spite of its elaborate industry, +was fast becoming a byword for bad fiddles. +Happily the danger was seen and speedily checked, and +Mirecourt now stands out as perhaps the greatest and +most excellent emporium of modern violin manufacture.</p> + +<p>All who wish to know what can be known, go to Mirecourt, +just as people who study art go to Rome and +Florence, or people who study the fashions go to Paris.</p> + +<p>To Mirecourt we owe Rambaux, who was born there +in 1802 and died there only in 1870.</p> + +<p>Francis and George Chanot both came from there.</p> + +<p>The Lupôt family are claimed as natives of Mirecourt, +although the greatest of them, Nicolas, whose +violins run some of the finest specimens of Cremona +very hard, was a native of Stuttgard. His father was +a Frenchman, and came from Mirecourt. All his traditions +belong to Mirecourt, and these, as we all know, +he carried with him to Paris, where he died in 1824, +and was succeeded by Gand.</p> + +<p>The names of Maucotel, Medard, Menegand, Silvestre, +and Deragay, and above all Vuillaume, must +always shed an imperishable lustre upon the little town +in the Vosges mountains.</p> + +<p>Every one of the Vuillaumes, eight in number, including +the immortal Jean Baptiste, were born at +Mirecourt. Two settled at Brussels, three at Paris, +but all the others lived and died at Mirecourt.</p> + +<p>William Ebsworth Hill was careful to send his sons<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span> +to this celebrated school of violin art, and we may +be sure that they did not come away until they had +possessed themselves of everything that Mirecourt had +to teach the violin maker or the connoisseur.</p> + +<p>M. Thibouville Lamy of Mirecourt, who has trade +branches in Paris and London, manufactures a violin +at about 3s. 10d. cost price, selling at about 4s. 6d.; +but Markneukirchen probably leads in cheapness and +quantity, if not quality, turning out quite playable +fiddles for the modest figure of £1 to £2, 10s.</p> + +<p>The best Mirecourt fiddles will fetch from £6 to £10.</p> + +<p>The Grand and Bemardel prices range from £16 to +£20.</p> + +<p>The ever-increasing demands for “trade fiddles” of +all kinds, as distinguished from the solo violins reserved +for the use of virtuosi, has called forth an abundance +of fair makers beyond the limits of Mirecourt, Mittenwald, +and Markneukirchen.</p> + +<p>In England it is enough to mention such names as +Hill & Sons; Duncan of Glasgow; the Chanots, London +and Manchester; the late Furber, London; in Paris, +Bernardel, Silvestre, Germain, Audinot, and Chardon; +in Vienna, Zach, Bittner, Lembök, Voigt, Guttermann, +Rampfler; in Munich, Sprenger; in Frankfort-on-Maine, +Lenk; in Breslau, Liebich; in Brussels, Darche; +in Lille, Hel; in Milan, Marchetti; in Turin, Bros. +Guadagnini; in Cremona, Ceruti; and for further +general information the reader may consult the tolerably +exhaustive catalogue index of makers at the end +of this volume, for the bulk of which I am indebted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span> +to the studious and admirable labours of Miss Stainer. +Her booklet is entitled “Violin Makers,” and it forms +one of the music primers of an educational series +issued by Novello & Co.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mittenwald.</span></p> + +<p>In old days Mittenwald, quaintest of Bavarian +towns, with its frescoed houses and its picturesque +river-side, for it is on the banks of the dear Isar, overshadowed +by the Wetterstein and Kurwändel mountains, +was a town of considerable importance from very early +days as the halting-place for the Romans on their way +to the Danube.</p> + +<p>It long retained its peculiar caravanserai character, +which resulted in the establishment of the handy mart +or Mittenwald fair, for which in more recent times the +place was chiefly famous. After the removal of the +fair to Bozen, the importance of Mittenwald began to +decline; trade and commerce suddenly seemed to have +made unto themselves wings, until one Matthias Klotz, +who in his boyhood is said to have been apprenticed +to no less a person than the great Nicolas Amati, +settled at Mittenwald, and wrote up outside his house: +“Matthias Klotz, Geigen Macher, im jahr 1684.” The +prime hazel and maple, to be found in the Wetterstein +hills, is of splendid quality, and the woods, then close +up to the town, were full of old trees.</p> + +<p>Thither, before the days of Matthias, was wont to +come a dreamy, ill-regulated sort of person, who excited<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span> +the curiosity, and perhaps ridicule, of the villagers by +tapping their trees with a hammer and then putting +his ear close to the wood to hear the sound.</p> + +<p>They thought he was mad, and he did go mad from +worry and want, but the sanest thing he ever did was +to tap those trees and listen to the sound.</p> + +<p>His name was Jacob Stainer.</p> + +<p>Matthias Klotz was only nineteen when he came to +Mittenwald, but by this time the Mittenwalders, who +had heard how the eccentric tramp with the hammer +had gone back to Absam and made the place famous +by his fiddles, were prepared to receive the young +workman with favour and hospitality, for they hoped +he might do something of the kind for Mittenwald.</p> + +<p>They were not mistaken. One year before Klotz +arrived at Mittenwald, Stainer had died incoherent +and insane at Absam, and now that the greatest of +German makers was dead, Mittenwald was soon destined +to become noted in its turn for its fiddles.</p> + +<p>It is generally affirmed that Klotz was a pupil of +Stainer. Certainly his relations with Nicolas Amati +are not very well defined. The probabilities are that +he was a pupil of both—in the sense of being familiar +with their work. The fact that his violins are sometimes +mistaken for Stainer, points to the strong Absam +influence which was upon him—it could hardly be +otherwise—whilst the tendency noticeable in the fiddles +of his son Sebastian, who certainly did visit Cremona, +to bring down the model flatter than was fashionable +at this time, indicates that the firm at all events<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span> +reflected the later Amati model of Nicolas, who died +the very year Klotz came to Mittenwald.</p> + +<p>Had Matthias or Sebastian Klotz attended to the +methods either of Stainer or Amati more carefully, +they would have observed that wood cut in spring with +the sap in it was not calculated to last like the drier +autumn timber. Whether from haste or ignorance, +the Klotz wood, especially that used by Matthias and +Sebastian, is sometimes found to be worm-eaten, but +Sebastian’s fiddles are much esteemed. His brothers, +George and Egidius, and his nephew, Joseph, son of +Egidius, all made fiddles of the same type—varnish +running from yellow to brown, and laid on rather +more lavishly than was the habit of Matthias, founder +of the firm.</p> + +<p>The Mittenwald industry, although now less prolific +than that of Markneukirchen, preceded it in point of +time, and undoubtedly it was through Bavarian Mittenwald +that the Cremona influence reached Saxony.</p> + +<p>Master Reiter, whose teacher was Johan Vauchel of +Wurzburg, is now the most prominent Mittenwald +maker, and Herr Neuner, who was a pupil of Vuillaume, +directs the school and factory. The school instructs +about twenty boys, and is under Government.</p> + +<p>Out of eighteen hundred Mittenwalders, three hundred +are fiddle-makers.</p> + +<p>The place provides from fifteen to twenty thousand +instruments per annum, including zithers and guitars. +I will not say that Herr Reiter, who is an artist versed +in the old secrets and the old enthusiasms, is personally<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span> +responsible for the “trade fiddles” that annually pour +from the Mittenwald workshops. He himself has +made comparatively few fiddles, but he supervises +them all, and remarked to a visitor the other day, +“I, Master Reiter, never let one go out of my hands +that has not been thoroughly tested, and I have sent +out into the world, to Russia, to America, Athens, +and where not, some two hundred violins and twenty-five +’cellos, besides having repaired some four hundred +others.”</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Markneukirchen.</span></p> + +<p>Quiet resting-places, secluded valleys of the Tyrol, +mountains of Saxony!—Mittenwald, Markneukirchen, +Mirecourt; sleepy Italian towns!—Brescia, Cremona, +once provincial villages like Mirecourt, far from the stir +of mighty cities!—such retreats seem to have been ever +favourable to the development of violin manufacture. +Something, too, of simple and almost <i lang="fr">naïve</i> religious +sentiment has entered into the production of the earlier +violins, most of which were, after all, chiefly intended +for the sanctuary, Catholic or Protestant.</p> + +<p>The arts and craftsbook of the Worshipful Guild +of Violin-makers of Markneukirchen, 1677 to 1772, has +lately been unearthed and translated by the many-sided +and indefatigable Heron Allen, and it throws a +kind of sudden flashlight upon the origin of an industrial +centre which has since become one of the most +famous emporiums of violins “made in Germany.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span></p> + +<p>Here we read how a mere handful of masters and +workmen went out from kith and kin into a wilderness—some +would say a paradise—for the sake of worshipping +God in their own way—that is to say, the new +reformed Lutheran way. They settled, to the number +of sixty-six, about the year 1627, at the retired and +mountainous village of Markneukirchen. The old +book which records their uneventful annals begins +characteristically enough with, “In the name of the +Holy Trinity, Amen”; and then follow the names of +twelve families, the principals being Reicher, Hans +George, Polles, Gaspar, Schönfeldes, and Gaspar Hopf; +and from this modest nucleus, emigrants, chiefly from +Graslitz, grew the famous Guild, which by-and-by was +responsible for scattering abroad violins innumerable, +labelled with every known name, and of quality good, +bad, and indifferent; for it is a notable peculiarity of +the Markneukirchen makers that, whilst they were +compelled by the rules of the Guild to produce diploma +instruments and others of recognised quality, the cost +of production has got down as low as about four shillings, +and a very playable instrument, labelled Stradivari, +is actually sold for a sum not much above that +astonishing cost price.</p> + +<p>Many of these workers were all-round men, and did +not confine themselves to fiddle-making. Thus, Carl +Frederick Jacob was carpenter, locksmith, and general +instrument maker; one Andrea Gher, 1587, was a +schoolmaster; whilst Gasper Reichel was a barber. +Gottfried Pitz was admitted to the Guild on easy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span> +terms, because he had served his country as a cavalry +soldier.</p> + +<p>The master-workers were mostly people of some substance. +They had to pay a tax of one florin on being +admitted to mastership; but sons of a master were +admitted on a reduced fee of five florins.</p> + +<p>Most of the masters were expected to have a decent +house, with a room large enough to entertain the Guild +with their wives at a banquet on their installation. +As this cost some money—there were various ways of +lightening the burden when the candidate happened to +be a desirable addition to the Guild—he was allowed +to pay in instalments, or part was remitted by favour. +A popular means of effecting economy was to <em>propose</em> +to marry the daughter of a master; that at least staved +off payment. The apprentices often got in cheap that +way.</p> + +<p>Hans Adam Narlitzer, who “intended” to marry a +master’s daughter, was admitted on reduced terms, on +the understanding that, if the match did not come off, +he was to pay up in full.</p> + +<p>One Kretchman also “intended” to marry the +youngest daughter of Hans Martin Schönfeldes; also +Johann Christian Envel, in 1761, had “half a mind” +to marry the youngest daughter of Reichel, and was +admitted for ten thalers; but in case he could not +make up his mind to marry the girl, <em>or any other +master’s daughter</em>, he would have to pay thirty-one +thalers. In no case is it <em>recorded</em> that any of these +gentlemen failed to marry as per contract; the masters’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span> +daughters probably took very good care of that, or +would have sufficient influence to suppress the fact of +their rejection.</p> + +<p>With the spread of the Reformed opinions, there at +first arose a certain demand for violins in the new +churches; but the rigid Lutherans soon smelled the +odour of abuse and reversion to Romanism, and discouraged +any approach to ornate services, or an over-supply +of instrumental accompaniment. A decree that +the violins used in Church should be reduced in numbers +naturally spread consternation throughout the +little country town; but the growing demand for +stringed instruments of good quality for secular bands +soon counteracted the effect of sectarian bigotry and +clerical parsimony; and when one Joseph Haydn, +bandmaster to Prince Esterhazy in Vienna, practically +founded the modern orchestra with its symphony, and +created the modern oratorio and quartet, the demand +for violins and basses led to a prodigious development +of the Markneukirchen industry; and as the +masters not only had ready access to the best Cremonese +models, but were surrounded by some of the finest +maple timber in the world, felled in forests full of seasoned +trees hundreds of years old, the fame of the Markneukirchen +makers soon spread throughout Europe.</p> + +<p>At Mittenwald a similar community flourished, and +the crop of German instruments made, and still made, +by these enterprising artificers have flooded all the +orchestras of the world, providing them with samples +of every maker, from Gaspar and Maggini to Stradivari,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span> +the Guarneri, Bergonzi, and Guadagnini. The +Mittenwald makers owed their inspiration chiefly to +Egidius Klotz, pupil of the great Stainer. They were +as famous for their fine hazel-fir timber as the Markneukircheners +were for their maple; it was also through +the Mittenwalders that the Cremona methods filtered +readily into the more northern region—Markneukirchen, +Prague, Nuremburg, Wurzburg, and Franken.</p> + +<p>The increased demand for instruments resulted +necessarily in a tendency to deterioration, which did +not escape the attention of the Guild, and rigid rules +were drawn up, called “Beneficent Mandates for the +Suppression of Abuses.”</p> + +<p>Every master had to prove himself equal to producing +one masterpiece as a sample of his skill, though it +was freely admitted that a cheap demand involved a +cheap type of instrument, which could not be expected +to rival the diploma standard of tone and finish.</p> + +<p>The quaint record of the Markneukirchen arts and +craftsbook ends with the year 1772, and with the words +“<i lang="la">Deo Gloria</i>.” Since that date the names of Reichel, +Schuster, and Paulus have all been <i lang="fr">en evidence</i> at various +European Exhibitions as medallists and exhibitors +of distinction; but, after a great fire in 1840, a good +many families left the town, and thus the old centre +became like a flower that had overblown itself, and +began to obey the inevitable law by which a mature +centre distributes itself gradually, losing as it were its +own central wealth in its circumference, as the seeds of +the dandelion get blown abroad over all lands.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER XIV</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLIN TREATMENT</p> + + +<p>The notion that the more a fiddle is knocked about +the better it is, is similar to the theory that the more +you knock about a horse the better he goes.</p> + +<p>A good horse will take a great deal of spoiling, and +so will a good fiddle. Your well-bred beast, even +when broken down, if you turn him out to grass and +attend to his ailments, will recover marvellously, and +so will a violin, if you glue him up, readjust his nervous +system, keep him dry, and coax him a bit.</p> + +<p>The delusion that a fiddle is all the better for being +maltreated is due to this:—Many people observe that +their old, battered, disorganised fiddles, which went +into the skilful repairer’s hands sounding like tin +kettles, come out with the true Cremona timbre; but +that, my deluded friend, is not in consequence, but in +spite of the knocking about to which your favourites +have been exposed.</p> + +<p>The fiddle-doctor has attended to your violin’s +internal economy, and gently healed its bruises, killed +the wolf or fiddle stomach-ache from which it was +suffering, glued tight the rattling back, ribs, belly, fixed +the loose sound-bar, and readjusted your Cremona’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span> +very soul (<i lang="fr">l’âme du violon</i>), which is the sound-post +and so it fares well; but remember, ’tis better to keep +a fiddle in repair and use than allow it to get out of +both, and go a mere wreck to the workshop.</p> + +<p>I am not forgetting, when I say “use,” that the incessant +and continued playing upon an instrument is +said to result in its getting what Joachim calls “played +out,” and that collectors have been great benefactors +by withdrawing choice instruments from wear and tear, +giving them thus long periods of suspended animation; +but, as a general rule, so long as a violin lasts—and +how long it will last is still a vexed question—fair +wear and tear and attention is just as good for a fiddle +as work, exercise, and cleanly habits are good for man +and beast.</p> + +<p>Neglect is <em>never</em> good; knocking about is <em>never</em> good!</p> + +<p>Lay it to your heart, O young player!</p> + +<p>What is that precious thing committed to your +care? You have brought it home from the auction-room—your +Amati. There was a conspiracy to keep +down the bidding. An influential dealer wanted to +buy it cheap, having already half sold it in advance +for twice as much as he meant to give; he went up +to £40 at the auction and stopped, but you were the +dark horse and made another bid; he winked at the +auctioneer, supposing it to be a bogus bid; the man +with the hammer paused and looked at the dealer, who +shook his head; for once the dealer had been too +clever and lost his Amati for a £5 note. It was +knocked down to you.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span></p> + +<p>You get it home; there is something wrong about +it; the timbre of the A string is unequal—sweet, but +too weak—it has a crack in one rib.</p> + +<p>You don’t expect a trumpet-sound like that of a +Joseph, or quite the bell-like ring of a Strad, but you +do mean to have a quality like the ripple of water—a +round, soft, and incomparably sensitive and <i lang="fr">intime</i> +tone, not to be surpassed by Strad and never reached +by Stainer.</p> + +<p>Of course your early Nicolo has got to be overhauled. +He has got a crack—perhaps more than one. +Why, he is already more than two hundred years old, +and may have a mark of the young Stradivari’s chisel +about him. Of what attention is he not worthy! +Take him to a subtle violin medicine-man, who will at +a glance see what he has got to deal with, and will sit +down before him and think!</p> + +<p>He will then take him up, handle him, tap him, pull +him to pieces with excessive care and reflection. When +you get him back, you may still be not quite satisfied, +but wait. <em>Your</em> treatment has to begin where the +fiddle-doctor’s ends.</p> + +<p>The convalescent home comes after the hospital—your +house is the convalescent home.</p> + +<p>The glue must dry; the changed sound-post must +grow to the newly-directed strain and tension of the +vibrating boards; the refixed flanks must learn to deal +with the air column, and the filled-up crack, by constantly +thrilling with the rest, must have time to forget +that it ever was a crack!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span></p> + +<p>Be not impatient. Play upon it gently at first, and +by-and-by draw out its tone; lay it aside and watch +that no harm comes to it; let it lie open, with a soft +silken wrapper on the strings—near, not too near the +fire; it must not get hot, but, like good claret, just the +temperature of a comfortably warm room.</p> + +<p>Think of it in winter as you would think of your +pet canary; don’t let it get chilled at night; let it be +in your own bedroom, or wherever there is an atmosphere +and temperature fit for a well-cared-for “human.”</p> + +<p>’Tis half human; ’tis caressed by your hand; it lies +close to your cheek; ’tis breathed on by you when you +press it, in moments of rare inspiration and musical +trance, between your chin and your left breast, where +its vibrating back actually <em>feels</em> the pulses of your own +heart. The waves of sound that you generate from it +are saturated with the magnetism of your touch; the +trembling pressure of your fingers comes from the +shaking of your own life-blood as it beats in the +mysterious valves of the heart, and seems to mingle +with those more than atmospheric, those <em>psychic</em> waves +which travel out upon the air in a flow of magic sound +conveying your inmost self to the inmost selves of +others!</p> + +<p>So this half-human thing must live with you and be +cared for by and fare with you, and be kept in good +humour.</p> + +<p>See that no clot of dirt be in its case, no speck of +rosin to vex and fret the smooth amber-coloured back. +Take it out lovingly; polish it with soft handkerchief;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span> +keep it shining wherever the varnish still shows up, +and scrupulously clean elsewhere.</p> + +<p>The vile notion that a coat of rosin does good, and +may be left with advantage like a festering mass on +the belly underneath the strings, is a most grievous +delusion!</p> + +<p>Why suffer the corrosion of the varnish with a foreign +substance to remain there more than on any other +part of the wood?</p> + +<p>Rosin is for the strings, not for the belly, and the +strings are for friction, and are intended to be scraped +through and worn out and replaced, but the belly is +for vibration and is never intended to wear out.</p> + +<p>Your rosin is life to the strings, enabling them to +speak, but ’tis death to the wood, stifling its pores and +striking it dumb!</p> + +<p>Never touch your violin with oil, or spirit, or colouring. +Only a skilled repairer can venture to do that, +and even he will not always be wise.</p> + +<p>I have seen really good old instruments too much +cleaned or daubed over ruthlessly with muddy brown +varnish, much, as Ruskin says, he saw men with knives +and mops of paint at Venice scraping away and splashing +over with raw blue the vast old faded skies of +Paul Veronese!</p> + +<p>A spick and span mania seizes at times upon restorers +of all schools.</p> + +<p>A relative of mine had a Spagnoletti restored to him +by a cleaner, but so repainted as to be worthless.</p> + +<p>Have not half the cathedrals in the land been disfigured<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span> +by whitewash, starched and bleached just like +so much dirty linen, and the old frescoes obliterated +like so many disfiguring stains; and even now, in these +more enlightened days, how many old carvings have +been replaced by modern routine-work sculpture, +whilst the walls, façade, and floor of grand old St +Mark’s at Venice have been smeared over with Salviati’s +modern mosaic. Thus have I seen a Maggini +botched and browned over so completely with bad +German varnish as to leave only faint traces here and +there of the original coating.</p> + +<p>Never in the matter of varnish dare to <em>replace</em> +what time has stolen; that loss of old varnish is a +tribute paid not ungrudgingly to “the Vandal years,” +who have spared the life and been unable materially +to injure the fabric of the rare old instrument. Above +all, thou favoured guardian of a Cremona, never let +it get near damp, or suffer from any other mouldering +or corrosive influence.</p> + +<p>A friend of mine, finding that the worm had got +into his violin <em>case</em>, which contained a Guadagnini, +proceeded to saturate his case with benzoin, and before +it was properly dry replaced the precious instrument, +with the result that the old varnish was brought up +in blisters all over the back, which is now one crinkled +mass, as rough to the touch as a nutmeg-grater. The +varnish was completely ruined, and what is worse, the +violin has never sounded like itself since; a clear proof +to my mind that the varnish affects the tone, or at +least that damaged varnish impairs it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span></p> + +<p>It is not at all an uncommon thing to find a violin, +which has been left unplayed upon for some months, +sulky when first taken out.</p> + +<p>Do not be rash or fidget with the bridge or soundpost. +Warm the fiddle up gently; rub it lightly with +all due care, and play on it without taking any notice +of its temper; go on for a couple of hours; you will +find, to your surprise, that it has recovered all its own +sweetness and charm, and will be ready to charm you +with the delightful sensitiveness of its response. All +that was really wanted was for the temporarily disused +channels of vibration to be again filled with sound—the +pores—the desiccated hollows to be once more +shaken up in the old way. The instrument has really +gone to sleep—some of its nerve currents have got +sluggish—that is, the desiccated powder molecules have +stuck in the pores and must be set rolling again. But, +like one just awakened, the fiddle takes a little time +to be “all there,” as the idiom runs.</p> + +<p>Something similar may be observed in a large hall. +When, after the atmosphere has been quiescent for +some time, speaking first begins, the speaker will not +be heard well; the atmosphere is stiff, and only when +the whole of it has been set in vibration—and that +takes a little time—does it become sensitive and +sufficiently elastic to be capable of transmitting the +slightest inflections of sound.</p> + +<p>There is, again, an electric as well as an atmospheric +and molecular state of the air and all other vibratory +substances, but this is a side of acoustics extremely<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span> +little understood, and can only be dealt with empirically +by speakers, singers, players, and especially +handlers of violins, who will instinctively make use of +some laws which they do not understand, and which +indeed do not yet seem to have been correctly +formulated.</p> + +<p>I feel that something ought to be said about the +position of the sound-post, though frankly I would +rather not say anything.</p> + +<p>Whatever advice one gives is certain to be wrongly +and mischievously applied.</p> + +<p>Technically, the sound-post should be a little behind +the right foot of the bridge, if you look from head to +neck, which is of course the left foot if you look from +neck to head. It ought also to be straight—if it is +aslant—unless the surface of the ends be cut on a slope. +Of course it clings but partially to back and belly, +whose throbs it is intended to blend; a little too near +the bridge will often produce a light hard tone; a +little too far will tend to a loose, muffled, or tubby +quality; a little to the right will brighten the right +string at the expense of the left, and <i lang="fr">vice versâ</i>. Get +it exactly in the fit place, and you attain the utmost +sensibility and equal sonority of which your violin is +capable. But so capricious are the vibrational laws, +and so subtle are the peculiarities of each violin’s +nervous system, that the position which at first has +failed to yield good results will ultimately be found +to have won its way to the heart of your violin, the +instrument adjusting itself to what was at first an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span> +uncongenial treatment of its nerves, until the nerves +learn to sympathise, and even rejoice, in special directions +of pressure and tension induced by the sound-post. +When this happens, better let well alone and +don’t attend to outside advice of experts.</p> + +<p>It is seldom wise to encourage an amateur, or any +but a skilful hand, to trifle with the position of the +sound-post. If it <em>must</em> be moved or has fallen down, +why then by all means take the advice of an expert; +go to the doctor.</p> + +<p>The same sort of advice may be given about the +position of the bridge. Granted that you have a +bridge which suits your instrument (and the importance +of this I have elsewhere dwelt upon), then consider +whether ’tis worth while to move your bridge at all. +The two little side slits in the ∫ ∫ indicate approximately +the position of the bridge; let a violin-doctor +determine the right height, which, remember, must be +modified according to its position, and the slope and +elevation of the finger-board. But here again there is +a vague and subtle margin for readjustment; the importance +of the bridge’s position is of course directly +related to the whereabouts of the sound-post, as the +bridge is a prime factor in dealing first with the +vibrations transmitted by the sound-post from belly +to back.</p> + +<p>There are violins which gain brilliancy by the bridge +leaning a little forward, but this is of course dangerous, +as a little more, and down comes the bridge. The theory +of course is for the feet of the bridge to grip equally at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span> +all points the surface of the belly—flat and close, and +with equal pressure. Now, if the bridge leans forward, +the grip of the back part of the feet is slightly lifted, +whilst the pressure of the front part is accentuated, and +if it leans backwards, precisely the reverse takes place. +Yet so capricious are fiddles, that some do not seem +to like to have their bridges quite straight, and so they +have got to be humoured.</p> + +<p>Without grave cause I should advise not meddling +with bridge or sound-post after they have been readjusted +by a good repairer. He may not have been +quite right; he may not have had the time or patience +to deal with your <i lang="fr">malade imaginaire</i> of a fiddle—for +amongst fiddles as amongst people, there are <i lang="fr">malades +imaginaires</i> which baffle the profession—but your fiddle-doctor +will be probably more right than you—fussy, +irritable, discontented, inexperienced amateur, and, if +you leave off tampering with the works, the fiddle will +very probably adjust itself and get all right.</p> + +<p>Then of course you must remember that whenever +you touch the bridge you touch the elevation of the +strings above finger-board. Put bridge back, you slacken +the touch for the player by bringing the strings close +down on the finger-board; put it forward or tilt it, and +you lighten the touch; make it harder for the fingers +by lifting the strings higher from the finger-board.</p> + +<p>And now a word about your finger-board. This is +generally made of ebony; the old masters used various +brownish woods, choosing, of course, the harder ones, +which they often inlaid beautifully. Sometimes even<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span> +they used ivory; you may perhaps have noticed that +on some violins you have a difficulty in stopping fifths, +or indeed any chords, in tune. This, unless you are a +mere blunderer, comes from the state of your finger-board. +You may not have noticed it, but you will +observe that the strings, by constantly being squeezed +by the fingers against the smoothly-arched surface of +the ebony, have worn channels in the wood, but +channels of unequal depths; the consequence is that +the same pressure, forcing two strings down on unequally +raised surfaces, fails to produce that relatively +equal pressure necessary for producing your true fifth; +the string also being sunk, it does not get the full +benefit of the finger’s pressure, as the shock of impact +will be broken by the higher level of the finger-board +on either side of the sunken string.</p> + +<p>In this way the tone <em>quality</em> as well as the <em>intonation</em> +suffers from what so constantly eludes observation—a +worn finger-board.</p> + +<p>Of course a new finger-board, or the restoration of +an old one, is a very easy matter, and can in no way +affect, except for the better, any violin.</p> + +<p>It may safely be said that no violin now in use has +either its original finger-board or, for the matter of +that, its original neck. Strings of very ill-assorted +thickness are also responsible for imperfect fifths.</p> + +<p>The management of the pegs sometimes presents +difficulties to the novice. Rosewood, ivory, and boxwood +have been tried, but ebony seems to be the +favourite, though many incline, as I do personally, to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span> +rosewood, which is less dense, and thus, in contact with +the maple-head (which is again less dense in fibre than +the rosewood), offers a less hard and violent contrast +than does the iron ebony to the porous maple.</p> + +<p>But the all-essential thing is for the pegs to be nicely +fitted, and it is a vile practice to rosin the pegs to make +them stiffer, or to rub them with lead-pencil or whitening +to make them turn more easily.</p> + +<p>If your peg sticks, it is either because it does not fit +the hole, is not smooth, or because you have rammed +it in too far in order to resist the pull of a string, probably +coiled round and round the pegs in a tangled, +twisted mess.</p> + +<p>There never should be a need for this over-ramming +in of the screw, nor would there be if, when you pulled +up your new string to pitch, you immediately let it +down, drew the stretched part tight, and then screwed +up again, when you would find, instead of ever so many +coils, you had reduced the number to one or two, which +would at once lift the strain from your screw, and make +it needless for you to force it in till it stuck and almost +refused to move at all.</p> + +<p>You should be able, when your fiddle is at your chin, +to nip the peghead between the first and third joint of +your forefinger, and adjust the pitch to a nicety and in +a moment; but then the resistance of the screw must +be so nicely balanced with the tension of the string as +to allow of its moving easily when gripped, and keeping +in its exact place when left.</p> + +<p>It is a very strange thing that, whilst all sorts of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span> +mechanical contrivances for moving violin screws have +been suggested, and even tried and adopted for guitars +and double basses, the violin retains its simple and +primitive screw; nor would any one who lays claim to +a decent position in the trade dream of advising a departure +in this, or indeed in any other respect from the +custom of the Cremona school and its successors.</p> + +<p>Concerning the stringing of your violin, beyond the +hints I have given with regard to the accumulation of +evils round the peg, there is not very much to be said.</p> + +<p>The quality, manufacture, preservation, and price of +strings has already been dealt with; and here, as in +everything connected with violins, there must be fine +and sympathetic adaptation of strings both to the +performer and to his instrument.</p> + +<p>A young girl will naturally incline to thinner strings +than a strong man, just as she will usually prefer a +lower bridge, which will reduce the resistance because +of the reduced distance between the strings and the +finger-board.</p> + +<p>Some players will prefer a thick first or third string, +according to the quality of tone they are able to elicit; +some a smooth or rather thin patent fourth in preference +to the usual more roughly-coiled and thicker +G string, which, however, is preferable for orchestral +playing; but, as a rule, buy your strings according to +gauge, if you can’t trust your eye, in a good shop, and +you will not be disappointed.</p> + +<p>Remember, as I have previously intimated, that any +great inequality in the relative thickness of your strings<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span> +may be quite as much responsible for your imperfect +fifths as an old channelled finger-board. Use plenty +of rosin, and let the string be seasoned with it right +up to the bridge, but not much, if at <em>all</em>, below the +top of the finger-board. The rosin must be well +rubbed in before you attempt solo work, as any excess +of what I may call raw undigested powder will produce +a most vile screeching.</p> + +<p>The tone of a fine violinist never reminds you of the +cat-gut and rosin. In the pure disembodied tone of +Piatti, Joachim, or Sarasate we entirely lose the sense +of all beggarly elements; they have suffered a change +into “something rare and strange.”</p> + +<p>The rough-and-ready way of testing false strings by +setting them in vibration, holding by each end, and +twitching till the double line is seen, and if a third line +appears condemning the string as false, is a method +often, not <em>always</em>, reliable. You can never be quite +sure till you have put the string on. If false, you <em>may</em> +get a true length out of it by trying another part; but, +as a rule, if one length of a string is false, it is bad all +through. A player, especially a soloist, should always +have a length or two of stretched and tested firsts in +his case, or, better still, in his waistcoat pocket, before +he goes on the platform, unless he can ensure the presence +of a second reliable instrument at hand in case of +a sudden breakage.</p> + +<p>Strings have every kind of vice short of downright +falseness. You need not put up with wheezy or +dull, or any sort of impure vibration, and beware of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span> +laying the blame on the violin when the string is the +offender.</p> + +<p>Of course, if the sound-bar or the back or belly of +the violin is loose, or the sound-bar askew, that will +account for a good deal. By tapping all round the +front and the back, just where these join the ribs, you +can easily discover by a certain jar or rattle whether +and where something is loose; it may be one of the +blocks or linings.</p> + +<p>Test the fiddle and you may acquit the strings; +test the strings and you may acquit the fiddle.</p> + +<p>You may sometimes experience a difficulty in playing +the A or D string without striking the E or G; this +may be due to your own clumsiness, but it may also be +due to the curve of your bridge being too flat, or someone +or more of the strings having eaten too deeply into +the bridge.</p> + +<p>If your hand perspire much—and all hands perspire—your +strings, especially your E string, will rag out. +It is difficult to say exactly at what stage in the ragging +process it is advisable to change your string. It is +strange, but true, that the tone of an old ragged string +is not materially impaired. I have sometimes fancied +that such thorough tough and seasoned strings are +even improved in spite of age and infirmity. Certain +it is that the smoothest string will go without warning, +and the raggedest will sometimes hang on down to a +mere thread.</p> + +<p>Paganini perspired frightfully, so much so that he +always carried a dry shirt in his violin case, and a gentleman<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span> +noticed that when he opened his case to take out +his violin for a public solo, his strings were in rags.</p> + +<p>I have sometimes observed that, oddly enough, a +second or third string is less durable after it has ragged +than a first; the wearing of the threads which compose +the thick strings seems less hard and tight than those +of the thin chanterelle, or the resultant material is +softer and gets soaked and cheesy, and like cheese is +readily cut through by the nails.</p> + +<p>Lastly, the amateurish and falsely-assumed economical +habit of slackening all the strings each time the +violin is replaced in its case is a delusion and a snare; +it only worries your instrument’s nervous system.</p> + +<p>Slacken your <em>bow</em>, not your strings.</p> + +<p>The violin gets accustomed to the normal strain, and +adjusts itself to it, and resents being deprived of its +due tension as much as an athlete would resent his +dumb-bells being removed.</p> + +<p>The strings are quite as likely to break by being +constantly fidgeted up and down, and the violin is +much more likely to get demoralised by the wearing +action and reaction of a varying strain, than if you let +it alone with all its strings at their accustomed pitch.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +CHAPTER XV</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"> +VIOLIN DEALERS, COLLECTORS, AND +AMATEURS</p> + + +<p>I Have come to the conclusion, “after long years,” that +there are three things about which your averagely +honest man has no conscience whatever—the first is a +horse, the second is an umbrella, and the last, but not +least, is a fiddle.</p> + +<p>He will buy from some needy ignoramus a fiddle +worth £100 for a £5 note, if he can. He will sell a +fiddle which cost him £5 for £100, if he can. Truly, +the <i lang="la">caveat emptor</i> of the ancient Romans covers a +multitude of sins.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the extreme ignorance of many +persons who have violins to sell offers singular temptations +to dealers, who are a class of people constitutionally +on the make.</p> + +<p>In bygone days, people who did not play the violin +used to be criminally careless about the instruments +that happened to be in their possession. Cremonas +might lie for years in damp attics, or hung up in disused +cupboards on rusty nails, or away in the dust of +ages on the top of old beds and cabinets. Even if the +fiddle was ultimately stolen—borrowed and not returned—it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span> +was thought hardly worth a serious inquiry; +it “was all to pieces” or “only an old fiddle”; and, +indeed, I have before now seen such with the belly off +converted into serviceable dustpans.</p> + +<p>Credulity has succeeded to ignorance, and now any +one who has any sort of shabby-looking fiddle fancies +he has got a rare Cremona!</p> + +<p>He will advertise it unblushingly in the halfpenny +papers, bring it gravely to supposed judges, and make +a favour of even showing it to a dealer.</p> + +<p>Nothing will shake the confidence of these simple +folk in their spurious wares; they will bring out a +common brown German <em>dated</em> Maggini, and you point +out that Maggini never dated his instruments; they +suppose you to be envious. Or they show you a Stainer +rashly dated fifty years after that maker’s death (such +an one was lately brought to me), with a label so recent +that you wonder at the brazen fraud. As to the good +and tolerably deceptive French copies of Strad, their +name is legion, and for a moment a person fairly conversant +with fiddles may be deceived by such a subtle +and withal honest copyist as Lupôt, but to the eye of +the experienced dealer the varnish is quite enough. The +varnish that chips off instead of rubbing away, thus +leaving the raw wood more exposed than permeated, is +not Cremona varnish.</p> + +<p>Of course as to the new labels in modern type I have +nothing to say. No one but a complete fool in fiddles +could be taken in by them.</p> + +<p>Still, when all gross cases are put aside, there is an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span> +excusable margin left for honest error, especially when +personal interest is on the side of error.</p> + +<p>I have very little doubt that my old friend, the late +Mr Cox, well known as an acute picture dealer, really +believed in a certain violin which he called the Red +Knight. He bought it at the great sale of Gillott’s +fiddles as a rare Joseph Guarnerius.</p> + +<p>I would never tell the old man to his face that his +Joseph was a very plausible red Landolpho copy of +Joseph, and I was even weak enough to allow it to lie +on the table of the Royal Institution side by side with +the “Dolphin,” Enthoven’s Maggini, the Emperor of +Russia’s Strad, a genuine Nicolas, a Joseph and a Jacob +Stainer; in short, the Red Knight lay by favour for one +evening in company with some twenty gems of worldwide +reputation.</p> + +<p>In the course of my lecture, to please my old friend, +I took up the Red Knight, remarking, “Here is a +fine violin <em>labelled</em> Joseph Guarnerius, once the property +of Mr Gillott, now owned by Mr Cox.” I said +no more.</p> + +<p>A few weeks afterwards the Red Knight was sold for +£300, partly on the strength of my having vouched for +it at the Royal Institution.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Jupiter of judges, William Ebsworth +Hill, had been consulted by the purchaser, who, on +finding that he had only got hold of a Landolpho, +wanted his money back.</p> + +<p>I think they would have gone to law if they could +have counted on me as a witness; but when I was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span> +threatened with a subpœna, I replied, “I would certainly +go into the box, but should have utterly to +deny that I had vouched for the genuineness of the +Red Knight or expressed any opinion whatever about +it except that it was ‘a good fiddle <em>labelled</em> Guarnerius,’ +worth perhaps £60 but not £300.”</p> + +<p>The upshot was that I was not subpœnaed. Mr +Cox refunded the money and the buyer restored the +fiddle.</p> + +<p>No one doubts but what Mr Gillott, of steel-pen +celebrity, did obtain, chiefly through Charles Reade of +“Never Too Late to Mend” fame, a great many very +fine fiddles, but I am afraid that Mr C. Reade was also +responsible for some comparative rubbish like the Red +Knight. Certainly I find a very dubious Strad tenor +(one of Gillott’s) labelled 140 in the South Kensington +collection. As to this particular collector’s specimen, +if I grant him his belly and his sound-holes, it is about +all that I can do—for Strad never threw that scroll +nor touched with plane or chisel that back and ribs.</p> + +<p>I brought home from Australia a so-called Peter +Guarnerius—really an excellent violin—but it was no +more a Guarnerius than a Strad, and was sold far +under its value as a Camillo Camilli, which it probably +was. But what will you? After all, a fiddle at any +given time is worth what it will fetch.</p> + +<p>The most impudent fraud or the most blatant +delusion which has ever come under my notice was +the so-called Maggini exhibited by Mr J. W. Joyce +(110, South Kensington Exhibition, 1872).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span></p> + +<p>It was made by Bernhardt Fendt, and I gave in +the <cite>Pall Mall Gazette</cite> of the period its history and +the names of its chief owners; but it was not removed, +neither was the Amati tenor (No. 147), labelled and +hung as Maggini, ever re-labelled, nor was a Klotz +fiddle which bore a Stainer label ever corrected.</p> + +<p>The only fraud I succeeded in dislodging was a +spurious Bergonzi—also sent up by Mr J. W. Joyce—which +after my attack on the South Kensington collection +of 1872 disappeared.</p> + +<p>The poor thing, no worse than the Bernhardt Fendt +which brazened it out like a false claimant, was merely +made a scapegoat of.</p> + +<p>These be among the humours of your loan collections!</p> + +<p>But we must be indulgent. Some mistakes are +sure to be made, but it is only fair to remember +that the fiddle world is vastly indebted to these grand +fiddle exhibitions all the same. The exhibition of +1885 at South Kensington was not one whit less important +than the 1872 show.</p> + +<p>The 1885 specimens were more discreetly selected +than those of 1872. They had the advantage of being +largely controlled by Mr Hill.</p> + +<p>Besides the usual supply of leading Italian makers, +the English school was remarkably well represented. +There was found a capital Ford, a maker who has not +received due credit for his excellent work. A good +Duke and Walmsley, and a yellow fiddle by Tobin, a +man quite noticeable for the cut of his scrolls, which +are always full of character.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span></p> + +<p>There was an interesting John Lott, richly varnished. +A romantic interest must always attach itself to this +fine maker on account of his early Bohemian life, +recorded by Charles Reade in a memoir called “Jack +of All Trades.”</p> + +<p>Charles Reade, who knew Lott intimately, tells us +how at one time he travelled through Europe with a +menagerie and became famous as the keeper of a most +clever but vicious elephant called Djek, who, after +killing ever so many men, had to be demolished herself +with a cannon, and was then cut up for elephant steaks +to feed the town.</p> + +<p>It was only after the loss of Djek that John Lott +came again to London and took up the fiddle trade, +which he had learned in boyhood.</p> + +<p>Joseph Hill, Lockey Hill, and Banks, were also well +seen at South Kensington in 1885. There was also a +matchless Urquhart, very venerable—Anno 1666—the +date of the great fire of London, which happily spared it!</p> + +<p>The Stradivarius case contained Mr Hill’s interesting +1732 Strad (now Ysaÿe’s violin), which, although made +so late in his life, was signed by the old man, who after +1730, as a rule, had left off signing his instruments.</p> + +<p>A truly serio-comic chapter might be written on the +huge prices given for frauds. A friend of mine gave +£200 forty years ago for a supposed Strad (which was +only a Lupôt) at a time when £40 was a long price +for the clever Frenchman.</p> + +<p>A violin professor I know sold a very poor Strad +the other day, but made a very good thing out of it.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span> +When the lady showed it me, I took a liberal view, +and said that £300 would have been a long price. +Her countenance fell.</p> + +<p>“Good gracious! I gave £600!”</p> + +<p>“Keep it long enough, and <em>anything</em> by Strad will +fetch that; but probably not,” I added, “in your lifetime +or mine.” This was some years ago.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, bargains in Strads and Josephs, +Bergonzis and Stainers, are still no doubt to be got, +but only about as often as bargains in Raphaels, Rubens, +Rembrandts, or Tintorets; but amateurs of pictures +and fiddles are mostly wrecked on school-pictures and +school-fiddles, often getting fair money’s worth, but <em>not</em> +what they <em>pay for</em>.</p> + +<p>Betts purchased one of the finest Stradivari in the +world for 20s. When John Lott opened it in Vuillaume’s +presence, he found the original bass-bar. The bar—so +Charles Reade tells us—was low and short, and quite +incapable of bearing the strain of concert pitch, and +John Lott replaced it with one stronger. The Betts +Strad was sold to George Hart for 800 guineas—a +heavy price fifty years ago.</p> + +<p>Mr John Hart, father of George Hart, picked up a +violoncello in Oxford Street for a sovereign or two. +The timbre caught his ear as he passed three street-musicians—violin, +cornet, and ’cello.</p> + +<p>Lindley, the great player, came into his shop and +bought a fine Forster ’cello for a round sum. This was +the Oxford Street ’cello.</p> + +<p>The destiny of violins has ever been one full of ups<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span> +and downs, and, like human beings, they have been +literally kidnapped, as in the case of Spohr’s, which +was lifted from behind his travelling carriage; shipwrecked, +like the Peter and Paul, <i lang="fr">vide</i> page 96; +murdered by those Vandals who patch stray bits of +slaughtered Cremonas into modern fabrics, and sold +for slaves, as in last century, to be scraped in dim +churches or ancient orchestras, until found out to be +royalties in disguise by the Chanôts and Vuillaumes of +the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>One would suppose that the stealing of a first-class +instrument would be next to impossible. Hardly a +fiddle of mark now exists which is not known to one or +other of the great dealers in Paris, London, or Berlin; +and whenever it changes hands, it is likely to come +before them again for inspection and verification. Yet +some of the famous Spanish Court Strads have vanished +no one knows where, and another famous Strad from +the Plowden Collection, whilst in possession of one of +our diplomats at St Petersburg, disappeared, and has +never since been traced.</p> + +<p>Many years ago I left a Vuillaume, labelled Albani, +in a railway carriage when I got out to take refreshment. +I was not gone five minutes, but in that five +minutes my Vuillaume had gone.</p> + +<p>After the death of a well-known nobleman, a certain +so-called Strad in an elaborate case, with finely-mounted +bows, was submitted to Mr Hill for inspection. It +was nothing but a common German fiddle; but Mr +Hill told me he had no doubt that the original occupant<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</span> +of the noble case had been stolen. Probably +many such thefts have been committed by dishonest +servants. Nothing could be easier than to substitute +one fiddle for another in houses—and they are legion—where +people do not know one fiddle from another, and +where fiddles lie unused and unvisited in lofts and +cupboards, I might almost say from generation to +generation. No soloist who travels should fail to insure +his treasure. Sarasate had a heavy insurance on +his violin when he went to America.</p> + +<p>But worse than theft is mutilation. The chances +are that what is stolen, unless it be stolen deliberately +to cut up, will some day reappear intact; but the +chances are small that a mutilated instrument will ever +collect its <i lang="la">disjecta membra</i>.</p> + +<p>Still, as in the case of Tarisio’s Spanish bass, that +too is possible, just as the recovery of the Hercules +Farnese statue, before alluded to, was possible.</p> + +<p>A well-known amateur whose Strad had been taken +to pieces for repair and the pieces wrapped in bits of +paper, on unfolding the fragments found the head +missing. The loss seemed irreparable, but a day or +two afterwards an old apple-woman picked it up in +the gutter, and happened to take it to the very fiddle-shop +charged with the repair of the Strad. That Strad +head was worth just 2s.—to the old woman!</p> + +<p>Nothing is easier than the perpetration of a fraud +by a clever copyist if he chooses to attempt it. Incredible +as it may appear, Paganini was shown by +Vuillaume two fiddles, one of which was his own and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span> +the other a counterfeit, and was quite unable at the +moment to decide which was which.</p> + +<p>Chanôt’s copy of the Carlino or Kerlino 1454 viol, +No. 14, South Kensington 1872 Exhibition, completely +deceived me until I had the opportunity of handling +both instruments at leisure.</p> + +<p>These frauds extend to bows. The Tourte and Dodd +bows in existence that know not Dodd or Tourte are +legion.</p> + +<p>I should recommend my readers never to leave a +valuable bow in their case when they send their violins +for repair.</p> + +<p>I lost a good Dodd myself in that way. Fine bows +are not safe even in the orchestra anteroom; they get +“changed.” It seems so simple to some people, when +a bow, a crush-hat, or an umbrella happens to be lying +about, to mistake it for their own and leave theirs +behind, especially if it is inferior in quality to the one +they chance to catch up by mistake! As luck will +have it, ’tis seldom a worse one that gets caught up!</p> + +<p>A friend of mine happened to leave a fine Tourte +bow in his case, and then he sent his fiddle for repairs +to a smart dealer who shall be nameless here. When +the case returned, it had a bow in it, but it was a copy, +and a very good copy, of a Tourte. In this instance +the dealer restored the original under pressure.</p> + +<p>In everything connected with a fiddle and a bow I +say, Beware! Beware! Further, let me say to amateurs, +not one in a thousand of you, even with practice and +opportunity, is fit to judge of a violin; you may easily<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span> +know what <em>suits</em> you, and that no doubt for practical +purposes is the essential. You can hardly know what +is <em>genuine</em>.</p> + +<p>Over and above culture and wide observation and +experience, a certain instinct is required, and few are they +that have it. Why, my friend, if William Ebsworth +Hill, from whose judgment there was no appeal, got +“his eye out” when only for a few weeks he left off +looking at fiddles, or distrusted his own judgment on +certain days, as to my knowledge was the case—for he +was at once the most diffident and absolute of men—what +chance have you? Why, none at all!</p> + +<p>I will go further than this, and declare that half the +violinists now before the public are no more judges +of a <em>genuine</em> fiddle than my cook. A man may be +a judge without being able to play, and a man may +play divinely and not be a judge. At the same time +Charles Reade’s opinion would have been even more +valuable than it was had he played himself. He +never would have written those foolish paragraphs +about modern-made fiddles sounding as well as old +Cremonas had he played himself. It is all the difference +between a man who looks at another man on +horseback and one who has got to ride the horse +himself; the first may not see much difference in two +horses, but the second soon finds it out!</p> + +<p>Playing the fiddle won’t make you a judge, but +you will be a better judge if you can play the fiddle. +I remember showing Remenyi a very fine copy of Strad +which had deceived many. He walked up and down<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span> +my room playing upon it with delight, and pronounced +it a genuine Strad beyond a question. It was a Lupôt +for all that.</p> + +<p>As for your ordinary amateur, he will judge by an +old-looking label, being unaware that forgers keep +old battered counterfeit type in stock, or he will note +the place of the little buttons which fasten the inner +blocks, supposing that each maker had his favourite +position for these buttons from which he never deviated. +Others will prate about Strad’s wasp sting purfle +running counter to the angle of his corners, or declare +that one maker never made his back in two pieces, +whilst another never made it otherwise.</p> + +<p>But there is one mark occasionally found in old +Italian violins which I do not remember to have seen +forged or imitated, or indeed even so much as alluded +to by any writer.</p> + +<p>If the amateur happens to have an instrument with +a little round hole in the back of his fiddle a few +inches below the nut, filled up skilfully so as to be +almost imperceptible, he may be quite sure he has got +an old violin, probably one of the oldest, as the practice +of falling suddenly on the knees and letting the +violin hang, in processions in which the singers went +before and the minstrels followed after, has long been +abandoned.</p> + +<p>That little hole, so cunningly plugged, shows the +place where a slight chain connected the instrument to +a button-screw or hook, so that at the elevation of the +Host, the minstrel might suddenly fall on his knees<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</span> +without the fear of dropping his fiddle. I have an old +Andrew Guarnerius so plugged, and the violinist Oury +first pointed this out to me and explained the reason of +the plugged hole!</p> + +<p>Scores have sent me descriptions of their fiddles, and +expected me to pronounce on the genuineness of them, +or are sure that they own a real Strad or Amati, because +theirs (in their opinion) exactly corresponds to +my description of Strad or Amati in “Music and +Morals.” All this shows that the outside public have +not the faintest inkling of true violin lore.</p> + +<p>Oliver Wendell Holmes felt this when he wrote to +me in 1885.</p> + +<p>He had himself written very charmingly on the +violin, and the passage is quoted with approval even +by so redoubtable a critic as Mr George Hart in his +admirable book “The Violin” (1887).</p> + +<p>Oliver Wendell Holmes had the acuteness to see +that all <em>mere</em> picturesque writing was valueless from a +technical point of view, and he thus expresses himself +to me in a letter dated December 5, 1885:—</p> + +<p>“I never knew until I read what you say of the +instrument what profanation I had been guilty of to +touch one, much more to write about it!” and he was +kind enough to add: “You have given a life to the +fiddle such as nothing but its own music ever gave it +before!”—words which, coming so spontaneously from +the author of the “Autocrat of the Breakfast-table,” +I think I may be allowed to quote with pardonable +pleasure.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span></p> + +<p>There is a point interesting alike to collectors, +amateurs, dealers, and players, which I feel somewhat +strongly about in view of much recent, and, as it seems +to me, ignorantly conducted controversy.</p> + +<p>It is whether, as far as tone and sensibility are concerned, +the best modern fiddles are not quite as good +as the best old ones. We hear repeatedly stories of +Strads and Josephs being played side by side with +modern fiddles, whilst the best judges have failed to +detect the superiority of the old over the new. This +test is most unsatisfactory. The ear is as easily confused +as the palate. It is currently reported that if +you taste alternately port wine, cream, and sherry, you +will not, after a few sips with your eyes shut, be able to +tell the difference; but no one argues from this that <em>there +is no difference</em>. The ear is not only easily confused +about the quality, but even about the direction of sound.</p> + +<p>Let one man shut his eyes and another snap his +fingers on the right, left, and above the other’s head +several times running, and this one shall be utterly +unable to tell after a few turns where the fingers are +being snapped. No one is a real judge of the distance +from which a sound comes. If, then, we can be easily +puzzled when plied with such tests about the direction +and the distance, no wonder if tests expressly designed +to confuse us about timbre should be equally successful. +But the question is practically settled by soloists invariably +preferring a fine old fiddle to a fine new one, +not as connoisseurs, but as <em>players</em>, and there must be a +reason for this.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span></p> + +<p>Therefore, I will hear of no talk, even from the lips +of a Charles Reade, about the varnish, the finish, the +artistic beauty in form or colour of the old violins +being largely responsible for this avowed preference. +It is tonal power—quality, sensibility, volume, timbre—a +something <em>personal</em>, as it were, to the old fiddles, +which points to certain real qualities in their makers +which have not since been rivalled, and this is quite +apart from the item of age.</p> + +<p>Age will make a good fiddle better, but it won’t +make a bad fiddle good; it may also be possible to +prematurely age a new fiddle, not with heat or acids, +but quite legitimately, by incessantly and for long +periods of time grinding it through every semitone +of its compass, and well-made modern fiddles will +doubtless improve every year, like good wine, up to +a certain point. They will then probably deteriorate. +But the age at which the old Cremonas are bound to +deteriorate has happily not yet been reached.</p> + +<p>The root of the matter lies here.</p> + +<p>A listener behind the door may not know the difference +between a Strad or Joseph or some other, but the +<em>player does</em>. A spectator in the Park may see no great +difference between the pet horse ridden by the lady +and the even more handsome quadruped upon which +her groom follows; but <em>she</em> knows. So the hunter knows +his horse, and values him above another horse which +looks better; the beast he rides will answer to his will, +go anywhere with him, and rise to every occasion.</p> + +<p>This is what your Strad fiddle does.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span></p> + +<p>All violinists will tell you that there is a <em>reserve</em> of +force about a Strad; you can “pull out,” and you will +never be disappointed.</p> + +<p>All lovers of Amati will tell you that they find in +Nicolo a trembling sighing sensitiveness, a tenderness, +and a tone delicate to the point of vanishing, which +endears Amati to the women, and still leaves his finest +instruments unapproachable for cabinet-playing.</p> + +<p>And all players will tell you that for domination +and downright big-battalion power, Joseph Guarnerius +del Gesù has not his equal.</p> + +<p>And the reason for this real, not fancied, supremacy +of the great makers and their best pupils?</p> + +<p>The reason is complex, no doubt—so complex that, +when all precautions have been taken to imitate wood, +proportions, varnish, workmanship, so as thoroughly to +deceive the eye, the modern <i lang="fr">chef-d’œuvre</i> is, in spite of +puzzled auditors, still not identical in quality with the +old Cremona gems.</p> + +<p>I was called the other day to judge a set of English +bells, cast with the same proportions of tin and copper, +of exactly the same size, weight, and model as a suite +of Belgian bells cast by Severin Van Aerschodt; but +the sound?</p> + +<p>Ye gods! No silver clang and tin-kettle parody +could be further apart than were those English and +Belgian bells.</p> + +<p>But to return to our fiddles. The reasons of Cremona +supremacy remain to be tackled.</p> + +<p>I hazard the following points:—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span></p> + +<p><em>1st.</em> Selection of wood. No doubt the old Lombardian +forests, with their salt-impregnated roots, provided rare +planks. The vaunted American woods fail technically +to satisfy the Cremona requirements.</p> + +<p><em>2nd.</em> The knowledge, at first empirical, then intuitive, +born of a lifelong study of the relative density of +woods fitted to vibrate together. Nothing can teach +this, no rule or measurements; for every plank varies +in porousness, density of fibre, age, and seasoning.</p> + +<p>Charles Reade was napping when he expressed a +hope that a certain Stradivari back, mated with a new +belly, might some day be united to <em>some</em> Stradivari back +of which he knew; but unless it happened to be <em>the</em> belly +Strad had selected for that particular back, what reason +is there to suppose that the result would be satisfactory?</p> + +<p><em>3rd.</em> I am of opinion that the old method of careful +oil-sizing and the subsequent application of gum +materially affected the tone.</p> + +<p>Think for a moment only of what is implied in the +saturation—too much or too little of the wood—with +oils, spirit, gum of this or that quality.</p> + +<p>Necessarily some vibratory capacities must be affected—for +better, for worse—by the filling in, one way or +another, of the wood pores; and do not the commonest +of modern artificers admit that the Cremona varnish, +and the exact mode of its application, is as yet undiscovered; +and when they speak otherwise, do they not +laugh in their sleeves?</p> + +<p><em>4th.</em> Admit that the <em>proportions</em> are exactly equal, +the column of air almost identical in cubic measure,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span> +about 512 to the second; still remains the vibratory +qualities of infinite varieties of grain—coarse or close, +loose or serried—in wood fibre acting upon that air +column.</p> + +<p>The old makers varied their models, but, no doubt, +had regard to the thicknesses and the subtle relations +between the hard and soft woods which would produce +the power or quickness of reply, or sweetness, or penetratingness +aimed at.</p> + +<p>It <em>may</em> be that the secret for the production of these +is quite incommunicable, just as a painter, an actor, a +singer, a sculptor will do a thing before you, which you +cannot do, which he cannot teach you how to do, though +he place his brush, his chisel, his music, his toga and +footlights at your disposal.</p> + +<p><em>5th.</em> We have no time for failures; they had. Endless +experiment, endless comparison, observation, meditation, +unlimited leisure: one and the same man made +each part, and knew the interpenetrative qualities and +the mutual adaptation of the sundry parts.</p> + +<p>We now have subdivision of labour; each man makes +one of the parts, and some one else puts them together. +How can such backs accord with such bellies? How +can such ribs cotton with such strange and fortuitous +planks? Truly a scratch company brought together like +strangers, yet expected to accept their arbitrary assortment, +and make sweet harmony together. But they +were not fastened together, in view of one another, +by one and the same master-mind, who knew what +was good for them, and what they were good for!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span></p> + +<p><em>6th.</em> But given the possibility of favourable conditions—time, +absorption, infinite experience, and all +the accumulated knowledge of the past—and given a +modern Nicolo, Strad, Joseph, or even Bergonzi, and +given climate, and given wood galore, and might not +we expect Cremona results?</p> + +<p>Why, yes, with Cremona conditions, certainly, or at +least a very fair approximation; and I am far from +saying that we are not on the road to it.</p> + +<p>Until lately it has not been worth while for makers +like the Hills, the Gands, or the Chanôt firms to do +aught seriously but repair or parody closely for the eye +the old fiddles.</p> + +<p>But such of Vuillaume’s fiddles as have not been aged +with heat and acids, and the fine £10 to £30 violins +now being made conscientiously by Messrs Hill, in proportion +as old fiddles become rare and inaccessible, must +come to the fore. Anyhow, players will, it is hoped, +give up the idiotic folly of paying large sums for +indifferent old fiddles, even with respectable names, +when they can get really fine new ones for half the +money with twice the tone—a good tone, too, which +a very few years will suffice to mellow.</p> + +<p>We write these words in the interest of dealers, +collectors, players, and artificers alike—indeed, it +would be well worth while for collectors even now to +get hold of the finest attainable specimens of new +work. As a mere speculation it would be at least as +sound an investment as laying down good vintages of +port or sherry.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span></p> + +<p>A good Hill recently made, price £30 or £40, <em>e.g.</em> +the fine copy of the Tuscan Strad, only requires age +to mellow it into a price of three figures.</p> + +<p>These new and garish-looking instruments, which, +after all, do not look more gaudy than the Messie +Strad, are exceedingly loud in tone, and withal very +sensitive.</p> + +<p>A certain tartness of timbre merely calls aloud for +another ten or twenty years to soften and refine it +into the Cremona tone.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the aspirants to Cremona excellence are +entertainingly numerous. From time to time I get +letters accompanied with samples from people who +claim to have discovered the secret of the Cremona +varnish.</p> + +<p>Here and there some enterprising maker will get +a literary friend to extol him as the successor of +Stradiuarius.</p> + +<p>I came across a pamphlet the other day assigning +Cremona rank to a worthy musician who makes fiddles +<i lang="fr">en amateur</i>, and a certain German working in America, +whose violins present all the usual characteristics of +instruments made in Germany. I actually got half +through this remarkable document, written <i lang="fr">au grand +serieux</i>, before I discovered that it belonged to the +liver pill, patent syrup, and soap class.</p> + +<p>Rumours may reach you from America of the wonderful +Californian wood. Well, European experts tell +me that, fine as is the marking, it does not yield the +required timbre, and that the planks now coming over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span> +from the old forests of Herzgovina and Bosnia are +far superior for fiddle-making purposes.</p> + +<p>Then think of the care and study in selection made +by those old Italian artificers who frequented the +Brescian and Cremonese markets, and haggled over +special bits of timber. They knew exactly where it +came from—the peculiarities of the soil, iron or salt +impregnated from whence it came; whether it was +cut as it should be, in autumn, with the sap out of +it, and exactly how long it had been cut, and to +what conditions it had been exposed before it came +to be worked up. The subtleties were endless. Who +troubles their heads about such things now?</p> + +<p>No! The fact about modern fiddles you, my +anxious inquirer, may take it for granted is what I +have stated. Take good new fiddles by Hill, Chanôt, +Bernardel, Gand, and, according to the time and individual +or one-man power and skill spent upon them, +they will rank high, and higher by-and-by; and if +ever the genius and the conditions which obtained at +Cremona, anno 1700, are again found, then, and not +till then, will the peers and rivals of the Cremona +masterpieces be seen and heard—and paid for.</p> + +<p>It may be rash to attempt a scale of prices, when +the experience of the last fifty years proves that we +have to deal with a <em>sliding</em> scale. Forty years ago +my father bought a rather small Andrea Guarnerius +at Puttick & Simpson’s for £4, which could not now +be picked up under £20. No Cremona from 1660 +to 1760 can be got for much less, though many<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span> +better fiddles can be got for half that price. Of +course the rise in the Strads is quite phenomenal. +Stainer, on the other hand, is not valued as highly +by comparison as he was last century; whilst, owing +to the rarity of real Stainers, the demand for Klotz +and Albani, more easily attainable, has somewhat +increased, and generally all the second and third +class makers are being hunted up and command good +figures now, just as a man who can’t get Charles II. +silver will put up with William and Mary, Queen +Anne, and even the early Georges.</p> + +<p>It is quite safe to buy Urquhart, Ford, Banks, +Forster, Furber (Henry, David, or John), and Pamphilion; +but the once popular “Duke” days are pretty +well over.</p> + +<p>Lupôt should be <em>always</em> secured, and Vuillaumes +that have not been cooked with acids and heat; and +no collector will go far wrong with Pique.</p> + +<p>Venetian fiddles, and especially violoncellos, near +akin to Cremona, will be sure to rise; and, as a rule, +the Northern fiddles will command a better figure +than the Southerners—Rome and Naples.</p> + +<p>But all such hints are general, and must be taken +for what they are worth, for stray specimens will often +turn up belonging to almost any school, which will +have rare merits and can hardly be accounted for by +any systematic classification.</p> + +<p>The following up-to-date (1898) scale of prices may +be a useful but rough guide to the collector with money +that burns his pocket:—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span></p> + + +<p class="center">PRICES</p> + +<p class="center">[1898]</p> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Stradivari</td> +<td class="tdr">£2000</td> +<td class="tdl">to</td> +<td class="tdr">£200</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Joseph Guarnerius</td> +<td class="tdl">1000</td> +<td class="tdl">”</td> +<td class="tdl">100</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Other Guarnerii</td> +<td class="tdl">300</td> +<td class="tdl">”</td> +<td class="tdl">30</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Nicolo Amati, and the brothers<br>Anthony, and Gerome</td> +<td class="tdr">500</td> +<td class="tdl">”</td> +<td class="tdr">80</td> +<td class="tdl">or £50</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Stainer</td> +<td class="tdl">200</td> +<td class="tdl">”</td> +<td class="tdl">30</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">C. Bergonzi</td> +<td class="tdl">600</td> +<td class="tdl">”</td> +<td class="tdl">40</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Maggini</td> +<td class="tdl">500</td> +<td class="tdl">”</td> +<td class="tdl">50</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">J. B. Vuillaume</td> +<td class="tdl">60</td> +<td class="tdl">”</td> +<td class="tdl">20</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Lupôt</td> +<td class="tdl">200</td> +<td class="tdl">”</td> +<td class="tdl">50</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Pique</td> +<td class="tdl">60</td> +<td class="tdl">”</td> +<td class="tdl">10</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Forster (’cellos)</td> +<td class="tdl">100</td> +<td class="tdl">”</td> +<td class="tdl">20</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Duke</td> +<td class="tdl">40</td> +<td class="tdl">”</td> +<td class="tdl">5</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Banks</td> +<td class="tdl">100</td> +<td class="tdl">”</td> +<td class="tdl">20</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>There are two general rules, which, like all rules, may +have some exceptions—not many:—</p> + +<p>I. Never buy a fiddle simply at the owner’s valuation; +judge it by your own knowledge if you have any, +or that of an expert if you have none.</p> + +<p>II. If you buy at auction, always go a few pounds +better than the highest bid offered by a <em>dealer</em>, and if +you win, you will be in luck.</p> + +<p>III. Before sending a valuable violin to be “done +up,” select your repairer carefully. A fiddle maker is +not necessarily a fiddle restorer, and may be quite +ignorant of the traditions which should regulate this +branch of the luthier’s art.</p> + +<p>IV. Get your violin’s pedigree <em>as far as you can</em> in +detail, with names and dates. Had this been always +done, exhibitions would have been spared many a delusion +and collectors many a fraud.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="POSTLUDE">POSTLUDE</h2> +</div> + + +<p>My task is ended.</p> + +<p>The shades of the great melodious dead still seem to +hover around me—as their echoes</p> + +<p class="center"> +“Roll from Pole to Pole,”<br> +</p> + +<p>and from</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent14">“Soul to soul,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And grow for ever and for ever.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Violins may be made hereafter, copies may deceive +the eye, sounds bewilder the ear, but there will never +again be an Amati or a Stradivari, any more than a +Phidias or a Raphael.</p> + +<p>The age of discovery comes but once.</p> + +<p>It is big with the future up to the moment when it +resumes in itself the golden heritage of the past. We +may imitate, but we cannot reproduce; nor will that +thrill of perfection—that emotion of eternal novelty +which we experience in contemplating and sounding +the Cremona masterpieces—ever electrify those who +handle their pale effigies, uninformed by that secret +magic which only appertains to absorbing things done +for the first time.</p> + +<p>Hail! to the mighty dead, whose incommunicable +touch is still felt by millions upon millions from generation +to generation!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span></p> + +<p>Hail! to the mystic life, which still circulates +throughout the arteries of ten thousand orchestral +organisms!</p> + +<p>Hail! to the undying names of those who first imprisoned +(in order to set free) the passionate longings +and divine aspirations of humanity—in the</p> + +<p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">Soul of a Cremona!</span><br> +</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp47" id="i_238a" style="max-width: 63.125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_238a.jpg" alt="Names of violinists"> + <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center">Nicolaus Amatus Cremonen. Hieronymi Fil., ac Antonij Nepos Fecit.</p> + <p class="center">Gasparo da Salo, In Brescia.</p> + <p class="center">Andres Guarnerius fecit Cremonæ sub titulo Sanctæ Teresiæ 1696</p> + <p class="center">Joseph Guarnerius fecit ✠ Cremona anno 1793 IHS</p> + <p class="center">Gio Paolo Maggini in Brescia.</p> + <p class="center">Anno 1733 Carlo Bergonzi fece in Cremona</p> + <p class="center">Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis Faciebat Anno 1709</p></figcaption> +</figure> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +DICTIONARY OF VIOLIN MAKERS</p> +</div> +<br> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Aachner</span>, Philipp. A Mittenwalder, +1772; ordinary German +characteristics.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Abbati</span>, Giuseppe. He worked +at Modena, according to +Forster, 1775-93.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Absam</span>, Thomas. Lived at +Wakefield, in Yorkshire; but +his name, identical with the +birthplace of Stainer, suggests +a German origin. Employed +by Pickard, of Leeds; his +labels run: “Made by Thomas +Absam, Wakefield.” Date +1810-49.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Acevo.</span> Doubtful whether he +ever existed. Fétis saw a +bass viol which he connected +with his name. It was signed +at the back, “Marin Marais,” +but it is all very shadowy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Adam</span>, Jean Dominique, son of +Jean Adam. Both worked at +Mirecourt, according to Vidal; +both made bows, and the son +made the best, and signed all +he sold himself, 1823-69.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Adams</span>, C. Takes rank merely +as a local maker at Garmouth, +Scotland, 1800.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Aglio</span>, Giuseppe dall’, of Mantua; +varnish bright yellow, +1800-40.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Aireton</span> (Airton), Edmund, of +London. Made good fiddles +on the Amati and Steiner +models; he varnished yellow, +1727-1807.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Albanesi</span>, Sebastiano, is said +to have lived at Cremona; +his work is almost unknown, +1720-44.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Albani</span>, Mathias, b. about 1621, +Botzen (Tyrol); d. there 1673. +(<cite>See</cite> p. 102.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alberti</span>, Ferdinando. Milanese; +yellow varnish. Label: +“Ferdinando Alberti, fece in +Milano, nella contrada delle +pesce al segno della Corona, +nel anno 1740-60.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Aldric.</span> Maker and great repairer. +Labels: “Fait par +Aldric,” or “Rue de Seine, +71, près celle de Bussy, Aldric, +luthier, Paris, an. 18—.” +(<cite>See</cite> p. 174.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alessandro.</span> A Venetian +maker, 1540.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Aletzie</span>, Paul. Worked at +Munich; good tenors and +violoncellos, German type, +1710-20.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Allard</span>, François. Successor +of Maubert, 9 rue du Petit-Pont, +1788-89.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alvani.</span> A Cremonese maker, +1750.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Amati</span>, Andrea. The father +of the Cremona school, 1525. +(<cite>See</cite> Chap. V.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Amati</span>, Antonio, elder son of +Andrea Amati; b. Cremona +about 1560. (<cite>See</cite> Chap. V.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Amati</span>, Girolamo, second son +of Andrea Amati; b. about +1562. (<cite>See</cite> Chap. V.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Amati</span>, Girolamo, third son and +successor of Nicola Amati; +b. Feb. 26, 1649. (<cite>See</cite> Chap. +V.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Amati</span>, Giuseppe. Said to have +lived in Bologna, seventeenth +century. (<cite>See</cite> Chap. V.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Amati</span>, Nicola, younger brother +of Andrea Amati, is said +to have worked with him, +1568-80. (<cite>See</cite> Chap. V.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Amati</span>, Nicola, son of Girolamo +Amati; b. Dec. 3, 1596; d. +April 12, 1684, aged eighty-eight, +according to the registers +of Cremona Cathedral. +(<cite>See</cite> Chap. V.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ambrogi</span>, Pietro. Cremona +and Rome. “Petrus Ambrogi, +Crem. fecit Romæ, an. 17—.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ambrosi</span>, Pietro. A Brescian +maker; very mediocre, 1712.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ambrosio</span>, Antonio d’. Neapolitan, +1820.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Amelot.</span> French maker in +Lorient; yellow varnish; +mediocre, 1812-29.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Anciaume.</span> Existence doubtful.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Anselmo</span>, Pietro. Cremona +and Venice; small pattern; +deep yellow varnish; fair +maker, 1700.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Antoniazzi</span>, Gregorio. Bergamo, +1738; labels bear: “in +Colle, 1738.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Antonio</span>, Cypriano.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Antony</span>, Girolamo. Cremonese +pattern; yellow varnish, 1751.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ardenois</span>, Johannes. Ghent, +1731.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Artmann.</span> Weimar, cir. 1760; +pupil of Ernst of Gotha; +Amati pattern; yellow varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Askey</span>, Samuel. Pupil of John +Morrison; employed by +Corsby, cir. 1825.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Assalone</span>, Gaspare. Roman; +Amati pattern; over-arched; +poor yellow varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Aubry.</span> Paris; a nephew of +Aldric (who dealt with +Tarisio); inferior to his uncle, +1840.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Audinot</span>, Nestor Dominique, +b. at Mirecourt 1842; worked +under Sébastien Vuillaume; +took up his business in 1875 at +the age of seventeen; is very +industrious, and makes excellent +instruments. Labels: +“N. Audinot, luthier, élève +de Vuillaume, Paris.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Augière.</span> Pupil of Clément, +Paris; good maker; red and +brown varnish, 1830.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Baader</span>, J. A., & Co. Mittenwald; +wholesale producers on +cheapest terms; their Stainer +copies are good, 1854.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bachelier.</span> Inferior French +maker, 1777-89.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bachmann</span>, Carl Ludwig. An +excellent maker of Berlin, +1716-1800; violins, violas, +and ’cellos often mistaken for +Cremonas; a viola player; +maker to the Prussian Court; +founder of the Berlin Amateur +Concerts; inventor of screw +pegs for double-basses.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bachmann</span>, O. Good maker, +of Halberstadt; first-rate repairer; +wrote on violin construction, +1835.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bagatella</span> (Bagattella), Antonio. +Padua; good restorer; +much employed by German +princes; made few good instruments, +but wrote learnedly +on violin construction, 1750-82.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bagatella</span> (Bagattella), Pietro. +Padua, 1760-66.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bailly</span>, Paul. Mirecourt; fair +maker; Chicago Exhibitor, +1893.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Baines.</span> London; pupil of +Furber, 1780.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bairhof</span>, Giorgio. Naples; +Gagliano school.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bajoni</span>, Luigi. Milanese, 1840-76.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Baker</span>, Francis. London, 1696.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Baker</span>, John. Oxford, 1688-1720; +excellent tone; yellow +varnish; transition maker.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Balestrieri</span> (Balestieri), Pietro, +brother of Tommaso. +(<cite>See</cite> p. 88.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Balestrieri</span> (Balestieri). Tommaso, +brother of Pietro. (<cite>See</cite> +p. 88.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ballantine.</span> Scotch, 1850-56.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Banks</span>, Benjamin, son of George +and Barbary Banks, 1727-95. +(<cite>See</cite> pp. 130-132.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Banks</span>, Benjamin, second son +of Benjamin Banks (1727-95), +b. Sept. 13, 1754; d. +Jan. 22, 1820. (<cite>See</cite> pp. 130-132.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Banks</span>, James and Henry, +fourth and sixth sons of B. +Banks (1727-95). (<cite>See</cite> pp. +130-132.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Barbanti</span>, Silva Francesco. +A maker at Correggio, 1850.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Barbieri</span>, Francesco. Veronese; +early Guarnerian pattern, +1695.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Barnes</span>, Robert Pupil of +Thomas Smith; set up with +John Norris, 1765; employed +Aireton, but used their own +trade label.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Barnia</span>, Fedele. Milanese, +1716-51.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Baroux.</span> Paris; very good +bow-maker, 1830.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Barrett</span>, John. London; a +contemporary of Barak Norman +and Nathaniel Cross; +long and arched pattern; +yellow varnish; sweet tone; +labelled: “John Barrett, at +the Harp and Crown in Pickadilly, +London, 1731.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Barton</span>, George. London; d. +cir. 1810.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bassot</span>, Joseph. Paris; fine +maker; brown and reddish +varnish; earlier yellow and +inferior; label: “Joseph +Bassot, luthier, Paris, 1802.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Baud.</span> Versailles; experimented +omitting sound-bar, +but not a success.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bausch</span>, Ludwig Christian. +Good bow-maker; Naumburg +and Leipsic, 1805-71.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bausch</span>, Excellent bow-maker; +silver medallist, Dresden; +friend of Spohr, 1840.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Beckmann</span> (Bekman), Sweno. +Stockholm; rough maker, +1700-6.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bedler</span>, Norbert. Würzburg, +1723.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bela</span>, Szepessy. Good contemporary +maker; worked +at Budapest and Munich, +and is now in London; copies +Strad and N. Amati.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bellone</span>, Pietro Antonio, +known as Il Pescorino, +Milanese, 1694.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bellosio</span>, Anselmo. Venetian; +pupil of Serafino and master +of M. A. Cerin, 1720-80.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Belviglieri</span>, Gregorio. Fairly +good Bolognese maker, 1742.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Benedict</span>, Jose. Cadiz, 1738.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Benedicti</span>, Donate de. Cremona, +1674.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Benti</span>, Matteo, b. 1579. Brescia; +contemporary of Maggini.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Beretta</span>, Felice. Como; +Guadagnini school; bow-maker, +1760-85.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bergé.</span> Toulouse, 1771.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bergonzi</span>, Benedetto, d. 1840. +(<cite>See</cite> p. 86.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bergonzi</span>, Carlo. Cremona; +the first of the great Bergonzi +family of makers; b. (?); d. +1747.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bergonzi</span>, Carlo, third son of +Michel Angelo. (<cite>See</cite> p. 86.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bergonzi</span> (Baganzi), Francesco. +Named as early as +1687.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bergonzi</span>, Michel Angelo, son +of Carlo; b. 1722; d. after +1765.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bergonzi</span>, Nicola, eldest son +of Michel Angelo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bergonzi</span>, Zosimo, brother of +Nicola.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bernardel</span>, Auguste Sébastien +Philippe. An excellent +maker who worked under +Lupôt and Gand. Firm: +“Bernardel et fils,” then +“Gand et Bernardel”; Paris +(1849) gold medal, London +(1855) gold medal.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bernardel</span> Frères. Ernst +Auguste and Gustave Adolphe, +sons of Sébastien +Philippe.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bertasio</span>, Luigi. Piadena, +17—.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bertassi</span>, Ambrogio. Piadena, +1730.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bertet</span>, Joseph R. French +maker; little known, 1754.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bertrand</span>, Nicolas. Paris; a +few early fiddles, 1686-1735.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Betts</span>, John Edward, known +as “Old John Betts”; b. +1755, at Stamford, Lincolnshire; +d. March 1823; was +buried at Cripplegate Church; +pupil of Richard Duke, senior. +(<cite>See</cite> p. 132.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Betts</span> (Ned), Edward, nephew +of John Betts; like him a +pupil of Richard Duke. He +died between 1815 and 1820.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bianchi</span>, Nicola. Pupil of +Guadagnini, 1800 to 1875; +Genoa, Cremona, and Paris; +fair maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bindernagel.</span> Gotha, 1745-1804; +inferior maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bittner</span>, David. Viennese, +1862-80; made chiefly for +America.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Blair</span>, John. Edinburgh, 1820.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Blaise</span>, Mirecourt. 1820; indifferent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Blanchard</span>, Paul François, +1865-94; worked with J. B. +Vuillaume; very good violins; +his workmen turn out good +cheap ones; follows Strad; +Mirecourt and Lyons.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bodio</span>, Giambattista. Venice, +1792-1832.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Boivin</span>, Claude. Paris, 1735-53; +fair maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bomberghi</span>, Lorenzo. Florentine, +seventeenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bomé</span>, Thomas. Inferior; +French.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Booth</span>, William. English; +1779-1858; good repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Booth</span>, William, son of W. +Booth, senior; b. 1816, Leeds; +d. 1856; a clever workman.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Boquay</span> (Bocquay), Jacques, +b. at Lyons. 1700-30. (<cite>See</cite> +p. 105.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Borbon</span> (Bourbon), Gaspar. +End of sixteenth century; +Brussels; Gaspar model.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Borelli</span>, Andreas, 1730-47; +Parma; Guadagnini model.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Borlon</span>, François. Antwerp +maker, 1680-1710.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Boucher.</span> London, 1764.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Boullangier</span>, Charles, b. 1823, +Mirecourt; d. October, 1888. +Learnt his trade in Mirecourt +till 1843; worked with Vuillaume +and Gand and Bernardel, +also for Edward +Withers, London; good +copyist of Strad.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Boumeester</span> (Baumeester). +Amsterdam maker, 1637-68.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bourdet</span>, Jacques. Fair +French maker, 1751.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bourgard</span>, Jean. Worked in +Nancy about 1780-87.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Boussu.</span> Bruxelles about 1750-80; +fairly good Amati pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Braglia</span>, Antonio. Modena, +eighteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brandiglioni.</span> Brescia; copied +Maggini.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brandl</span>, Karl. Budapest; +exhibited in London Exhibition, +1862.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Branzo</span>, Barbaro Francesco. +Padua, 1660.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bremeister</span>, Jan. Amsterdam, +1707.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Breton</span>, J. F. Paris, 1740-80.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Breton</span>, Le, b. 1780, at Mirecourt. +No great value; 1812 +to 1830.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Broschi</span>, Carlo. Parma, 1730-44.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brown</span>, James, b. 1755, d. Sept. +1830. Silk weaver in Shoreditch, +London; pupil of +Thomas Kennedy; chiefly a +repairer of instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brown</span>, James, jun., son of the +above; both father and son +fair workmen; b. Nov. 1786; +d. 1860, at White Lion Street, +Norton Folgate; apprenticed +to his father, but was principally +employed to make bows.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brown</span>, son and pupil of James +Brown, jun. When about +twenty years old, ceased to +make instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Browne</span>, John. Cornhill, London, +1743; copied Nicholas +Amati.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brubach</span>, Antoine, b. Jan. 22, +1847, Mirecourt; head of +“Klein et Cie.,” Rouen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brugère</span>, Charles Georges, b. +Nov. 10, 1865, at Mirecourt; +excellent maker; only labels +what he makes himself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brugère</span>, Charles Malakoff, d. +1894. Son of above; made +about 100 good fiddles; the +family still work at Mirecourt.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brugère</span>, François, brother of +Charles Joseph Brugère. Had +three sons, all makers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Buchstadter</span> (Buchstetter), +Gabriel David. Ratisbon, +1752; Cremona flat pattern; +good orchestral instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Budiani</span>, Giavetta. Some of +his large bass viols adapted +for double-basses with four +strings; contemporary of G. +P. Maggini.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Buonfigliuoli</span>, Pier Francesco. +Florentine, seventeenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Burgle</span>, Johann. A maker in +Griezbach, 1828.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Busas</span>, Domenico. Vicenza, +1740.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Busseto</span> (Buseto), Giammaria +del. Cremonese viol-maker, +1540-80; said to have taught +Andrea Amati.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bussot.</span> Paris, 1788.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Buthod.</span> Cheap Mirecourt +maker; good strong fiddles +fit for orchestral use; turned +out about 900 instruments a +year; contemporary of Vuillaume.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Cabroli</span>, Lorenzo. Milan about +1716; indifferent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cabroly.</span> Toulouse about +1740-47; fair.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Caeste</span>, Gaetano. Cremona in +1677.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Caesto</span> (Caesta), Pietro Antonio +della. Treviso, 1660-80; +copied Strad.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cahusac.</span> London about 1788. +Worked with Banks’s sons.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Calcani</span> (Calcagni), Bernardo. +In Genoa, 1710-50; copied +Strad carefully and with good +effect.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Calonardi</span>, Marco. Cremona, +seventeenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Calot</span> (Callot), b. 1810. Paris +and Mirecourt; fine workman: +good tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Calvarolla</span>, Bartolommeo, of +Torre Baldone (Bergamo). +About 1753-67, Bologna and +Bergamo; fair.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Camilli</span>, Camillus (Camilus di +Camila). Mantua about 1739-50; +copied Strad; resembles +also Landolfi; excellent tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Camillio</span>, Davido. Cremona, +1755.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cappa</span>, Giofredo (Goffredo), +1590-1640. Worked with the +Amatis; unequal in work; his +instruments have often been +cut down.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cappa</span>, Giachimo (Gioacchino) +and Giuseppe. Working in +Saluzzio, and in Turin about +1661-1712; indifferent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Carcassi</span>, Lorenzo Francesco +and Tommaso. Florence, +about 1735-58; not first-rate.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Carlo</span>, Giuseppe. Milan, 1769.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Carlomordi</span>, Carlo. Verona in +1654.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Caron.</span> Versailles, 1775-85. +Maker to the Queen; not +remarkable.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Carter</span>, John. Worked in London, +1780-90, for John Betts. +Good; often sold for Betts’.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casini</span> (Cassini), Antonio. +Modena about 1660 to 1700. +Made large violoncellos; fair.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Caspan</span>, Giampietro. Venice +about 1650; Amati pattern; +violins small, yellow varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cassanelli</span>, Giovanni. Ciano +in 1777.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cassineau.</span> Paris; maker of +all sorts.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Castagnery</span> (Castagneri), +Andrea. Worked in Paris, +1732-57; he made good instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Castagnery</span> (Castagneri), Gian +Paolo. A maker from Cremona, +who worked in Paris +about 1630-62; very good and +sweet tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Castellani</span>, Luigi, son of Pietro +Castellani. Florence, 1809-84; +good restorer of fiddles, +but made none.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Castellani</span>, Pietro, b. Florence, +second half of the eighteenth +century. Made only a +few violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Castello</span>, Paolo. Genoa about +1750-80; fair.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Castro.</span> Worked in Venice, +1680-1720; indifferent appearance, +but good wood.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Catenar</span> (Catenari), Enrico. +Turin about 1670; fair; a +follower of Cappa.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cati</span>, Pier Antonio. Florence, +1741; famous for his “kits.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cavalorio.</span> Geneva, 1725.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cellini</span>, Giovanni, the father +of Benvenuto Cellini, b. in +Florence; d. there of the pest, +1527 or 1528. Architect; lute +and viol maker. His viols, +made about 1500-5, had a +great reputation.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Celoniati</span> (Celionati), Giam +Francesco, 1732. Good maker; +Amati pattern; yellow varnish. +“Joannes Franciscus +Taurini, anno 1732.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cerin</span>, Marc Antonio. A +maker in Venice, 1780-93; +pupil of Anselmo Bellosio; +fair maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ceruti</span>, Enrico, son of Giuseppe +Ceruti; b. 1808; d. Oct. 20, +1883. Cremona, at 14 Via +Borgo Spera; made about 365 +instruments; much esteemed +in Italy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ceruti</span>, Giovanni Battista, +1755, Cremona; d. 1817. Pupil +of Lorenzo Storioni; good; +made about 500 instruments; +varnish yellow.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ceruti</span>, Giuseppe, son and +successor of Giovanni Battista, +1787; d. 1860, Mantua. Fair +maker; chiefly repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Challoner</span>, Thomas. Worked +in London in the eighteenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Champion</span>, Jean Baptiste. Paris +in 1783.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Champion</span>, René. Paris, 1731; +finished and graceful; varnished +like Boquay.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chanot</span>, François, son of a +musical instrument maker in +Mirecourt; b. 1787, d. 1828. +(<cite>See</cite> p. 112.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chanot</span>, Georges, a brother of +François; b. March 26, 1801; +d. Jan. 10, 1883.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chanot</span>, Georges, son of +Georges Chanot.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chanot</span>, G. A. Manchester.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chappuy</span> (Chapuy), Nicolas +Augustin. Paris about 1732-76; +fairly good; badly varnished. +Fr. Habeneck played +on one of his violins for many +years.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chardon</span>, Marie Joseph, son-in-law +and pupil of Georges +Chanot, sen.; b. May 22, 1843, +Paris. He succeeded his +father-in-law in 1872; good +maker; better restorer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chardon</span>, Marie Joseph Antoine +Georges. Worked under +his father.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Charle.</span> Paris in 1748.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Charles</span>, Theress. From Mirecourt, +but settled in London, +in King Street, Soho.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Charotte.</span> Mirecourt; d. 1836; +settled in Rouen in 1830; +indifferent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chatelain</span>, François. About +1777-91; good maker; collaborated +sometimes with Renault.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chéron</span>, Nicolas. Paris, 1658-91.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cherpitel</span>, Nicolas Emile. +Mirecourt, 1841-93; worked +with the Gands at Paris; very +good workman.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chevrier</span>, André Augustin, b. +in Mirecourt. Paris, and then +in Brussels, 1838.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chiavellati</span>, Domenico. Lonigo +in 1796.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chibon</span>, Jean Robert. Paris, +1775-85; indifferent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chiocchi</span> (Chiocci), Gaetano. +In Padua nineteenth century; +good maker and repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chrétien</span>, Hippolyte, 1845-89. +Lyons; excellent maker and +restorer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Christa</span>, Joseph Paul. About +1730-40.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Christophle</span>, Jean. Avignon, +1655.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Clark.</span> London, living at +Clerkenwell. A pupil of +Matthew Furber.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Claudot</span>, Augustin. Paris, +beginning of eighteenth century; +large pattern, yellow +varnish; wood good, work +carefully finished; branded +his instruments with his name, +“Augustin Claudot.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Claudot</span>, Charles. Paris; but +probably came from Mirecourt; +indifferent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Clément.</span> Paris, about 1815-40, +in the rue des Bonnes-Enfants; +a good deal sought after.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Coffe-Goguette.</span> Mirecourt, +1834; excellent maker; fine +tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cole</span>, James. Manchester; +pupil of Tarr and George +Crask, 1858.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cole</span>, Thomas. London about +1672-90; good tenor maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Collier</span>, Samuel. London, at +“Corelli’s Head” on London +Bridge, about 1750-55.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Collier</span>, Thomas. London, +1775.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Collin</span>, Claude Nicolas. Mirecourt; +d. 1864; pupil of N. F. +Vuillaume, Brussels.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Collin-Mézin</span>, Charles Jean +Baptiste, son of C. N. Collin. +Mirecourt, 1841-89; excellent +maker and restorer; good +Strad and Amati copyist.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Collingwood</span>, Joseph. Worked +in London about 1760, at the +“Golden Spectacles” on London +Bridge.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contreras</span>, Joseph, 1710-80. +Madrid or “Granadino”; beautiful +Strad copyist; has passed +for Strad.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contreras</span>, son of Joseph +Contreras.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Conway</span>, William. London +about 1745-50.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cordano</span>, Jacopo Filippo. +Genoa about 1774.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cornelli</span>, Carlo. Cremona, +1702.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Corsby</span>, George. London; believed +to be a brother of +Corsby of Northampton.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Corsby.</span> Northampton about +1780; chiefly made double-basses.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Costa</span>, Agostino. Brescia and +Venice in the seventeenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Costa</span>, Marco della. Treviso, +1660-80.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Costa</span>, Pietro Antonio della. +Worked in Treviso about +1740-65; fair Amati model.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cousineau</span>, Georges, 1753-1824. +In 1788 was entitled +“Luthier de la reine”; made +all sorts of instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cramond</span>, Charles. A maker +in Aberdeen, 1821-34.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Crask</span>, George. Worked in +various places, Salford, Manchester, +etc.; prolific worker; +Italian pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cross</span>, Nathaniel. London +about 1700-51. (<cite>See</cite> p. 125.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Crowther</span>, John, 1755-1810. +He worked occasionally for +John Kennedy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cuchet</span>, Gaspard, 1729.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cunault</span>, Georges, b. 1856, +Paris; Miremont, 1874-82; a +good workman.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cuny.</span> Paris about 1740.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cuthbert</span>. Maker of viols and +violins in London, seventeenth +century; fair.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cuypers</span>, Johannes. The +Hague about 1779.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Daniel.</span> Antwerp about 1636-56; +two specimens in Antwerp +Cathedral.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Daniel</span>, Charles. Marseilles in +1762.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Darche</span>, C. F. Brussels; was +a pupil of N. F. Vuillaume +(a brother of the Parisian +maker); better restorer than +maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Darche</span>, Nicholas. Aix-la-Chapelle.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">David.</span> A contemporary of +Pierray; Paris about 1730; +indifferent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Davidson</span>, Hay. Huntly, 1870.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Davis</span>, Richard. London; employed +by Norris and Barnes; +but when Norris died in 1818, +he succeeded to the business. +He knew little of violin-making, +and always remained +more of a dealer in, than a +maker of, instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Davis</span>, William. London (in +1846 sold business to Edward +Withers); restored violins; +Maucotel worked for him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Day</span>, John. Ingenious amateur +maker, devoted to reproduction +of Cremonas, nineteenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dearlove</span>, Mark. Leeds, 1812-20.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dearlove</span>, Mark William, son +of Mark Dearlove. Leeds, +1828-62; employed good workmen—Absam, +Gough, Fryer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Decombe</span> (not De Comble). +Paris, eighteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">De Comble</span>, Ambroise, b. at +Tournai, Belgium, end of the +seventeenth century; worked +till 1760; said to have been +a pupil of Antonio Stradivari +at Cremona; instruments +scarce, well made, of excellent +wood, and have a rich +tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Deconet</span>, Michele. Venice +about 1742-79; Cremona +school.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Defresne</span>, Pierre. Rouen, 1730.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dehaye</span> (Deshayes), nephew +and only pupil of Salomon, +1775-1825, Paris; more dealer +than maker; sold all sorts.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dehommais</span>, 1870. Successful +amateur maker.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">De Lannoy</span>, N.J. Lille about +1740-75; fair maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Delanoe</span>, Pierre Jean. Paris, +1754.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Delanoix.</span> Brussels about +1760; good maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Delany</span> (Delaney), John. Dublin +in 1808; an original +egotist, 1808. Label bears: +“Made by John Delany, in +order to perpetuate his memory +in future ages. Dublin, +1808. Liberty to all the +world, black and white.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Delau</span>, Lucien, 1836-48. On +the death of Charotte he +joined Jeandel in violin-making, +and they continued +the business at Rouen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dennis</span>, Jesse, 1795-1855. +London; apprenticed to John +Crowther, 1805; worked under +Matthew Furber.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Derazey</span>, J. Mirecourt; successor +to J. Nicolas, jun.; sold +his fiddles; made good cheap +ones, from 5 to 150 francs; a +prolific firm.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Deroux</span>, Sébastien. Mirecourt +and Paris; b. 1848; making +in 1898; good restorer; best +Cremona models. Signs: +“A. S. D.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Deschamps</span>, Claude. Paris, +1783-85.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Desjardins.</span> Caen, 1763.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Despons</span>, Antoine. Paris about +1610; rare, but not very +good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Desrousseau.</span> Eighteenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Devereux</span>, John. He worked +with B. Simon Fendt in +London; migrated to Melbourne.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dickenson</span> (Dickinson), Edward. +Strand, London, about +1750-90; Stainer model; inferior.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dickeson</span> (Dickson), John, b. +in Stirling. London and Cambridge, +about 1750-80; excellent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Didelin</span>, Joseph. Nancy, +1765-75; poor maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Didion</span>, Gabriel. Mirecourt; +d. 1881.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Diehl</span> (or Diel, as it was originally +spelt). Friedrich, son +of Nicolaus Diehl; 1814-67; +Darmstadt; fair.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Diehl</span> (Diel), Heinrich, a son +of Johann Diehl.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Diehl</span> (Diel), Jacob, son of +Nicolaus Diehl; d. 1873; Bremen +in 1834, then Hamburg.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Diehl</span> (Diel), Johann, a brother +of Nicolaus Diehl. Mayence.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Diehl</span>, Martin. Mayence, +eighteenth century; work +poor.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Diehl</span> (Diel), Nicolaus, b. 1779, +d. 1851. Son of Martin Diehl, +to whose business he succeeded.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Diehl</span> (Diel), Nicolaus Louis, +d. 1876. Was a son of Jacob +Diehl; worked in Hamburg; +he published a work on +Italian violin-makers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dieulafait.</span> A viol-maker; +Paris in 1720.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dini</span>, Giambattista. Lucignano +in 1707.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ditton.</span> London about 1700. +In Thomas Britton’s Collection +was a “good violin by +Ditton.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dodd</span>, Edward, b. 1705, Sheffield; +d. 1810, London, at the +age of 105. First bow-maker +of this name. He lived in +Salisbury Court, Fleet Street; +buried in St Bride’s Church.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dodd</span>, James, second son of +Edward. Also made bows.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dodd</span>, James, son of James +Dodd, sen.; was a good bow-maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dodd</span>, John, eldest son of Edward +Dodd; b. 1752. (<cite>See</cite> +p. 116.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dodd</span>, Thomas, third son of +Edward Dodd. Employed +Bernhard Fendt and Lott; +proud of his varnish; an all-round +man, and dealer in all +sorts of instruments; violoncellos +fetch £50.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dodd</span>, Edward and Thomas, +sons of Thomas Dodd, sen. +Both learnt from Bernhard +Fendt, and carried on the +business at St Martin’s Lane.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dominicelli</span> (Domincelli). +Ferrara, 1695-1715; studied +in Brescia; copied the Amati +pattern; varnish of a golden +colour.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dominichino</span>, Giuseppe. Verona, +1700; Amati pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Donato</span>, Serafino. Venice, +1410-11.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Doni</span>, Rocco. A priest in Florence, +1600-60; made lutes and +violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dopfer</span> (Döpfer), Nicolaus. +Mayence (?) about 1768; instruments +well made, slightly +arched; sound-holes small but +well cut, varnish brown.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dorant</span>, William. Spitalfields, +1814.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dorffel</span> (Dörffel), Johann Andreas. +A violin and lute +maker in Klingenthal, Saxony, +in 1743.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Drinda</span>, Giacomo. Pianzo, +eighteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Drögmeyer</span>, Hermann August. +Bremen; wrote a book on +violins, 1891.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Drouleau</span> or Droulot. Paris, +1788-1800.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Drouyn</span>, Dimanche. Paris.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Duchéron</span>, Mathurin. Contemporary +of Boquay, working +in Paris in 1714.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Duiffoprugcar</span> (Duiffoproucart), +Gaspard, 1514. (<cite>See</cite> +p. 18).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Duke</span>, Richard. London about +1750-80. (<cite>See</cite> p. 132.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Duke</span>, Richard, son of Richard +Duke.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dulfenn</span>, Alexander. Leghorn +in 1699.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Duménil</span>, N. Paris, 1786.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dumesnil</span>, Jacques. Paris +about 1655-60.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Duncan.</span> Aberdeen, 1762.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Duncan</span>, George. Glasgow, +1887.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Durfel</span> (Dürfell), J. G. Altenburg, +1778; double-basses +excellent; violins very arched; +muddy dark brown varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Du Riez</span>, Nicolas. A good +French maker; Abbeville, +1663.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Eberle</span>, Johann Ulrich. Prague +about 1730-60; good Cremona +copyist.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Eberti</span>, Tommaso. Italian +maker about 1730-50.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edlinger</span>, Thomas, b. in Bohemia, +and was living in Prague +1712-15. Good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Eglington.</span> London in 1802; +fair tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elément</span>, Jean Laurent. Paris +in 1783.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elsler</span> (Esler), Johann Joseph. +Mayence about 1715-30; bass +viol maker; transition on +verge of the violin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Emiliani</span>, Francesco de. Rome +about 1715-20; fine workman; +yellow varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Engleder</span>, Andreas, Munich, +1854; an original designer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Engleder</span>, Ludwig. Bamberg, +1854; German pattern; fair +tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernst</span>, Franz Anton, b. Dec. +3, 1745, Georgenthal, Bohemia; +player and maker; +Stradivari pattern, and some +say approached Stradivari +tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Eulry-Clément.</span> Mirecourt, +1800.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Eury.</span> About 1810-30, Paris; an +excellent bow-maker, 1820. +He was working at 20 rue des +Lyonnais-Saint-Jacques in +1820. His bows are justly +celebrated, and are thought to +rival even those of François +Tourte. He generally marked +them with his name.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Evangelisti.</span> Florence, +eighteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Evans</span>, Richard. London about +1742-50.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Eve</span>, Jacques. German model, +arched; brown varnish; good +workman.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Fabris</span>, Luigi. Venice in +nineteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Facini</span>, Agostino. A monk at +Bologna, 1732-42; delicate +workman; yellow varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Falaise.</span> French follower of +Pique; Cremona pattern; +yellow varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Farinato</span>, Paolo. Venice about +1700-30; fair maker, Serafino +pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Febbre.</span> Amsterdam in 1762.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fendt</span>, Bernhard. (<cite>See</cite> p. 132.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fendt</span>, Bernhard Simon. (<cite>See</cite> +p. 132.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fendt</span>, Francis, fourth son of +Bernhard Fendt. (<cite>See</cite> p. 132.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fendt</span>, François, best known +in France as Fent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fendt</span>, Jacob, third son of +Bernhard Fendt.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fendt</span>, Martin, second son of +Bernhard Fendt.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fendt</span>, William, second son of +Bernhard Simon.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferati</span>, Pietro. Sienna, 1754-64; +poor maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Féret.</span> A pupil of Médard; +Paris, 1708; good maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferguson</span>, Donald. Huntly, +Aberdeenshire.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferguson & Son.</span> Edinburgh, +beginning of the nineteenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferrari</span>, Agostino. Budrio +(Italy), eighteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferrari</span>, Alfonso. Carpi (Modena), +1738.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferrari</span>, Carlo. Sienna in +1740.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Feury</span> or Ferry, François, +son-in-law of Leclerc the +violin-maker. Paris about +1750-60; violins small pattern, +the sound-holes small, +varnish red, work good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fichtl</span>, Martin. Vienna, 1750-57; +careful in wood and +varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ficker</span>, Johann Christian. +Cremona, 1720-22; German +style.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ficker</span>, Johann Gottlieb. +Cremona about 1788-89.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fiker</span>, Johann Christian. Neukirchen +(Saxony), eighteenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fiorillo</span>, Giovanni. Ferrara, +1780; German and Italian +patterns; violoncellos are +best.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fiorini</span>, Giuseppe, son of +Raffaele Fiorini, b. 1867. Excellent +maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fiorini</span>, Raffaele, b. at Pianoro. +Worked at Bologna.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Firth</span>, G. Leeds, 1836; pupil +of William Booth, sen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fiscer</span>, Carlo and Giuseppe, +brothers. Milan about 1760-64; +inclined to German style, +but good varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fischer</span>, Anton, b. 1794, d. +1879. Vienna.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fischer</span>, Zacharie, b. Nov. 5, +1730, Würzburg; d. there +Nov. 27, 1812; first began +baking his wood to age it; +his violins are still liked.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fleuri</span> (Fleury), Jean François. +Paris, 1783-85.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fleury</span>, Benoist. Paris, 1751-91; +fair maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Florenus</span> (Florinus), Guidantus +or Florentus. Bologna<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</span> +about 1700-60; far from first-class.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fonclause</span>, Joseph (called +“Le Mayeux”), b. 1800 à +la Conté; d. 1865, Paris. +Mirecourt, and employed by +Vuillaume.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Forcheville</span>, J. Baptiste. +Early pochette-maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Forster</span> (Foster or Forrester), +John, b. Kirkandrews, on the +Esk.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Forster</span>, Simon Andrew, son +of William Forster (1764-1824). +(<cite>See</cite> p. 126.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Forster</span>, William, son of John +Forster; b. 1713-14; d. 1801. +(<cite>See</cite> p. 126.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Forster</span>, William (“Old +Forster”), son of William +Forster (1713-1801). (<cite>See</cite> +p. 126.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Forster</span>, William (“Young +Forster”), son of William +Forster (1739-1808). (<cite>See</cite> +p. 126.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Forster</span>, William, eldest son +of William Forster, 1764-1824. +(<cite>See</cite> p. 126.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fraiser</span>, Giorgio. Cremona, +1666; worked for Nicola +Amati.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franck.</span> Ghent, 1800-30; +chiefly a clever repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Frankland.</span> London, 1785; +employed by the William +Forsters.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Frebrunet</span>, Jean. Paris +1750-60; good maker; yellow +varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fritsche</span> (Fritzche), Samuel. +Leipzig, 1787; pupil of C. H. +Hunger; good maker (Cremona +model) and fine repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fryer</span>, Charles. London and +Leeds, 1830-40.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Furber</span>, David. Pupil of +John Johnson (1750-60), a +maker in London. (<cite>See</cite> p. +234.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Furber</span>, Henry John, son and +pupil of John Furber.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Furber</span>, James, first son of +Matthew Furber, sen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Furber</span>, John, third son of +Matthew Furber, sen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Furber</span>, Matthew, sen., son of +David Furber.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Furber</span>, Matthew, second son +of Matthew Furber, sen.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Gabrielli</span>, Antonio. Florence, +1760; good violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gabrielli</span>, Bartolommeo. Florence +about 1730.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gabrielli</span>, Cristoforo. Florence, +1730.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gabrielli</span>, Giovanni Battista. +Florence, 1740-70; good tone, +excellent wood, yellow varnish; +his violoncellos and +altos considered best.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gaetano</span>, Antoniazzi, b. Aug. +7, 1825, Cremona; good maker, +has gained medals of honour; +his sons, Ricardo and Romeo, +work with him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gaffino</span>, Giuseppe. An Italian, +worked in Paris, 1745-83; +careful maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gagliano</span> (Galiano), Alessandro, +b. 1640. (<cite>See</cite> p. 89.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gagliano</span>, Antonio, son of +Giovanni, grandson of Nicola. +(<cite>See</cite> “Raffaele Gagliano.”)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gagliano</span>, Ferdinando, eldest +son of Nicola, grandson of +Alessandro. (<cite>See</cite> p. 89.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gagliano</span>, Gennaro, second son +of Alessandro, brother of Nicola; +b. about 1680, at Naples; +d. 1750. He was the best +maker of this family.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gagliano</span>, Giovanni, fourth +son of Nicola, nephew of the +great Gennaro; d. 1806.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gagliano</span>, Giuseppe and Antonio, +second and third sons +of Nicola; lived at Naples.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gagliano</span>, Nicola, eldest son +of Alessandro; b. about 1675,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</span> +at Naples; d. there about +1745.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gagliano</span>, Raffaele and Antonio, +sons of Giovanni, grandsons +of Nicola.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gaillard-Lajoue</span>, J. B. Mirecourt; +d. about 1870; first +an apprentice and then first +workman in the workshop of +Gand; fair maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gairoud</span>, Louis. Nantes about +1740.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Galbani</span>, Piero. Florence in +1640.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Galbicellis</span>, G. B. Florence, +1757.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Galbusera</span>, Carlo Antonio. +Follower of Chanot; made a +guitar-shaped model; violins +much praised, but little known +now.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Galerzena.</span> Piedmont, 1790.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Galland</span>, Jean. Paris, rue +St-Honoré, about 1744-50.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Galram</span>, Joachim Joseph. Lisbon +in 1769.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gand</span>, Charles Adolphe, eldest +son of Charles François Gand; +b. Dec. 11, 1812, Paris; d. Jan. +24, 1866.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gand</span>, Charles François, eldest +son of Charles Michel Gand; +b. Aug. 5, 1787, Versailles. +(<cite>See</cite> p. 108.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gand</span>, Charles Michel, the head +of the Gand family; b. 1748, +at Mirecourt; d. 1820, Versailles.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gand</span>, Charles Nicolas Eugène, +second son of Charles François +Gand; b. June 5, 1825, +at Paris; d. Feb. 5, 1892, +Boulogne-sur-Seine.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gand</span>, Guillaume, second son +of Charles Michel Gand, 1792-1858.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Garani</span> (Garana), Michelangelo. +A maker in Bologna about +1680 to 1720; small value.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Garani</span>, Nicola. 1700. Fair +instruments, Gagliano pattern; +plain wood, yellow varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Garenghi</span>, Giuseppe. Brescia, +1857.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gasparo da Salò</span>, son of Francesco +Bertolotti, b. 1542. (<cite>See</cite> +p. 30.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gattanani.</span> Piedmont, 1785-90.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gattinari.</span> Enrico. Turin, +1670-75.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gattinari</span>, Francesco, son of +Enrico Gattinari. Good +maker, 1700-5; red varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gautrot.</span> Mirecourt, 1855.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gaviniés</span> (Gavaniès), François. +1700-63, Bordeaux; 1730 +Paris, and was living in Rue +St-Thomas-du-Louvre, 1734-63. +Unequal maker of violins, +some cheap and poor, +others very superior.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gedler</span>, Johann Anthony and +Johann Benedict. Fussen, +Bavaria, about 1750-96. Poor +violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geisenhof</span> (Geiffenhof, Geigenhof), +Franz, b. 1754; d. 1821. +Fairly good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gemünder</span>, August, b. 1814, +Würtemberg; d. Sept., 1895, +New York. Excellent maker, +fine copyist.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gemünder</span>, George, brother of +August Gemünder, b. 1816 +in Würtemberg.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Germain</span>, Emile, son of Joseph +Louis Germain. Turin, 1870-88. +Studied at Mirecourt. +Prolific maker, good varnish, +fair tone, fine repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Germain</span>, Joseph Louis, b. July +23, 1822, Mirecourt, 1868; +worked with F. Gand family +and B. Vuillaume. Excellent +maker and repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geroni</span>, Domenico. Ostia, +Italy, about 1800-20. Inferior.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gherardi</span>, Giacomo. Bologna, +1677.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ghidini</span>, Carlo. Parma, about +1746.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gianoli</span>, Domenico. Milan, +1731.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gibbs</span>, James. London, 1800-45. +Was employed by J. Morrison, +George Corsby, and Samuel +Gilkes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gibertini</span>, Antonio. Parma, +1830-33. Stradivari pattern. +Employed by Paganini as a +repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gigli</span>, Julio Cesare. Rome, +1730-62.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gilbert</span>, Nicolas Louis. Metz, +1700.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gilbert</span>, Simon, son of Nicolas +Louis Gilbert. Metz, about +1737.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gilkes</span>, Samuel, 1787-1827. +Morton Pinkney, Northamptonshire. +London. Worked +for William Forster (1764-1824). +Nicola Amati pattern; +clever maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gilkes</span>, William, son of Samuel +Gilkes, about 1811-75, in Grey +Coat Street, Tothill Fields, +Westminster, London. Prolific +maker; chiefly double +basses.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gioffreda</span>, B. Turin, in 1860.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Giordano</span> (Giordane), Alberto. +Cremona, about 1735-40.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Giorgi</span>, Nicola. Turin, 1745.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Giraniani.</span> Leghorn, 1730.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Giron.</span> (<cite>See</cite> “Villaume.”)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Giuliani.</span> Cremona, 1660. +Pupil of Nicola Amati.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gobetti</span>, Francesco. Venice, +1705. A pupil of Antonio Stradivari. +Alleged fine wood, +varnish, and tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goffriller</span> (Gofriler), Antonio. +Venice, 18th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goffriller</span>, Francesco. Venice. +Fair maker; yellow-brown +varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goffriller</span>, Matteo. Venice, +1690-1740. Careless in wood +but careful in work; yellow +varnish; arched pattern violin +excellent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gonnet</span>, Pierre Jean. Paris, +1775-83.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gosselin.</span> An amateur maker +in Paris about 1814-30.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gosset.</span> Rheims, 1769.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gouvernari</span>, Antonio. Cremona, +1600-10.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grabensee</span>, J. A. Düsseldorf, +about 1850-55.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gragnani</span>, Antonio. Leghorn, +about 1741-80. Rough workmanship; +inferior wood; sweet +tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gragnani</span>, Gennaro. Leghorn, +1730.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gragnani</span>, son of Antonio +Gragnani. Inferior to his +father.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grancino</span>, Francesco and Giam +Battista, sons of Giovanni and +grandsons of Paolo Grancino. +1710-60. (<cite>See</cite> p. 90.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grancino</span>, Giovanni, son of +Paolo Grancino. Milan 1690-1730.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grancino</span>, Paolo. Worked at +Milan, 1665-90. Pupil of Nicola +Amati at Cremona.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grand-Gérard.</span> Vosges, +1790-1810. Also Paris. Prolific +but inferior.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grandini</span>, Geronimo, sen. +Mirecourt. Some merit.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grandjon</span>, sen. Mirecourt.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grandjon</span>, J., son of Grandjon, +sen. Mirecourt. Fair +maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gray</span>, J. Fochabers, Banffshire, +Scotland, in 1870.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Greffts</span>, Johann. Fussen, +Bavaria, in 1622.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gregori.</span> Bologna, 1793.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grimm</span>, Carl, b. about 1792; +d. 1855, Berlin. One of the +best German makers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grimm</span>, Ludwig, son of Carl +Grimm.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Griseri</span>, Filippo. Florence in +1650.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grobitz</span>, A. Warsaw in 1750. +Good violins on the Stainer +pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Groll</span>, Matthew. Meran, +Tyrol, in 1800.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grosset</span>, Paul François. +Paris, 1747-59. Pupil of +Claude Pierray. Inferior.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grossi</span>, Giuseppe. Bologna in +1803.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grou.</span> 1752.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grulli</span>, Pietro. Cremona, +1883.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guadagnini</span>, Antonio, son of +Gaetano, grandson of Carlo +Guadagnini, b. 1831; d. 1881 +at Turin. (<cite>See</cite> p. 86.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guadagnini</span>, Felice, son of +Carlo Guadagnini. Turin, +1835.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guadagnini</span>, Francesco and +Giuseppe, sons of Antonio +Guadagnini. Turin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guadagnini</span>, Gaetano, son of +Giambattista, grandson of +Lorenzo. Turin about 1750.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guadagnini</span>, Gaetano. (<cite>See</cite> +“Carlo Guadagnini.”)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guadagnini</span>, Giambattista, +son of Lorenzo, b. 1711 at +Cremona; d. Sept 18, 1786, +at Turin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guadagnini</span>, Giovanni Battista, +brother of Lorenzo +Guadagnini. Milan, Piacenza, +and Turin about 1695-1775.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guadagnini</span>, Giuseppe, second +son of Giambattista, grandson +of Lorenzo, b. 1736; d. about +1805.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guadagnini</span>, Giuseppe. (<cite>See</cite> +“Carlo Guadagnini.”)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guadagnini</span>, Giuseppe. (<cite>See</cite> +“Francesco Guadagnini.”)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guadagnini</span>, Lorenzo. b. at +Piacenza (?) about 1665. A +pupil of Antonio Stradivari +at Cremona.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guarini</span>, Joseph. Germigny, +Vosges. Good violins, double +purfle, powerful tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guarneri</span>, Andrea. b. about +1626 at Cremona; d. there +Dec. 7, 1698. (For the Guarneri +family, see p. 51.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guarneri</span>, Caterina (?), daughter +of Andrea.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guarneri</span>, Gian Battista, son +of Bernardo, younger brother +of Andrea.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guarneri</span>, Giuseppe, known as +“del Gesù,” the greatest of +the family. (<cite>See</cite> p. 51.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guarneri</span>, Giuseppe Giovan +Battista, second son of Andrea. +b. Nov. 25, 1666, Cremona; +d. soon after 1738.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guarneri</span>, Pietro, son of Giuseppe +Giovan Battista Guarneri, +grandson of Andrea, b. +April 14, 1695. 1760.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guarneri</span>, Pietro Giovanni, +eldest son of Andrea. b. Feb. +18, 1655, at Cremona; d. +about 1740.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guédon</span>, Jacques Antoine. +Paris, 1775-77.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guérin</span>, Alexandre Sauveur, +1834-88, Hyères. Pupil and +successor of Edmond Daniel; +works at Marseilles; repairs +old instruments and makes +new ones on the pattern of +Stradivari; much admired.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guerra</span>, Giacomo. Modena, +1810.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guersan</span>, Louis. A maker in +Paris about 1730-69; one of +the best French makers; +great experimentalist; used +spirit varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gugemmos</span> (Gugemos). Fussen, +Bavaria. Eighteenth century; +poor maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guglielmi</span>, Giobattista. Cremona, +1747.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guidantus</span>, Joannes Florenus. +Bologna, 1685-1728.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guidomini</span>, Lorenzo. Milan, +1740.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guillami.</span> A Spanish family, +1680-1780.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guiton</span>, R., of Cork. Good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gusetto</span>, Nicola. Florence, +1730.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gutermann.</span> Vienna, nineteenth +century. Good.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Haensel</span>, Johann Anton. Was +maker and musician to the +Duke of Schönburg at Rochsburg, +1800-15.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Haff.</span> Augsburg, eighteenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hamberger</span>, Joseph. Pressburg, +Hungary. Firm still +maker at Vienna.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hamm</span>, Johann Gottfried. A +German who worked in Rome +about 1810; violins ivory +edged.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hammig</span>, W. H. Leipzig, tenth +century; good work.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Harbour</span> or Harbur. A maker, +London, 1785.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hardanger.</span> Norway.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hardie</span>, James & Sons. Edinburgh, +1837-90. Industrious +makers and exhibitors. Maggini, +Stradivari, and Guarneri +models.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hardie</span>, Matthew, 1825, and +Thomas, 1856. Good violins, +violas, and violoncellos on the +Amati pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hardie</span>, Peter. Dunkeld, 1773-1863. +Excellent violoncellos.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hare</span>, Joseph (or John), 1700-30. +Reacted against Stainer +pattern in favour of Stradivari. +London, 1726.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Harham.</span> London, 1765-85.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Harmand.</span> Mirecourt in 1772.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Harris</span>, Charles. London, 1780-1800. +Seldom labelled; his +work good, especially ’cellos, +Stradivari and Amati pattern; +red varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Harris</span>, Charles, eldest son of +Charles Harris. Worked for +John Hart, nineteenth century; +yellow varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hart</span>, John Thomas, 1805-74, +London. Pupil of Samuel +Gilkes; made few instruments; +reputation for experience +and skill in repairing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hassert.</span> Eisenach, eighteenth +century. Good instruments, +not much arched, beautiful +wood, amber-coloured varnish; +good copyist.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hassert.</span> A brother. Eisenach, +1790, in Rudolstadt. Instruments +too much arched; rather +harsh tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Haynes</span>, Jacob. London, 1746. +Stainer pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heberlein</span>, Heinrich, jun. +Clever maker in Markneukirchen, +nineteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heesom</span>, Edward. London, +1748-50. Stainer pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heidegger.</span> Passau.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hel</span>, Pierre Joseph, 1842-95. +Seven years in Mirecourt, +then with Sébastien Vuillaume +in Paris, and Nicolas +Darche at Aix-la-Chapelle. +In 1865 he started his own +business at 14 Rue Nationale, +Lille; full of ingenuity; peculiar +methods of seasoning +wood without fire; has received +much praise and many +honours; a beautiful maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Held</span>, J. J., b. July 17, 1823-89, +Flamersheim, Rheinbach +(Cologne). Great repairer and +careful maker of about sixteen +instruments a year; +much esteemed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hell</span>, Ferdinand. Vienna, 1854. +Eccentric maker of a trumpet-violin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Helmich.</span> Continued Carl +Grimm’s business.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henderson</span>, D. Aberdeen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hénoc</span> (or Hénocq), François. +Paris, 1775-89.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hénoc</span> (Hénocq), Jean (?Georges +Bienaimé). Maker, Paris, 1768 +to about 1790.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henry.</span> Paris.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henry</span>, Carolus, son of Jean +Baptiste Henry, 1803-59; +prolific maker; inventor of +a barytone fiddle (not a success); +a good maker otherwise.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henry</span>, Eugène, son of Charles +Henry, 1843-92; an excellent +maker of fine repairs; +business continued by Charles +Bruyère.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henry</span>, Jean Baptiste, b. 1757-1831, +Mataincourt, Mirecourt +(Vosges). He was the head +of the present family of +makers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henry</span>, Jean Baptiste Félix, +eldest son of Jean Baptiste +Henry. 1793-1858. Paris. +Pupil of his father; in Bordeaux, +1822; in Marseilles, +1825. In 1844 he returned +to Paris. A prolific maker, +but never signed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henry</span>, Octave, son of Jean +Baptiste Félix Henry. 1826-54. +Paris. In Grenoble in +1854; made a great many +violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henry.</span> A violin bow-maker; +1812 at Mirecourt; 1870, Paris; +worked with Chanot; made +excellent bows.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hildebrandt</span>, Michael Christopher. +Hamburg, 1765-1800; +good work; fine repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hill</span>, Henry Lockey, son of +Lockey Hill; grandson of +Joseph Hill; b. 1774; d. Aug. +1835. (For Hill family see +p. 133).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hill</span>, John. Red Lion Street, +Holborn, 1794.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hill</span>, Joseph, b. 1715; d. 1784. +He was a fellow-apprentice +of Banks, working at “Y<sup>e</sup> +Harp and Hautboy,” in Piccadilly, +London, under Peter +Wamsley, about 1740-42. +Worked till 1772. His sons, +William, Joseph, Lockey, and +Benjamin, were all makers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hill</span>, William, son of Joseph +Hill. Worked in London +about 1740-80.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hill</span>, William Ebsworth, son +of Henry Lockey Hill, 1817-95. +The present members of +the firm are his four eldest +sons: William Henry, b. June +3, 1857, followed the musical +profession for some years before +joining his brothers in the +business; Arthur Frederick, +b. Jan. 25, 1860; Alfred +Ebsworth, b. Feb. 1862, who +worked for some time at Mirecourt +(Vosges), and was the +first Englishman to go there +to study; and Walter Edgar, +b. Nov. 4, 1871, who also +worked at Mirecourt. They +employ a large staff of assistants +in their workshops at +Hanwell. (<cite>See</cite> p. 133.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hircutt.</span> London about 1600.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hochbrücker.</span> Donauworth, +Bavaria, 1699. Later at +Augsburg. Made some violins, +but is chiefly known as the +inventor of pedals for the +harp, about 1720.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Höhne.</span> Dresden and Weimar.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hörlein</span>, Carl Adam, b. 1829-75. +Winkelhof, Würzburg; +great reputation both as +maker and repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hoffmann</span>, Anton. Courtmaker +in Vienna, 1850.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hoffmann</span>, Martin. Leipzig, +1725; in Leipzig from about +1685; violins and violoncellos +of good tone, inelegant pattern; +shows well the transition +period between viol and +violin by recurrence to older +types of a five-stringed violoncello.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hofmans</span>, Matthias. Antwerp, +1700-50; choice maker in the +Cremona style.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Holloway</span>, John. London. +1794.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Homolka</span>, F. Kuttenberg, +Bohemia, 1850; good maker, +but wood rather too thick.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hopkins.</span> Worcester; exhibited +a double-bass in London +in 1862.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Horil</span>, Giacomo. Rome, 1720-50.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hornsteiner</span> (Hornstainer), +Joseph. Mittenwald, 1730; +good double-basses; mediocre.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hornsteiner</span> (Hornstainer), +Mathias. Maker in Mittenwald, +1770-1800; better than +Joseph.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hosborn</span>, Thomas Alfred. London, +1629. A bass viol exhibited +in Paris, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Huet</span>, Henri. Paris, 1775-90; +good workmanship.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hulinski.</span> Prague in 1760; +instruments were well made; +varnish red-brown.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Huller</span>, August. Shœneck, +1735-76.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hulskamp</span>, G. H., b. in Westphalia. +Settled in New York, +U.S.A. In the 1862 London +Exhibition he exhibited violins +made on a new pattern. +Instead of the ordinary sound-holes, +was one round hole in +the middle of the violin, just +below where the bow sets the +strings in motion; his innovations +ineffectual.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Humel</span>, Christian. Nuremberg +in 1709.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hunger</span>, Christoph Friedrich, +b. 1718, Dresden; d. 1787, +Leipzig; excellent instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hurel</span>, Jean. Paris, living in +1686, Rue des Arcis, at the +sign of “A l’image de St +Pierre”; from 1689 to 1717, +Rue St Martin, near the +Fontaine Maubué. He was +maker of instruments “pour +la musique du Roy.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Husson.</span> <cite>See</cite> “Buthod.”</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Ivrontigni</span>, Wougelli. Turin.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Jacobs</span>, Peeter. Amsterdam, +about 1690-1740; prolific +maker; sometimes mistaken +for Nicola Amati; grand +pattern; whalebone purfling; +sweet tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jacobs.</span> Amsterdam; probably +son of Peeter; used dark red +varnish of good quality.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jacot</span>, A., eldest son of Jean +Charles. Paris, 19th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jacot</span>, Jean Charles. Metz, +1811-87.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jacquot</span> (Jacquart), Charles, +1804-80. Mirecourt; much +esteemed; careful finish; a +learned connoisseur and successful +exhibitor.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jacquot</span>, Etienne Charles Albert, +eldest son of Pierre +Charles Jacquot, b. 1853-82, +Nancy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jacquot</span>, Jules Victor, second +son of Pierre Charles Jacquot, +b. Aug. 12, 1855.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jacquot</span>, Pierre Charles, son +of Charles Jacquot; b. March +10, 1828-94. Nancy; had a +great reputation, and exhibited +beautiful instruments +at various Exhibitions; his +two sons worked with him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jais</span>, Johann. Botzen, 1775; +varnished brown.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">J’Anson</span>, Edward Popplewell. +Manchester. Learnt from +William Booth, jun.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jauch</span>, Johann, b. Gratz, Styria; +in Dresden, 1765-74. Cremona +pattern; learned maker; +tone rather harsh.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jay</span>, Henry. A maker of viols +in London about 1615-67; +justly celebrated, and on the +verge of the violin period.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jay</span>, Henry. Worked in London +about 1746-68. He was +best known for the small +violins or “kits” that he +made, which were used by +dancing-masters; also made +some violoncellos.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jay</span>, Thomas. Working in London +from about 1690; made +some excellent violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jeandel</span>, Pierre Napoleon, +1812-79. Courcelles-sous-Vaudémont +(Meurthe), Rouen, +and Paris; red varnish; good +tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Johnson</span>, John. London, 1750-60. +Stainer pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jombar</span>, Paul, Paris. He +worked for Gand and Bernardel; +started his own business +in 1892.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jorio</span>, Vincenzo. Naples, 1847, +Good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Joseph</span>, J. Vienna, 1764.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Juliano</span>, Francesco. Rome, +1620-70.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Kembter.</span> Dibingen, 1725-30. +Varnish yellow or reddish; +neat maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kennedy</span>, Alexander. Scotland, +1695-1785. Excellent +maker; high repute; spirit +varnish, brown; Stainer pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kennedy</span>, John. London, 1816. +Buried in Shoreditch Church. +Pupil of Alexander Kennedy. +Violins and violas, all +very arched; Stainer pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kennedy</span>, Thomas, 1784-1870, +London. Son of John Kennedy. +Worked sometimes for +William Forster; made at +least 300 violoncellos, as well +as other instruments. Good +tone, fine finish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kerlino</span>, Joann.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kiaposse</span>, Sawes. St Petersburg, +1748-50.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kiesgen</span>, Louis. Paris. Fine +workman. Pattern of Gand; +red varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kirschschlag.</span> Tyrol, 1780.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Klein</span>, A. In 1884, Rouen. +Important firm. Red varnish. +High Exhibition awards.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kloss</span>, Ernst. Breslau.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Klotz</span> (Kloz), Egidius. (<cite>See</cite> +p. 119.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Klotz</span>, George, son of Mathias +and grandson of Egidius Klotz. +Mittenwald, 1750-70.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Klotz</span>, Johann Carl. Mittenwald, +about 1740-55. Excellent +work; dark varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Klotz</span>, Joseph, brother of +George Klotz. Mittenwald, +1774. Also followed the +Stainer pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Klotz</span>, Mathias, son and pupil +of Egidius. 1650. His three +sons, George, Sebastian, and +Joseph, were all makers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Klotz</span>, Michael and Carl, two +brothers. Mittenwald about +1770. A great many of the +violins with “Stainer” labels +are made by members of the +Klotz family.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Klotz</span>, Sebastian, a brother of +Joseph and George Klotz. +1700-40. The best maker in +the family. Large pattern, not +much arched; varnish is excellent, +the tone clear and full.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Klüher.</span> Markneukirchen, +Saxony.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Knitting</span>, Philipp. Mittenwald, +1760.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Knittle</span> (Knitl), Joseph. Mittenwald, +1790.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Knoop</span>, Wilhelm. Meiningen. +Stainer pattern; good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Koeuppers</span>, Jean. The Hague, +1755-80. Well-made fiddles; +ugly yellow varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kolb</span>, Hans. Bavaria, 1666.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kolditz</span>, Johann. Rumburg, +Bohemia, 1796. Good violins +and violas.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kolditz</span>, Mathias Johann. +Munich, 1720-55.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Koliker</span>, Jean Gabriel. Paris, +1783-99. Clever repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kramer</span>, H. Vienna in 1717.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Krigge</span>, Heinrich. Danzig, +1756-58. Maggini pattern, +model large size, neat edges +and work, and double purfling +in ink.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kriner</span>, Joseph. Mittenwald, +1785-95.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Krupp</span>, Pierre. Worked in +Paris, Rue St Honoré, 1777-91; +he also made harps.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kühlewein und Tetzner.</span> +Makers in Markneukirchen. +Exhibited in Munich, 1854.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Küntzel.</span> Berlin. He exhibited +a quintet of instruments +in London, 1862; tone excellent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kuntzel</span>, Laurent. 1790. Hof +Bavaria and Breslau, 1815-55. +Excellent violins on Italian +model.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Lacroix</span>, Salomon. Nineteenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lafleur.</span> London, brother of +the Parisian maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lafleur</span>, Jacques. A bow-maker +in Paris. Excellent +disciple of Tourte.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lafleur</span>, Joseph René, son of +Jacques. 1812-74. Excellent +bow-maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lafranchini</span>, Jacobo de. +Worked for Maggini.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lagetto</span>, Louis. An Italian +maker; Paris, 1745-53; early +Italian model.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lambert.</span> Prolific but indifferent +maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lambert</span>, Jean Nicolas. Paris, +1743-85. Not remarkable.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lambin.</span> Clever repairer in +Ghent, 1800-30.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lamy</span>, N. Alfred Joseph. A +bow-maker; 1850-89, Mirecourt; +excellent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Landi</span>, Pietro. Sienna, 1774.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Landolfi</span>, Carlo Ferdinando. +Milan, 1740-75. Unequal +maker; at his best often mistaken +for Joseph or Peter +Guarnerius; £50 outside price, +but rising in value.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lantez</span>, M. E., son-in-law of +Grandjon, sen. Mirecourt.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lanza</span> (Lansa or Lausa), Antonio +Maria. Brescia about +1675; followed the patterns +of Gasparo da Salò and Maggini; +excellent maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lapaix</span>, J. A. Lille (Nord, +France), 1840-55. Tried many +new shapes with moderate +success; industrious and ingenious.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Laprévotte</span>, Etienne. Mirecourt; +1856, Paris. Made good +violins; beautifully finished; +also guitars.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Larche.</span> Brussels, 1847. Dyed +his fiddles with acids, with +usual result of impoverished +tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Larcher</span>, Pierre. Tours, 1785. +Pupil of Guersan, Paris, but +work dissimilar; brown varnish +of poor quality.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Laska</span>, Joseph. 1738-1805, +Prague. Pupil of J. Kolditz; +worked for best makers in +Dresden, Berlin, Vienna, and +Brünn; his violins popular +in Bohemia, Saxony, and +Poland.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lautten</span>, L. W. Tyrol. One +“fine and handsome” violin +known.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lavazza</span> (or Lacasso), Antonio +Maria. Milan about 1700; +Stradivari pattern; good varnish, +pale red.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lavazza</span>, Santino. Was working +in Milan at the same time +as Antonio Maria Lavazza.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leb.</span> Pressburg, eighteenth +century; one of the best German +makers of his time.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Le Blanc.</span> Family of makers +who, through four generations, +worked in Paris, eighteenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leblanc</span>, Claude. Mirecourt, +eighteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leclerc</span>, J. N. Paris, 1760-80; +good maker and repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lecomte</span> (or Fouquet-Lecomte), +Antoine. Paris, 1775-1800.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lecuyer</span>, Pierre. Paris, 1775-83.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leduc</span>, Pierre. Paris, 1647; one +of the oldest makers there.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leeb</span>, J. Carl. 1792-1819. +Vienna.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lefebvre</span> (Lefebre), J. B. A +Frenchman who worked in +Amsterdam, 1735-70; Amati +pattern; yellow varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lefèvre</span> (Lefebvre). Toussaint +Nicolas Germain. Paris, 1783-89.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Legros</span> de la Neuville, Nicolas. +French maker, eighteenth +century; guitars, violins, and +violoncellos.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Le Jeune.</span> A family of makers +who for several generations +worked in Paris; nineteenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Le Jeune</span>, François. Paris, +eighteenth century; violins +and viols; not remarkable.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Le Jeune</span>, Jean Baptiste. +Made harps and violins in +Paris; eighteenth and nineteenth +centuries.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Le Jeune</span>, Jean Charles. Paris +in 1776; succeeded by his +nephew, Guillaume Martin, +in 1822.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Le Jeune</span>, Louis. Paris, 1783-89.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Le Lièvre.</span> Paris, 1750-80.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lemböck</span>, Gabriel. 1814-92. +Budapest; worked with Fischer +in Vienna; copied Guarnerius; +much esteemed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">L’Empereur</span>, Jean Baptiste. +Paris, 1750; few instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lenk</span>, W., b. 1840; 1881, Schönbach +bei Eger, Bohemia; +worked under Klüher in +Markneukirchen; then Berlin, +Breslau, Vienna; finally settled +at Frankfort; fair maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lentz</span> (Lenz), Johann Nicolaus. +Came from the Tyrol to +London; friend of Bernhard +Fendt; varnished like Dodd +and J. F. Lott.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leoni</span>, Carlo. Treviso, 1861.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leoni.</span> Parma in 1816.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Le Pileur</span>, Pierre. Paris, 1750-55. +Not very good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lété</span>, Simon, b. about 1768; +1828 made very cheap, good +fiddles for £1; at one time a +partner of J. B. Vuillaume.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lewis</span>, Edward. London about +1700. An excellent maker; +yellow and red varnish; in +Thomas Britton’s collection +was an “excellent tenor by +Mr Lewis” and a “rare +good” bass-violin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Liebich</span>, Ernst, b. Oct. 27, 1796-1876; +Stradivari and Guarneri +pattern; he was the +father of</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Liebich</span>, Ernst. 1830-84, Breslau. +Italian pattern. His +son,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Liebich</span>, Ernst. 1862-95, Breslau. +Excellent repairer; +makes few, but good; best +Italian patterns.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Liebich</span>, Johann Gottfried. +1752-1813.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Liedolf</span>, Joseph Ferdinand. +Vienna eighteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lignoli</span>, Andrea. Florence, +seventeenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lilly</span>, James. An English +maker, 1821.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Linarolo</span> (Linerolli), Francesco +Giovanni. A family, seventeenth +century; on the verge +of the violin period; some of +their instruments have been +adapted for tenors.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lippeta</span>, J. G. Neukirchen, +Saxony, 1771.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lippold</span>, Johann Georg. 1780. +Fair maker; brown varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lolio</span>, Giambattista. 18th cent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Loly</span>, Jacopo. Naples, 1627. +Pattern of Grancino; yellow +varnish; made large-sized +tenors.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Longman and Broderip</span>, +dealers who employed Jay or +Benjamin Banks, and labelled +with their own names.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lorenzini</span>, Gaspare. Piacenza, +eighteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lott</span>, George Frederick. 1775-1853.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lott</span>, George Frederick. 1800-1868.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lott</span>, John Frederick, son of +G. F. Lott. (<cite>See</cite> p. 219.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lotz</span>, Theodor. Pressburg. +1730-40. Good violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Louis.</span> Geneva.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Louvet</span>, Jean, brother of Pierre +Louvet. Paris, 1730-60. +Made bad fiddles, but good +hurdy-gurdys and harps.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ludici</span> (Ludge), Geronimo +Pietro. An amateur maker +in Conegliano in 1709.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lugloni</span>, Giuseppe. Venice in +1777.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lupo</span>, Pietro. Antwerp. In +1559 he is said to have sold +to a musician sent by the town +of Utrecht, “five violins enclosed +in their case,” for the +sum of £72.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lupôt</span>, François, son of Laurent +Lupôt.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lupot</span>, Nicolas. The greatest +of the family. (<cite>See</cite> p. 106.)</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">MacGeorge.</span> Edinburgh, 1800-20.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Macintosh.</span> Dublin, 1830-40. +Pupil of Thomas Perry.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Maffeotto</span>, Giuseppe. Rome, +eighteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Maggini</span> (Magino or Maglino), +Gio Paolo. (<cite>See</cite> p. 32.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Maire</span>, Nicolas. A violin bow-maker +in Paris; 1800, in Mirecourt; +1878, Paris; apprenticed +to Jacques Lafleur; he +made excellent bows.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Maldonner.</span> Füssen, Bavaria, +1760.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mann</span>, Hans. Naples, 1720-50. +His instruments are rare; +Stradivari and Guarneri patterns.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mantegazza</span> (or Mantegatia), +Pietro and Giovanni. Two +brothers working in Milan +about 1750-1800; they made +many good altos.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mantovani.</span> Parma, eighteenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Maratti</span>, Giambattista. Verona +about 1690-1700. Good +tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Marcelli</span>, Giovanni. Cremona +in 1696.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Marchetti</span>, Enrico. Turin, +nineteenth century. Good +maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Marchi</span>, Giovanni Antonio. +Bologna, 1740-95. Good violoncellos +and violins; violins +high model; beautiful maple-wood +back and sides; varnish +golden yellow.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Marco</span>, Antonio. Venice, 1700.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Marconcini</span>, Giuseppe. Pupil +of Storioni; Ferrara, where +he died at a great age, 1841; +unequal maker; very good +sometimes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Marconcini</span>, Luigi. A pupil +of Omobono Stradivari, 1760; +Ferrara and Bologna; good +workmanship; pale red varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mariani</span>, Antonio. Pesaro, +1640 to 1700; not of much +value; reminds of Maggini, +but rough, purfling double.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Marino</span>, Bernardino. Rome. +Worked up to 1805.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Marquis de Lair.</span> Mirecourt, +1800. Violins and violoncellos +of Stradivari pattern; +work poor, the wood not +good; varnish ugly brown; +tone bad.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Marshall</span>, John. London +about 1750-60. Stainer pattern; +work good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martin.</span> A family of makers +in Paris, chiefly repairers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martin</span>, Jules. Germigny, +Vosges.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martin.</span> London, 1790-95, who +lived at Hermitage Bridge, +Wapping.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mast</span>, Jean Laurent. Paris, +1750. His instruments are +well made; violins; blackish +varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mast</span>, Josephus Laurent, son +of Jean Laurent Mast. Mirecourt; +still there in 1820; +better than his father, but +not very noteworthy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Maucotel</span>, Charles, brother of +Charles Adolphe Maucotel. +1807-60, Mirecourt. Studied +under Gand; went to London; +excellent tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Maucotel</span>, Charles Adolphe, +brother of Charles. 1820-58, +Mirecourt. Apprenticed in +Mirecourt; went to Paris; +worked under J. B. Vuillaume; +excellent copyist of +Stradivari.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Maussiell</span> (or Mansiedl), Leonhardt. +Nuremberg, 1720-50. +Stainer pattern; very good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mayr</span> (Maier), Andreas Ferdinand. +Salzburg, about 1740-80. +Is said to have made the +small violin on which Mozart +learned to play.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mayson</span>, Walter H. A maker +in Manchester who began as +an amateur, but soon adopted +violin-making as a profession. +His instruments are excellent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Meares</span>, Richard. A maker of +lutes. London in 1677; lute +and viol-maker on verge of +the violin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Médard</span>, Antoine, b. 1621. (<cite>See</cite> +p. 187.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Médard</span>, François.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Médard</span>, Henri.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Médard</span>, Jean.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Médard</span>, Nicolas.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Médard</span>, Sébastien.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Meiberi</span>, Francesco. Leghorn, +1745-50.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melling.</span> Paris, 1753-71.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mellini</span>, Giovanni. Guastalla, +Italy, 1768.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Meloni</span>, Antonio. Milan, about +1670-95. Followed the Amati +pattern; his instruments are +small, but good tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mennégand</span>, Charles. Nancy, +1885. Apprenticed at Mirecourt; +went to Paris and +Amsterdam; worked with +Rambaux; returned to Turin; +consummate repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mennesson</span>, Emile. 1842-98, +Rheims. Has made 2380 +violins; fine copyist of Stradivari’s +“Messiah” period; +gold medallist.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mériotte</span>, Charles. Lyons +about 1730-60. Made on the +Stradivari pattern; yellow-brown +varnish; good workmanship.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Merlin</span>, Joseph. London, +1770-80. His violins and his +mechanical pegs for violins +and violoncellos at first the +vogue, but have not maintained +their place; he followed +the high Stainer model; +instruments were well made, +but tone not good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Messeguer.</span> A Spanish maker, +1646.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mette</span>, François. A maker in +the South of France.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mezadri</span> (Mezzadie), Alessandro. +Ferrara, 1690-1720.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</span> +Amati school, but failed to +rival their grace; inferior +tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mezadri</span> (Mezzadie), Francesco. +A maker at Milan about 1700-20; +his altos were of small +pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mialfi</span>, Joannes. A Spanish +maker about 1769; nothing +remarkable.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Michaud.</span> Paris about 1788.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Michelis</span>, Pelegrino (or Peregrino) +di Zanetto, son of +Zanetto de Michelis, b. 1520. +Made lutes and other instruments +in Brescia; on the +verge of the violin; a fine +tenor known.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Michelot</span>, Jacques Pierre. +Paris about 1780-95, at the +sign of “A la Mélodie.” He +made five-stringed viols and +violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mier.</span> London, 1786.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miggé</span>, Otto, b. June 16, 1857, +Coblenz; made 80 violins and +14 violoncellos; good tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Milani</span>, Francesco. Milan +about 1740-60. School of +Lorenzo Guadagnini.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Milhet.</span> Bayonne, 1820.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mille.</span> Aix-la-Chapelle. A +small pocket-violin is known.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miller.</span> London, 1750.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miller</span>, A. St. Andrews, +Scotland.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Minozzi</span>, Matteo. Bologna, +eighteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miraucourt</span>, Ludovic (or +Joseph). On verge of violin; +still made viols in 1743.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miremont</span>, Claude Augustin, +son of Sébastien Miremont. +1827, Mirecourt; d. 1887, Pontorson +(Manche); in 1844 to +Paris, and worked first with +Lafleur, then with Bernardel +until 1852, when he left France +for America, and settled in +New York; returned to +France; made chiefly violoncellos; +excellent tone; Stradivari +pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miremont</span>, Sébastien. Mirecourt, +1810.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Modessier.</span> Paris in 1810. His +instruments a large pattern; +excellent wood.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moers</span>, Jean Henri. Paris, +1771.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mohr</span>, Philipp. Hamburg, 1650.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moinel</span>, Charles, nephew of +N. E. Cherpitel. Paris, 1893. +Continued Cherpitel’s business.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moitessier</span>, Louis. Mirecourt, +1780 to 1825. He made a large +number of instruments; many +violins; rather common; fair +tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moldonner.</span> Fussen, Bavaria, +1756-98.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Molinari</span>, Antonio. Venice, +1672-1703.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mongenot.</span> Rouen, 1763.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Montade</span> (Montani or Montaldi), +Gregorio. Cremona, +1690-1735. Pupil or imitator +of Omobono Stradivari; fairly +good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Montagnana</span>, Domenico. A +celebrated maker in Venice +about 1720-50. (<cite>See</cite> p. 87.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Montron.</span> Paris, 1780-90.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Morella</span>, Morglato. A maker +of lutes, rebecs, and viols, +1510-50; has lasted into the +violin epoch on account of his +viols having been cut down +for violas.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Morona</span>, Antonio. Istria (Istrien) +in 1731.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Morrison</span>, John. 1760-1830. +Poor maker; did job work for +the trade.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mottenhaver</span>, Edward. New +York, U.S.A., who has taken +out a great many patents for +inventions.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mougenot</span>, Georges. 1843-98, +Mirecourt (Vosges). Worked +in Brussels for N. F. Vuillaume,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</span> +and succeeded him; uses +“hands,” but plans and +finishes himself; gold medallist.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Nadotti</span>, Giuseppe. Piacenza, +1760-70.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Namy</span>, Jean Théodore. Paris, +1755-1807; fine restorer; +worked for Salomon’s widow +in Paris.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Naylor</span>, Isaac. A pupil of +Richard Duke; worked at +Headingly, near Leeds, 1778-92.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Nermel</span>, J. M. Paris, 1777-89.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Neuner</span>, Ludwig. 1840, Mittenwald +(Bavaria). Grandson +of Mathias Neuner, also a +clever maker of violins, who +worked for some time in +London; worked for J. B. +Vuillaume, Paris; settled in +Berlin; accomplished maker; +sends out from his firm 20,000 +instruments a year; very +cheap and good money’s +worth; can do better quality +when he chooses.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Newton</span>, Isaac. London about +1775-1825. He made fairly +good instruments, but used +a dingy yellow varnish. Sometimes +made violins and violoncellos +for Betts, but these +were always varnished by the +latter.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Nezot.</span> Paris, 1730-60; transition +maker from viols to +violins; only a few violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Nicolas</span>, Didier, l’aîné (known +as “deaf Nicolas”), 1757-1833, +Mirecourt; clever workman +and large employer; large +pattern, loud tone; suitable +for orchestra.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Nicolas</span>, François Nicolas +Fourrier (was known simply +as “Nicolas”), b. Oct. 5, +1758. 1816, Paris. Made all +the instruments used in the +private orchestra of Napoleon +I.; careful choice of wood; +good proportions; closely +copied from beautiful specimens +of Cremona; not much +in fashion now, but good +violins of his still about.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Nicolas</span>, Joseph, son of Didier +Nicolas. 1796-1864. Mirecourt; +eccentric maker; after +his death his stamp and his +father’s sold off with stock, +and used for violins made +by neither. Pupil and successor +of his father.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Nicolas</span>, Mathieu. Mirecourt. +His instruments of ordinary +workmanship, some yellow or +red varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Niggell</span>, Simpertus. A maker +of viols and violins. Fussen, +1743-66; transition maker of +viols and violins; flat pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Norborn</span>, John. London, 1723.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Norman</span>, Barak, b. 1688; d. +1740. (<cite>See</cite> p. 125.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Norris</span>, John, b. 1739, London; +d. March 10, 1818; pupil of +Thomas Smith; went into +partnership with Robert +Barnes in 1765.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Novello</span>, Pietro Valentino, +brother of Marco Antonio +Novello. Venice, eighteenth +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Novello</span>, Marco Antonio, a +brother of Pietro Valentino +Novello; in Venice at the +same time; good work.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Noversi</span>, Cosimo. Florence, +seventeenth century.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Obbo</span>, Marco. Naples, 1712; +ordinary work.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Obici</span> (Obue), Bartolommeo. +Verona in 1684.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Odani</span>, Giuseppe Morello. +Naples, 1738.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Odoardi</span>, Giuseppe. Working +until 1675, Ascoli, Italy; some +confusion about his date,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</span> +1675-1740; died at 28; self-taught; +an original genius; +about two hundred violins; +much valued when can be +found.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ohberg</span>, Johann. Stockholm +in 1773; fairly good; a yellow +varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Oneda</span>, Gio. Battista, b. 1529. +A maker of cithers and violins +(?) in Brescia about +1562.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ongaro</span>, Ignazio. Venice, 1783.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Orlandelli</span>, Paolo. Codogno, +Italy, eighteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ortega.</span> 1840; maker and repairer. +Madrid.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ostler</span>, Andreas. Breslau, 1730; +chiefly viols.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>, Carl August, fourth son +of J. A. Otto; b. 1801, Jena; +d. 1883, Ludwigslust; maker +to the Mecklenberg-Schwerin +Court.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>, Carl Christian, second +son of J. A. Otto, 1792; Halle; +repairs old instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>, C. W. F. Louis, fifth son +of J. A. Otto, 1805-84, Stockholm.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>, Georg August Gottfried, +eldest son of J. A. Otto; 1789, +Weimar; 1857, Jena; good +maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>, Heinrich Wilhelm, third +son of J. A. Otto; b. 1796. +Amsterdam and Berlin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>, Hermann, son of Ludwig +Otto, 1859-84. Cologne, St +Petersburg.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>, Jacob August; b. 1764, +Gotha; d. 1830, Jena. Pupil +of Franz Anton Ernst at +Gotha; settled in Weimar; +maker to the Court; worked +also in Halle, Leipzig, Magdeburg, +Berlin, and Jena; fine +repairer, but made excellent +violins and violoncellos. His +five sons all became violin +makers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>, Ludwig, son of Georg +August Gottfried Otto; b. +1821, Jena; 1887, St Petersburg, +Cologne, St Petersburg. +He exhibited three violins, a +viola, violoncello, and double-bass, +in London, 1862. They +were all well made, and were +moderately priced.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>, Louis, son of Carl August +Otto; b. July 15, 1844, Ludwigslust. +Pupil of his father +in Ludwigslust, 1860-65; in +Cologne, 1865-66, then went +to Hanover, 1872; then still +there (1898); careful in selection +of wood; large Stradivari +pattern; excellent work; has +made 238 violins, and many +tenors and ’cellos. First +prizeman, Chicago and Melbourne.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ouvrard</span>, Jean. 1725-46; +pupil of Claude Pierray. +Transition maker, but true +violoncello pattern, though +continued to make viols.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Pacherele</span>, Michel. A maker +in Paris in 1779; followed +Guersan; slightly arched; +yellow varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pacherele</span>, Pierre. 1803, Mirecourt; +1871, Nice; fellow-apprentice +of J. B. Vuillaume +at Mirecourt; worked +at Genoa, and with Pressenda, +Turin; made a great many +violins, altos, and violoncellos, +all of good workmanship; varnish +too thick; took Stradivari +for his model; a clever +repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pacquet.</span> From Aix; working +in Marseilles in 1785.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Padewet</span>, Johann. A good +maker; d. about 1874; started +at Basle, 1844, but moved to +Carlsruhe.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Padewet</span>, Johann, son of Johann +Padewet; b. Aug. 23, 1851-95,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</span> +Carlsruhe. Hanover, Berlin, +under Aug. Riechers till 1874. +Assisted by two workmen, he +makes forty to fifty instruments +(violins, violas, and +violoncellos) a year, on the +Stradivari pattern, using oil +varnish of reddish-yellow or +golden-brown colour; good +repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pagani</span>, Gian Battista. Cremona, +1747.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Paganoni</span>, Antonio. Working +in Venice in eighteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pageot</span> (Pajeot), son of Louis +Simon Pageot; b. Jan. 25, +1791, Mirecourt; d. there +Aug. 24, 1849. A maker of +bows. In his workshops +about 8000 dozens of bows +were turned out at prices +varying from 6d. to 14s.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Palate.</span> Liège, 1710; Italian +pattern; excellent instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Palma</span>, Paolo. Lucca, 1760.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pamphilon</span>, Edward. A maker +in London, on London Bridge, +about 1680-90. (<cite>See</cite> p. 124.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pandolfi</span>, Antonio. Venice, +1700-20; good; yellow-brown +varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Panormo</span>, Edward, either a son +or a grandson of Vincenzo +Panormo; he worked both in +London and in Ireland.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Panormo</span>, George. London. +Probably a grandson of Vincenzo +Panormo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Panormo</span>, George Lewis, second +son of Vincenzo Panormo. +Very good bows; fine guitars +and a few good fiddles.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Panormo</span>, Joseph, eldest son +of Vincenzo Panormo. London. +Died in great poverty; +good workman; violoncellos +excellent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Panormo</span>, Vincenzo (known as +“old Panormo”), b. Nov. 30, +1734, Monreale, a village near +Palermo, Sicily; d. 1813, London. +Began at sixteen; +worked in England, Ireland, +and Paris; perhaps with Bergonzi +in Cremona; excellent +maker; powerful tone; Stradivari +pattern; clear yellow +varnish; also guitars.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Panzani</span> (Pansani), Antonio. +Rome, 1735-85; good maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Paquotte</span> Frères. Henri +Félix, 1857, and Placide, 1864, +sons of Jean Baptiste Paquotte, +to whose business +they succeeded in July 1888. +Paris; a few violins; excellent +in tone, but firm chiefly +repaired.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Paquotte</span>, Jean Baptiste. +Nephew of Sébastien Paquotte; +one of the best Paris +makers of the day, 1860-88.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Paquotte</span>, Sébastien. Mirecourt, +1800-63, Paris. In 1830 +he founded the business in +Paris.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Paraldic.</span> 1722.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pardi.</span> Paris, 1788.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pardini</span>, Bastiano. 1700.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Paris</span>, Claude. Paris, 1775. In +1816 was joined by his nephew; +spirit varnish, a red-yellow +colour.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parker</span>, Daniel. London, 1740-85. +A very clever workman, +possibly a pupil of Urquhart +or Pamphilon. Red varnish, +wood excellent, tone clear and +powerful. He made largely +for the trade; his instruments +are often sold under +other names; no viola or +violoncello of his known. +About 1793 instruments +valued at five guineas each; +about 1805 they realised as +much as fifteen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parth</span> (or Perth), Andreas +Nicolas. Vienna about 1790.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pasta</span>, Domenico and Gaetano. +Brescia about 1700-30; followed +the Amati instead of +the Maggini pattern; poor +tone; varnish brown.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Patzelt</span>, Johann Ferdinand. +Vienna.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pazzini</span>, Gian Gaetano. Florence, +1630-70. According to +label a pupil of Maggini; +instruments are not common.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pearce</span>, George; b. Nov. 16, +1820, Warminster; d. 1856, +London. In the workshop of +S. A. Forster as errand-boy, +taught violin-making, and +became an excellent workman.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pearce</span>, James and Thomas. +Brothers working in London, +1780-1800; work poor.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pearce</span>, William. London.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Peccate</span>, Charles. Maker of +bows in Paris, 1889.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Peccate</span>, Dominique. 1810, +Mirecourt; d. there, Jan. 13, +1874. In 1826 was apprenticed +to J. B. Vuillaume at +Paris, and worked with him +until 1837; then François +Lupot died, and Dominique +succeeded to his business at +18 Rue d’Angivilliers; returned +to Mirecourt; ranks +next to François Tourte as a +bow-maker; at first sold for +16s., now price quadrupled.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Peccate</span>, jeune. A brother of +Dominique; also made bows; +worked for J. B. Vuillaume; +work is inferior to that of his +brother, 1856.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pedrazzi</span>, Fra Pietro. A +Dominican friar; working in +Bologna in 1784.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pemberton</span>, Edward. London +in 1660; instruments ugly, +but tone good and the varnish +fine. It has been suggested +that a Pemberton was +the maker of the instrument +presented to the Earl of +Leicester by Queen Elizabeth +which has “J. 15/78 P.” +engraved on the tail-pin—supposed +to be the initials of +the maker and the date of +the year (1578) in which it +was made. If so, he was the +earliest English maker of +the four-stringed violin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Perault.</span> A maker in Paris, +1775-77.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Péron</span> (or Perou), Nicolas. +Paris, 1775-90; appointed +maker to the Duchess of +Orléans; instruments well +made; yellow-brown varnish; +Gagliano pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Perry</span>, Thomas. A maker in +Dublin, 1767-1827. He was +in partnership with William +Wilkinson; they made good +violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Persoit.</span> Maker of excellent +bows in Paris. He made for +J. B. Vuillaume, 1823-41; +but then started a business +of his own. He marked his +bows “P. R. S.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Peters</span>, Michael. Weyberg +in 1801, judging from two +labels in a bass-viol of seven +strings; the first runs: “Dieses +Instrument ist gemacht, anno +1627,” the second is “Arranschirt +von Michael Peters in +Weyberg, anno 1801.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Petz.</span> Fussen, Bavaria, 1770.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pezzardi.</span> Brescia, 1580-1610; +violins similar to those of +Maggini; sometimes sold as +Maggini.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pfab.</span> Hamburg.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pfretzschner</span>, Carl Friedrich, +son of Johann Gottlob Pfretzschner. +Worked in Cremona; +no great merit.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pfretzschner</span>, Johann Gottlob. +Cremona, 1794; not +good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pfretzschner.</span> Neukirchen.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pichol.</span> Paris.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Picino.</span> Padua, 1712; instruments +arched; dark varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pierrard</span>, Louis, 1890. A +maker of excellent violins, +with red-brown varnish, and +of good tone, Brussels; pupil +of Mougenot, but started his +own business in 1883; wrote +“Traité de lutherie.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pierray</span> (or Pierret), Claude. +A contemporary of Boquay; he +worked in Paris about 1700-30.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Piete</span> (<span class="smcap">Picte</span>), Noel. Paris, +1760-1810; beautifully finished +workmanship.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pillement</span>, F. Paris, 1790-1820; +capricious maker; dark +varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pilosio</span>, Francesco. Gorizia in +1748.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pique</span>, François Louis; b. 1758 +at Rorei, near Mirecourt; d. +1822, Charenton St Maurice. +Went to Paris in 1777.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pirot</span>, Claude. Paris, 1800-20; +good violins, Italian pattern; +bellies slightly arched, backs +hardly at all; the sound-holes +well cut; varnish thick, +red-brown or pale yellow +colour.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pitet</span> (or Pilet). A maker in +Paris latter part of the seventeenth +century; no great +value.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pizzurmus</span> (Pozzurnus), David. +Genoa, 1760.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Plack</span> (Plach), Francis. Schœnbock, +Bohemia, 1740-80; good +violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Plane</span>, W. Glasgow, 1860.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Plani</span>, Agostino de. Genoa in +1778; commonplace.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Platner</span>, Michele. A Swiss; +working in Rome in 1747; +fair workmanship; rather +arched; scroll well cut; varnish +golden-red.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Plumerel.</span> Was working in +Paris in 1740.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Plumerel</span>, Charles. Angers, +France, in 1822.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Poiros</span>, Louis. French maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Poirson</span>, Eloph. Paris, 1875-89; +first an amateur, afterwards +made for the trade; good +work.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Polis.</span> Luca de. Cremona in +1751.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pollusca</span> (Pollusha), Antonio. +Rome in 1751.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pons</span>, César. Grenoble, 1780-1820; +violins large size, arched; +work not good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Polron</span>, Peeter. A double-bass +used in the Cathedral of +Antwerp is dated 1647.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Postacchini</span>, Andrea. Firmo, +1824; excellent maker, and +good repairer of instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Postiglione</span>, Vincenzo. 1835 +at Naples; good maker, and +made many instruments, +which rise every year in +value.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Powell</span>, Royal and Thomas. +Two brothers who worked +in London, 1770-1800; employed +by William Forster, +and his son, William Forster; +work neat and good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pressenda</span>, Giovanni Francesco; +b. 1777, Turin; d. +there, 1854. Was the son of +a strolling fiddler, Raffaele +Pressenda; went to Cremona; +there studied violin-making +under Lorenzo Storioni; +learnt there to make the +varnish for which his violins +were afterwards noted; Stradivari +pattern, not much arched, +sound-holes well cut, proportions +correct, wood good, but +scrolls rather roughly finished; +red-brown varnish of excellent +quality.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Preston</span>, John. York, 1785-95.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Prevôt</span> (or Prevost), P. Charles. +Paris from 1775-89.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Prieur</span>, Claude Edme Jean. +Paris, 1775-89.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Quinot</span>, Jacques. Paris, 1660. +Mentioned in 1680 as being +“one of the most clever of the +honourable luthiers of Paris.”</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Racceris.</span> Mantua, 1670; similar +to the Gagliano family, +with one of whom he is said +to have been in partnership.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Raffaelle</span>, Nella (or Della). +Brescia, 18th century; pattern +of Maggini; his instruments +have the sides ornamented +with inscriptions; +brown varnish; no great +merit.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rambaux</span>, Claude Victor, 1806-71; +at Darney in the Vosges; +d. at Mirecourt. Went to Caen +and worked under Thibout, +1824-27; then to Paris, where +he worked with Gand; great +repairer and adapter of old +instruments by cutting down.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ramfpler</span>, Franz, 1834-90, +Munich; pupil of Andreas +Engleder, Munich; used his +own invented varnish; made +good fiddles.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rance</span>, Thomas. Brussels, +about 1680-85.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ranta</span>, Pietro. Brescia, 1733; +Amati pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rasura</span>, Vincenzo. Lugo, 1785.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rau</span>, J. F. Nuremberg; exhibited +at Munich in 1854 a +violin of good though rather +coarse tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rauch</span>, Breslau, and Rauch +of Würzburg, two brothers, +1730-60; good violins; used +their own models; varnish +red; tone sound.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rauch</span>, Jacob. Mannheim, +1720-50; good work; violins +Stainer tone; excellent altos, +violoncellos, and double-basses.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rauch</span>, Sebastian, 1725-90 +Hamburg, and Leitmeritz in +Bohemia; violins arched, not +remarkable.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Raut</span>, Jean. Bretagne; who +worked in Rennes till about +1790; pattern of Guarneri; +red varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rautmann.</span> Brunswick.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rawlins.</span> London in 1779.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rayman</span>, Jacob; b. in the +Tyrol, but settled in London +about 1620-48.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Razenzo</span>, Carole. Barcelona, +1690.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Realli</span>, Cosmo Battista. Parma, +1667.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rechiardini</span>, Giovanni (called +“Zuano”). Venice, 18th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Regnaut</span> (Renault), Jacques. +Paris, 1665-85; a little pocket-violin, +with silver purfling, +was dated 1682; maker to +the King.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Reichel</span>, Johann Conrad, +brother of Johann Gottfried. +Neukirchen in 1779.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Reichel</span>, Johann Gottfried, +brother of Johann Conrad. +Absam; pupil of Stainer; +work rough; red-brown varnish +of poor quality.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Remy.</span> A French maker; 1840, +Paris and London; Italian +pattern; wood artificially +aged.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Remy</span>, Hippolyte, eldest son +of Jean Mathurin Remy. +1835-70 in Paris; no great +merit.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Remy</span>, Jean Mathurin, son of +Mathurin François Remy; +b. 1770, Paris; d. 1854; his +work same as father’s; oil +varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Remy</span>, Jules Hippolyte, second +son of Jean Mathurin Remy; +b. 1813, Paris; d. 1876.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Remy</span>, Mathurin François, +1775-91, Paris; yellow-brown +varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Renaudin</span>, Léopold; b. 1749, +at Mirecourt; guillotined, +May 7, 1795. He settled in +Paris, living in the Rue St +Honoré from 1776 till his +death at the sign of “Aux +amateurs”; fairly good violins, +but too much arched; +varnish almost black in +colour; excellent double-basses.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Renault</span>, Nicolas. A French +maker, 16th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Renault</span>, Sébastien. Paris, +1775-1805. Cithers of his are +known dated 1779, 1786, and +1804; a violin is described as +made on a good pattern, with +yellow varnish of fair quality; +worked with F. Chatelain. +Advt.: “Renault et Chatelain, +luthiers, font et vendent +louent, achètent et raccommodent +toutes sortes d’instruments +de musique, etc., à +Paris.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Renisto.</span> Cremona, 1735-40; +pupil of Carlo Bergonzi, whose +work he copied closely.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Resle</span>, Andrea. Fiesso in 1740; +good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Reynaud</span>, André. Tarascon, +1754-66; good violoncellos.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Richards.</span> London.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Richelme</span>, A. Marius. Marseilles; +curves of the upper +and lower bouts almost returning +to the ancient viol-shape. +He published in +Marseilles, 1868: “Etudes +et observations sur la lutherie +ancienne et moderne.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ricolazzi</span>, Lodovico, 1729.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riechers</span>, 1836, Hanover; d. +1893, Berlin. Was first a +pupil of L. Bausch at Leipzig, +then moved to Berlin in 1872, +at the special request of the +violinist, Joseph Joachim; +made excellent instruments +on the Stradivari and Guarneri +patterns; about 1000 +violins and over 200 violoncellos +were made in his workshop.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riess.</span> A maker, Bamberg, +about 1740-60; fair maker; +Stainer pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rinaldi</span>, Benedetto Gioffredo, +Pupil of Pressenda; d. 1890. +Turin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rivolta</span>, Giacomo. Milan, 1822. +Good work.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rocca</span>, Giuseppe Antonio. +Turin, 1835-55; worked at +one time for Pressenda; +Stradivari pattern; varnish +is poor quality.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Röscher</span>, C. H. W. Bremen, +1871.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Roger</span>, G. Montpellier, 1820.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rogeri</span>, Gian Battista; b. Bologna, +1650. Cremona, under +Nicolo Amati; Stradivari was +a fellow-pupil of his.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Roismann</span>, Johann. Breslau, +1680.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rol.</span> Paris, 1753.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Romano</span>, Pietro. Pavia, 18th +century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Romarini</span>, Antonio. Cremona, +18th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rombouts</span>, Pieter. Amsterdam, +1705-35; he made violins, +violas, and violoncellos, +much arched; bright but +thick varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rook</span>, Joseph. London, about +1777-1830; good work; Forster +pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ropiquet.</span> Paris, 1810-30; he +was an orchestral player; +made some violins of no great +value.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rosiero</span>, Rocco. Cremona, +early part of 18th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rosio</span>, Paolo. 1857, Verolanuova; +Brescia.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rota</span>, Giovanni. Cremona, +1800-10; rough work; varnish +yellow.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rota</span>, Giuseppe Antonio. +Turin, 1825; his work similar +to that of Pressenda; varnish +is red-brown.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Roth</span>, Johann and Christian. +Both about 1675, the former +at Darmstadt and the latter +at Augsburg.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rottenbrouck.</span> Brussels, +1700-25; pattern of Amati; +red-brown varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rovetta</span>, Antonio. Bergamo, +1840-70.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Roze.</span> Orléans, 1755-65; good +workmanship; varnish yellow.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ruggeri</span> (Rugieri), Francesco. +1668-1720. Was the first of a +family of makers in Cremona, +very often confused with +Rogeri of Brescia. (<cite>See</cite> p. +50.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ruggeri</span> (Rugieri), Giacinto, +son of Francesco Ruggeri; +b. in Cremona.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ruggeri</span> (Rugieri), Guido. +Cremona about 1720.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ruggeri</span> (Rugieri), Pietro +Giacomo and Giovanni Battista. +Both working in +Brescia about 1700-25.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ruggeri</span> (Rugieri), Vincenzo, +son of Francesco Ruggeri. +Cremona about 1700-30, is +also said to have worked in +Brescia. He made many +altos and violoncellos; work +rough; last member of this +family to make violins. He +also used “il Per” on his +labels, for the same reason, +probably, viz., to distinguish +his work from that of the +Rogeri of Brescia.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ruggeri</span>, Gianbattista. Cremona, +<cite>cir.</cite> 1693.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ruppert</span>, Johann Heinrich. +Erfurt about 1720. His violins, +altos, and violoncellos +were of a flat model, without +linings, corner blocks, or purfling; +loud tone, and dark +brown varnish.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Sacchini</span>, Sabattino. Pesaro +in 1686.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sacquin.</span> Paris about 1830-60; +instruments well made, +especially the double basses; +followed the Stradivari pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Saint-Paul</span>, Antoine. Paris, +about 1765-90. He was son-in-law +and successor of Louis +Guersan; his advertisement +says, “Il fait et vend toutes +sortes d’instruments de musique +sçavoir; violons de +Cremone, violons de sa façon +et de toutes sortes d’auteurs; +alto-violas, basses et contrebasses.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Saint-Paul</span>, Pierre. Paris, +1740.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sajot.</span> Paris, 1730-35; instruments +with flat backs; varnish +yellow-brown; the work +poor.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Salino</span>, J. B. Rome in 1760; +very arched; varnish bad, +brown.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Salle</span>, le Père. Paris about +1825-53. He made a few +violins; beautiful copies of +Guarneri; fine repairer and +great connoisseur.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Salomon</span>, Jean Baptist Deshayes. +Rheims, 1747-70 (?); +went to Paris, where his widow +carried on the firm, employing +Namy; later he settled in +the Rue de l’Arbre-sec (about +1769). He died before 1772, +for in that year Namy is +mentioned as working for the +widowed Madame Salomon. +He made few violins, but +they show good work, and +are on a similar pattern to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</span> +those of Louis Guersan, his +contemporary; they have +yellow-brown varnish; unequal +maker; some good +violoncellos and bass viols.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Salzard</span>, F. Paris.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sanoni</span>, Giovanni Battista. +Verona, 1740; instruments +much arched; rose-coloured +varnish; good work.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Santagiuliana</span>, Giacinto. +Venice, 1830.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sante</span>, Pesaro. 1670.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sante</span>, Giuseppe. Rome, 1778.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Santo</span>, Giovanni. Naples, +1700-30; copied Amati; +small pattern; well made; +varnish poor.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Santo Serafino</span>; b. at Udine; +worked in Venice about +1710-48. (<cite>See</cite> p. 90.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sanzo Santino</span> (Santo Sentino). +Milan, 18th century; +good; resembles Grancino.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Saraceni</span>, Domenico. Florence, +17th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Saraillac</span>, François. Lyons, +1678-1712.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sassano.</span> Fine Italian maker; +rarely met with; yellow varnish; +beautiful free tone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Saunier</span>, Edmond. 1754-80, +Bordeaux and Paris. Was a +pupil of Lambert of Nancy, +the “Carpenter,” but did +superior work.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Savani</span>, Giuseppe. Carpi, +1809.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sawitzki</span> (Sawicki), Nicolaus; +b. 1792, Poland; d. 1850; +settled in Vienna; good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Scarampella</span>, Giuseppe, son +of Paolo Scarampella; 1838-80 +(?), Brescia, Paris, Florence. +He restored the viola +and the famous violoncello +of Stradivari kept in the +Istituto Musicale of Florence, +and in 1884 succeeded Castellani +as keeper of the collection +of instruments there; makes +new instruments, following +the Stradivari or Guarneri del +Gesù patterns; tone clear and +strong; the work carefully +done; reddish oil varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Scarampella</span>, Paolo; b. Sept. +25, 1803, Brescia; d. April 7, +1870. A carpenter by trade, +but made many violins, violoncellos, +guitars, and mandolines.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Scarampella</span>, Stefano, son of +Paolo Scarampella. Brescia, +1843; settled in Mantua; +made many good violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schaendl</span>, Anton. Mittenwald, +1753.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Scheinlein</span>, Johann Michael, +son and pupil of Matthäus +Friedrich Scheinlein; 1751, +Langenfeld; large Stainer pattern, +but avoided the arching; +full and pleasant tone; but +wood not being thick enough, +so not durable.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Scheinlein</span>, Matthäus Friedrich, +1710, Langenfeld in +Franken (Franconia); d. +there, 1771. A violinist, but +taking great interest in violin-making, +began by repairing +old instruments and finished +by making new ones; +much arched; dark brown +varnish; work careful.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schelmayer</span>, Christian. +Cologne.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schlick</span>, Leipzig.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schmidt.</span> Cassel, 1817; Stradivari +pattern, but edges are +larger and purfling not so +close to the sides; spirit varnish; +wood of bad quality.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schmied.</span> Vienna, 18th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schönfelder</span>, Johann Adam. +Neukirchen in 1743.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schonger</span>, Franz. Erfurt, 18th +century; fairly good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schonger</span>, Georg, son of Franz +Schonger. Erfurt; better<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</span> +than his father, and left some +good violins; Italian pattern; +good repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schorn</span>, Johann Paul; 1680-1716, +Innsbrück; made excellent +violins; much arched; +good varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schünemann</span>, Otto. German; +appointed Director of the +School of Violin-Making at +Schwerin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schulz</span>, Peter. Ratisbon, +1854; German school; good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schuster</span>, Gebrüder. Brothers +who make cheap fiddles, 75s., +good tone, at Markneukirchen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schuster</span>, Michael. Also connected +with the business in +Markneukirchen, Saxony.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwartz</span>, Bernard. French +maker who settled at Strasburg, +1795-1822; two sons, +both makers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwartz</span>, Georges Frédéric; +1785-1849; and Théophile +Guillaume, 1787; Strasburg, +1861, sons of Bernard +Schwartz. Pupils of their +father, and at his death succeeded +to his business, which +became “Frères Schwartz.” +Théophile was chiefly concerned +in the instrument-making, +Georges gave his +time to making bows; he +gained a well-merited reputation. +His bows are generally +marked near the nut +with “Schwartz, Strasbourg.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwartz</span>, Théophile Guillaume, +son of Théophile +Guillaume Schwartz; b. Sept. +3, 1821. In 1852 he succeeded +to the business in Strasburg +at 2 Place Saint-Thomas; +chiefly repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schweizer</span>, Johann Baptist. +Budapest, 1798-1875; pupil +of Geisenhof in Vienna; his +violins not arched; work neat.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Segher</span>, Girolamo; b. 1646. +Was a pupil of Nicola Amati, +and was working under him, +1680-82.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Seni</span>, Francesco. Florence in +1634.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Serasati</span>, Domenico. Naples, +1710-50; fair.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Siciliano</span> (Ciciliano), Antonio. +Venice about 1600. A tenor +and a bass viola da gamba in +the Modena Museum, Vienna.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Siciliano</span>, Gioacchino, son of +Antonio Siciliano. Venice +about 1680.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Silvestre</span>, Hippolyte; 1808, +Saint-Nicolas-du-Port (Meurthe); +1879, Sommerviller, +near Nancy. Was first a +pupil of Blaise at Mirecourt, +then of J. B. Vuillaume at +Paris.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Silvestre</span>, Pierre, brother of +Hippolyte; b. Aug. 9, 1801, +at Sommerviller, near Nancy; +d. 1859, Lyons. Was also a +pupil of Blaise at Mirecourt, +then went to Paris; worked +with Lupot; excellent violins; +made about 350 instruments, +bearing his label: “Pierre +Silvestre à Lyon, 185—.” +When working with his +brother, the label used was: +“Petrus et Hippolytus Silvestre +fratres fecerunt Lugdun.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Simon.</span> Salzburg, 1722.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Simon</span>, Claude. Paris, 1733-88.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Simon</span>, P.; b. 1808, Mirecourt. +Went to Paris in 1838, where +he worked for some months +under D. Peccate; then to J. +B. Vuillaume; made most +excellent bows, and generally +marked them with “Simon, +Paris,” near the nut.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Simonin</span>, Charles. Mirecourt. +Was apprenticed to J. B. +Vuillaume at Paris, and became +one of his most able<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</span> +workmen. In 1841 he settled +in Geneva, then went to Toulouse; +excellent maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Simoutre</span>, Nicolas. 1788, Mirecourt; +d. 1870, at Metz. His +son, Nicolas Eugène, was also +a maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Simoutre</span>, Nicolas Eugène, son +of Nicolas Simoutre. 1834-89, +Mirecourt. Was first a pupil +of his father, then of Darche +in 1852 at Paris; then of Ch. +Roth in 1856 at Strasburg; +worked in Strasburg, Mulhausen, +Basle, and Paris; a +prolific writer on his art.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Simpson</span>, James, and Son. +Were musical instrument +makers in London in 1794.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sirjean.</span> Maker of bows in +Paris, 1818.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sitt</span>, A. Prague, 1854. Stradivari +pattern, which improve +with age.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Slaghmeulen</span>, Jan Baptist van +der. Antwerp, 1672. The +varnish a pale brown.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Smith</span>, Thomas. London, 1740-90. +Pupil and successor of +Peter Wamsley; fine violoncellos; +Stainer pattern; rising +in price. John Norris was a +pupil of his. Label: “Made +by Thos. Smith at the harp +and hautboy in Pickadilly. +London, 1756;” similar labels +were used until 1766.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Smith</span>, William. Hedon, Yorkshire, +in 1786.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sneider</span>, Giuseppe. Pavia, +1700-25. A pupil of Nicola +Amati. Violins slightly +arched; varnish is a rich +yellow colour; instruments +made by Girolamo, son of +Nicola Amati, have often +been attributed to Sneider.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Snoeck</span> (Schnoeck), Egidius. +Brussels, 1731. Amati pattern; +dark reddish varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Snoeck</span>, Marc. Brussels, 1744. +Clever repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Socchi</span>, Vincenzo. Bologna, +1661.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Socquet</span>, Louis. Paris, 1750-80. +Not good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Soliani</span>, Angelo. Modena, +1752-1810.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Somer</span>, Nicolas. Paris, 1725-50.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Speiler.</span> A German maker, +18th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sprenger</span>, Anton. 1834, Mittenwald. +Makes violins and +violoncellos on the Stradivari +and Guarneri patterns; oil +varnish of good quality.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stadelmann</span> (Statelmann), +Daniel Achatius. 1680-1744, +Vienna, who showed great +ability in imitating the Stainer +pattern; he used thin varnish +of a deep amber colour; the +work is well finished.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stadelmann</span> (Statelmann), +Johann Joseph, son of Daniel +A. Stadelmann; good copyist +of Stainer, 1764.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stadl</span>, Michael Ignatius. +Vienna in 1770. Fair.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stainer</span>, Andreas. Was working +in Absam about 1660; +made few violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stainer</span>, Jacob, son of Martin +Stainer and Sabina Grafinger. +(<cite>See</cite> p. 93.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stainer</span>, Marcus, brother and +pupil of Jacob Stainer; he +worked in Laufen, Austria.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stanza</span>, Giuseppe, b. 1663 in +Venice. Pupil of Nicola +Amati at Cremona.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Statlee</span>, Anderl. Genoa, 1714. +Pupil of Girolamo, son of +Nicola Amati.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Steininger</span>, François. Paris, +1827. Excellent maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Steininger</span>, Jacob. Frankfort, +1775. Nicholas Diehl was a +pupil of his.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stirbat</span> (Stirrat), David. Edinburgh, +1810-15; good.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Storioni</span>, Lorenzo. 1751-80, +Cremona. Worked at 3 Contrada +Coltellai; he was one +of the latest, if not the last +of the celebrated makers of +Cremona, and his instruments, +though of great merit, show +signs of decadence in the art. +(<cite>See</cite> p. 88.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stoss</span>, Bernard and Martin. +Fussen, Bavaria; worked in +Vienna; fair makers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stoss</span>, Franz. Fussen, Bavaria, +1750-98.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stradivari</span> (Stradiuarius), +Antonio, son of Alessandro +Stradivari and Anna Moroni. +(<cite>See</cite> p. 61.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stradivari</span>, Francesco, son of +Antonio Stradivari. 1671-1743.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stradivari</span>, Omobono, son of +Antonio. 1679-1742.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Straube</span> (Staube). Berlin +about 1770-75. Few known, +but good; excellent repairer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Straus</span>, Joseph. Neustadt, +1745-50.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Strnad</span>, Caspar. 1750. He +settled in Prague and worked +there, 1781-95; good maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Strobl</span>, Johann. Hallein in +18th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sturge</span>, H. 1811-53, Bristol; +repairer, Huddersfield.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sulot</span>, Nicolas. Dijon, 1825-40. +Eccentric maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sursano</span> (Sorsano), Spiritus. +Cuneo, 1714-35; inferior.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Tachinardi.</span> Cremona, 1690.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tadolini.</span> Modena, 19th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tanegia</span>, Carlo Antonio. +Milan, 1725-30.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tanigardi</span> (Taningard), +Georgio. Rome, 1735.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tarr</span>, William. Manchester, +1829-55; made some fair +double-basses.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tassini</span>, Bartolommeo. Venice, +1754; followed Testore.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Taylor</span>, 1750, London; supposed +pupil of Panormo; +good instruments, principally +double-basses, and clever at +repairing old ones.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Techler</span> (Tecchler), David; +1666-1743. (<cite>See</cite> p. 102.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tedesco</span> (Todesco), Leopoldo, +1625-58; pupil of Nicola +Amati in Cremona, 1653-54.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Teoditi</span> (Teoditti), Giovanni. +Rome, 17th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ternyanini</span>, Pietro. Modena, +1755.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Testator</span>, “Il Vecchio.” Milan, +1520; reputed transition maker +from viol to violin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Testore</span>, Carlo Antonio, eldest +son of Carlo Giuseppe Testore. +Milan, 1735-65; followed +the Guarneri model; +violoncellos and tenors very +good; varnish golden-yellow.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Testore</span>, Carlo Giuseppe; b. at +Novarra; settled at Milan +about 1687, and worked there +till about 1720; pupil of Giovanni +Grancino, for whose +work his instruments are +often mistaken; best workman +in this family, but made +few instruments. When the +well-known Lindley “Grancino” +violoncello was repaired +in 1884, the removal of the +Cremona label exposed the +original label in good preservation, +as follows: “Carlo +Giuseppe Testore allievo di +Gio. Grancino in Contrada +Larga di Milano, 1690.” A +double-bass of his was played +on by the celebrated Bottesini +at concerts; it had a +splendid tone. Label: “Carlo +Giuseppe Testore in Contrada +larga di Milano al segno dell +aquila, 1700.” He had two +sons, Carlo Antonio and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</span> +Paolo Antonio, both violin-makers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Testore</span>, Giovanni, son of Carlo +Testore, <cite>q.v.</cite></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Testore</span>, Paolo Antonio, second +son of Carlo Giuseppe Testore +and the last maker of this +name.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thériot</span>, J. B. Paris, 1783.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thibout</span>, Aimé Justin. 1808-62, +Caen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thibout</span>, Albert, son of Gabriel +Adolphe Thibout. 1839-65, +Paris; succeeded his uncle, +Gabriel Eugène, as “luthier +de l’Opéra,” and was succeeded +in his turn by the +brothers Gand.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thibout</span>, Gabriel Adolphe, son +of Jacques Pierre Thibout, +1804; Paris, 1858; not as +good as his father.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thibout</span>, Gabriel Eugène, son +of Jacques Pierre Thibout. +1825 at Paris; succeeded his +brother, Gabriel Adolphe, as +“luthier de l’Opéra” in Paris; +1861, Boulogne-sur-Mer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thibout</span>, Jacques Pierre. 1777-1856, +Caen. First worked at +Caen, then under Koliker at +Paris; fine maker; excellent +tone; workmanship rivals +best Cremona style; varnish +red on amber ground. Advt.: +“Nouveau procédé approuvé +par l’Institut. Thibout, luthier +du roi, rue Rameau, no. +8, à Paris, 1825.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thibouville-Lamy</span>, Jérôme. +A little before 1867 he became +sole proprietor of the various +factories at Mirecourt; he +gradually substituted mechanical +for manual labour, and +while increasing the number +of instruments made, at the +same time reduced their price, +so that at last he was able to +exhibit at Vienna in 1873 his +famous violins at 4s., 8s., and +16s. each. By 1887, 35,000 +instruments had been made +by this firm. He was awarded +a medal, Vienna, 1873; +medal of honour, Santiago, +1875; prize medal, Philadelphia, +1876; and gold medal, +London, 1885. He was made +Chevalier of the Legion of +Honour, April 10, 1877, and +Officer, Jan. 15, 1892.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thin</span>, Mathias and Georg. +Vienna, 18th century; good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thir</span>, Johann Georg. Vienna, +1791.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thomassin.</span> Worked under +Clément at Paris, 1825-45; +good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thompson</span> (Thomson), Robert. +London, at the sign of the +“Bass-Violin,” in St. Paul’s +Churchyard, 1749-64; Stainer +pattern. He was succeeded +by his sons, Charles and +Samuel, who worked about +1775-85.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thorowgood</span>, Henry. London, +18th century. Label: +“Made and sold by Henry +Thorowgood at the Violin +and Guitar under the North +Piazza of the Royal Exchange, +17—, London.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thumhardt</span>, Munich and +Straubing in the 18th century; +German style.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tielke</span>, Joachim. One of a +family of makers. Hamburg, +1539-1701. He was celebrated +for the lutes, theorbos, +guitars, and especially the +viols of all kinds which he +made, of very fine tone, ornamented +with the richest and +most varied inlaid work; one +violin of his is also mentioned.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tilley</span>, Thomas. London, +1774.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tiphanon</span> (Thiphanon), Jean +François. Paris, 1775-1800.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tirler</span>, Carlo. Bologna, +18th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tobin</span>, Richard. London, 1790-1840; +pupil of Perry, Dublin; +worked for John Betts; followed +the Stradivari or Guarneri +patterns; good maker. +A son of his was also a +maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Todini</span>, Michele, 1625. Lived +in Rome; made a few violins.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tolbecque</span>, Auguste, son of +Auguste Joseph Tolbecque; +1830-51, Paris. He was a +violoncellist; also worked at +violin-making under Rambaux +in Paris; made a small +number of new instruments; +extremely clever at restoring +old ones.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tononi</span>, Antonio. Bologna, +17th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tononi</span>, Carlo, son of Felice. +First worked, 1698-1739, Bologna; +settled in Venice. His +instruments vary; they are +generally of a large pattern, +not so highly arched as those +of his brother Giovanni; varnish +similar to that of Santo +Serafino; yellow-brown colour. +He often branded his +monogram near the button of +the tailpiece.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tononi</span>, Felice. Bologna, +1670-90. He worked with +his son Giovanni; their violoncellos +have a great reputation +in Italy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tononi</span>, Giovanni, son of Felice. +Worked in Bologna till about +1705; few instruments of his +are to be found.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Toppani</span>, Angelo de. Rome, +1720-40. His instruments +are rarely seen, are similar +to those of Techler, but more +arched; varnish golden-yellow; +sound-holes are cut +large.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Torelli.</span> Verona, 1625.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Toring</span> (Torring). Maker and +repairer of violins; London, +1800.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tortobello</span>, Francesco. +Rome, 1680; Maggini pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Touly</span>, Jean. Nancy, 1730-47. +Label: “Fait par moy Jean +Touly à Nancy, 1747.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tourte</span>, François (“le jeune”); +b. 1747, Paris; d. there, April +1835. Was a younger brother +of Xaver Tourte. (<cite>See</cite> p. 163.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tourte</span>, le Père. Settled in +Paris about 1740.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tourte</span>, Xaver (l’aîné), eldest +son of Tourte père.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Trapani</span>, Raffaele. Naples, +1810; workmanship is good; +violins large patterns, with +prominent edges and heavy +purfling; the scroll Brescian +type; varnish thick and of a +red-brown colour.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Trévillot</span>, Claude. Mirecourt, +1698.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Trinelli</span>, Giovanni. Italian.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Trunco.</span> Cremona, 1660.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Truska</span>, Simon Joseph, 1734-1809, +Raudnitz, Bohemia. +Entered Strahow Monastery, +Dec. 8, 1758, taking the vows, +Jan. 1, 1761. Became proficient +as a musician and +composer, and then began to +construct instruments, making +violins, altos, violas +d’amore, and bass-viols.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tubbs</span>, James. A maker of +excellent bows, Wardour +Street, London.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Turner</span>, William. London in +1650; splendid wood. Label: +“William Turner, at ye hand +and crown in gravelle lane +neere Aldgate, London, +1650.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tywersus.</span> Instruments are +similar to those of Andrea +Amati. Nicolas Renault was +a pupil of his. (<cite>See</cite> p. 187.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</span></p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Ugar</span>, Crescenzio. Rome in +1790; work is German in +character; brown varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ungarini</span>, Antonio. Fabriano, +1762.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Urquhart</span>, Thomas. A maker +in London about 1650-80; he +was probably a Scotchman. +His work resembles that of +Jacob Rayman, with whom +he may have worked, and +shows great merit. His violins +are of two sizes, some on +a small, others on a large +pattern, very arched, the +corners not very prominent, +the purfling narrow and placed +close to the edge; the oil +varnish, of a yellowish-brown +or sometimes red colour, is of +excellent quality, and is similar +to Italian varnish; the +tone is clear and silvery. His +violins and violas are rare, +and no violoncello of his has +been seen. Urquhart is sure +to rise in value, and some of +his work is splendid in finish.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Vaillant</span> (Vaillot or Vaillaut), +François. Paris, 1736-83; +good workmanship; varnish +poor.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Valentine</span>, William. London, +died about 1877; made good +double-basses.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Valler.</span> Marseilles, 1683.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vandelli</span>, Giovanni. Modena, +1796-1839; fair work.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vanderlist.</span> Paris, 1788-89. +Guadagnini pattern and varnish. +He branded his name +on his instruments. Label: +“Luthier, rue des Vieux-Augustins, +près de l’égout de +la rue Montmartre, Paris.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Varotti</span>, Giovanni. Bologna, +1813.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Varquain.</span> Paris, 1742.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vauchel</span>, Joseph. Damm +about 1840. He exhibited +two violins at Munich in +1854, which had a fine tone, +and was awarded the medal +of honour. Hörlein was a +pupil of his.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Venzi</span>, Andrea. Florence, 1636.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Verbruggen</span>, Theodor. Is +known as one of the makers +in Antwerp in 1641 by a +double-bass which he made +for use in the Cathedral.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Verini</span>, Andrea. 1884.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Verle</span>, Francesco. Padua +about 1590. Label: “In +Padova Francesco Verle.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vermesch</span>, le Père. Beaumont-sur-Oise +in 1781.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Véron</span>, Pierre André. Paris +about 1720-50; good work; +pattern Italian.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vetrini</span>, Battista. Brescia +about 1629; small pattern; +wood is excellent; good +yellow varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vetter</span>, Jeane Christophe. +Strasburg in 1744.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Viard</span>, Nicolas. Versailles, +1790.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vibert</span>, J. B. Paris, 1775.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vibrecht</span>, Gysbert. Amsterdam, +1700-10.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Villaume et Giron.</span> In a +violin of fairly good workmanship +was the printed +label: “Villaume et Giron, +Troyes, 170—.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vimercati</span>, Pietro. Do not +confound with Gaspar, a +lute-maker. A maker in +Brescia in the 17th century; +is thought to have been a +pupil of Carlo Tononi in +Venice; instruments arched; +Maggini pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vinaccia</span>, Antonio. The head +of a family of makers; worked +in Naples, 1766-74; pattern +of Gagliano. Two sons, Gennaro +and Gaetano, were also +makers, but chiefly of mandolines.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vinaccia</span>, Pasquale, son of +Gaetano, 1806-81.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vincenzi</span>, Luigi. Carpi in +1775.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Viorillo</span>, Giovanni. Ferrara, +1780; followed Stainer pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vir</span>, Hieronimo di. Bresa, +Silesia.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vitor</span>, de. A maker in Brescia +in 1740; instruments similar +in appearance to those of +Maggini; large pattern; fine +workmanship.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vitus de Angelis.</span> Bologna, +1609.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vivoli</span>, Giovanni. Florence, +1642.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Voel</span>, E. Mayence, 1840; his +instruments follow the Stradivari +more than the German +pattern; general workmanship +good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vogel</span>, Wolfgang; d. Feb. 17, +1650, Nuremberg; instruments +much liked.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vogler</span>, Johan Georg. Würzburg +in 1749. Label: “Johann +Georg Vogler, Lauten und +Geigenmacher in Würzburg, +17—.” His son was the celebrated +Abbé Georg Joseph +Vogler.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vogt.</span> Good instruments, +Vienna, in the Speigel-Gasse.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Voigt</span>, Martin. Hamburg, 1726. +His work is similar to that +of Tielke. A bass-viol, the +back inlaid in ivory, having +Apollo, Venus, Mercury, and +Diana represented, was dated +Hamburg, 1726, and was exhibited +at the South Kensington +Museum, London, 1872.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Voirin</span>, François Nicolas. 1833, +at Mirecourt; 1885, Paris. +After working at Mirecourt, +he went to Paris in 1855, and +for fifteen years made bows +for J. B. Vuillaume; he obtained +as “collaborateur” a +“mention honourable” at the +1867 Paris Exhibition; gold +and silver medalist, Paris, +1867 and 1878; followed the +Tourte pattern, but made the +head of his bow less square; +his workmanship shows wonderful +finish and elegance. +He was awarded a silver +medal at the Paris Exhibition +in 1878, the only prize +given to bow-making; and +some of his bows exhibited +after his death at the Antwerp +Exhibition were awarded +a gold medal. <a id="tn_278">He</a> branded +his bows with “F. N. Voirin, +à Paris”; to this was added, +on those bows exhibited at +Paris, 1878, “Exposition, +1878.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vuillaume</span>, Claude; b. 1772, +Mirecourt; d. 1834. He is +the first member known of +this family of violin-makers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vuillaume</span>, Claude François, +fourth son of Claude Vuillaume; +b. March 1807, Mirecourt. +His son, Sébastien, +was also a maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vuillaume</span>, Jean; b. 1700; d. +1740. A maker in Mirecourt; +is said to have been a pupil +of Stradivari, but his work +shows no sign of it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vuillaume</span>, Jean Baptiste, +eldest son of Claude Vuillaume. +1798, Mirecourt; 1875, +at Paris. (<cite>See</cite> p. 110.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vuillaume</span>, Nicolas, second +son of Claude Vuillaume. +1800-71, Mirecourt. Worked +with Jean Baptiste, his elder +brother, for ten years at +Paris.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vuillaume</span>, Nicolas François, +third son of Claude Vuillaume. +1802, Mirecourt; 1876, Brabant. +He worked with his +brother, Jean Baptiste, Paris; +made fair instruments, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</span> +was a fine copyist of Stradivari.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vuillaume</span>, Sébastien, son of +Claude François Vuillaume; +b. 1835; d. 1875, Paris. He +was the last maker of this +family, and continued to make +bows on the same pattern +as Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, +having in his possession the +machine for cutting bows +which J. B. V. had invented +shortly before his death. +Bronze and silver medals: +Paris, 1867; Havre, 1868.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Wagner</span>, Benedict. A maker +of lutes and violins in Estwangen +in 1769.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wagner</span>, Joseph. Constance, +18th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Waldaner.</span> Fussen, 1770.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Walter</span>, Jean. Paris, 1775-1800.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wamsley</span>, Peter. A maker in +London about 1715-51. He +had at one time a great reputation, +especially for his +violoncellos. He copied the +Stainer pattern very closely, +and also made a few imitations +of Stradivari instruments; +but in his attempts +to obtain an Italian quality +of tone he thinned the wood +too much, making the tone +sound hollow. His violoncellos +with thicker wood have +a fine tone, so have his double-basses; +the latter are rare, and +generally have red varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Weaver</span>, Samuel. London; +known by his printed label, +“All sorts of musical instruments +made and sold by +Saml. Weaver on London +Bridge.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Weickert.</span> Halle, 1800.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Weigert</span>, Johann Blasius. +Linz, 1721; a viola d’amore +known, labelled: “Joann +Blasius Weigert Lauten und +Geigenmacher in Linz, 1721.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Weisz</span> (Weiss), Jacob. Salzburg, +1733-61.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wenger</span>, Gregor Ferdinand. +Salzburg, 1750-60.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wenger.</span> Padua, 1622.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wettenengel</span>, Gustav Adolph. +Neukirchen, Saxony, 1828. +He wrote an excellent practical +treatise on violin-making.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Weymann</span>, Cornelius. Amsterdam, +1682.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Widhalm</span> (Withalm), Leopold. +Nuremberg, about 1750-80; +imitated Stainer; wood carefully +chosen, sometimes too +thin; the varnish red colour, +good quality. Several of his +violins have double purfling, +and are branded with his +initials inside.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wightman</span>, George. Only +known by his label: “George +Wightman, Wood Street, +London, 1761.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Willems</span>, Hendrick. Ghent, +Belgium, 1650-1700. An alto +of large pattern has remarkably +fine wood used for the +belly; the corners are prominent +and squared at the +end; Brescian model; the +neck ends in a lion’s head; +the outline and the beautiful +finish could almost be +mistaken for Italian work, +but the varnish is too dry. +Nearly all his instruments +have beautiful wood for the +belly, but walnut, lime-tree, +or plane-tree wood is frequently +used for the back +and the sides, especially in +the case of the basses.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Willems</span>, Hendrick. Ghent; +some time after the previous +Hendrick already mentioned. +He made a violoncello or bass +with five strings, labelled: +“Heyndrick Willems tot<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</span> +Ghendt, 1717.” A violin, +dated 1743, had the belly +made of carefully selected +pine, the back of walnut, and +the sides (very exceptional) +of maple.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Willems</span>, Jooris. Ghent, 1630-65; +a cornet-player, 1634-71. +The first mention of him is in +August 1634; used lime-wood +and finely-figured maple; +Italian style.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Willer.</span> Prague, 18th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wise</span>, Christopher. Transition +maker of viols and violins in +London, 1656; small pattern, +not much arched; yellow +varnish, good quality; careful +work. Label: “Christopher +Wise, in Half-Moon Alley, +without Bishops-Gate, London, +1656.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Withers</span>, Edward. He succeeded +to William Davis’s +business at 31 Coventry +Street, London, in December +1846. Both Charles Maucotel +and Boullangier worked under +him at one time.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Withers</span>, Edward, eldest son +of Edward Withers, b. Oct. 22, +1844. Pupil of his father and +John Lott. Commenced business +at 31 Coventry Street, +London, in 1856; makes about +twelve instruments per year, +on the Stradivari and Guarneri +patterns, using good oil +varnish, amber colour.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Witting</span>, Johann Georg. Mittenwald, +about 1775; his instruments +are well made; +dark varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wornum</span>, Robert, 1742-1815. +A music-seller in Glasshouse +Street, also a violin and violoncello +maker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Worte</span>, Matthias. Augsburg, +1639.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wright</span>, Daniel. London, 1745. +Label: “Made by Daniel +Wright in Holborn, London.”</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Zach.</span> Vienna; makes good +instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zanfi</span>, Giacomo. Modena, +1756-1822.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zanoli</span>, Giacomo. Padua, 1740.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zanoli</span>, Giambattista. Verona, +1730; rough work; German +style.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zanotti</span>, Antonio. Lodi and +Mantua, 1734.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zanotti</span>, Giuseppe. Piacenza, +18th century.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zanti</span>, Alessandro. Mantua, +1770; Stradivari pattern; poor +varnish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zenatto</span>, Pietro. Treviso, 1634.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zimbelmann</span>, Filippo. Florence, +1661.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ziverger</span> (Zwerger), Anton. +Mittenwald, 1750; good wood; +dark varnish; fair finish.</p> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</span></p> + +<p class="center">BIBLIOGRAPHY</p> +</div> +<br> + +<p>It is very difficult to define my obligations to previous writers and +advisers when I owe almost everything to them; but I am bound +to state specially, that without Messrs Hill & Sons’ assistance and +counsel, and the works of Fétis, Vidal, George Hart, Heron-Allen, +and Mr Fleming, I could not have written this book at all. The +preceding list of makers has been largely adopted from Miss +Stainer’s elaborate Music Primer, “Violin Makers,” published by +Novello.</p> + +<br> +<p class="center">ENGLISH.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hamilton, J. A.</span> Hamilton’s “Catechism for the Violin.” +London, 1848. R. Cocks & Co. Fifteenth Edition, +1883, contains Preface by John Bishop.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fétis, François Joseph.</span> “Biographical Notice of Nicolo +Paganini.” Includes a sketch of the history of the violin. +Schott & Co. 8vo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jousse, J.</span> “Theory and Practice of the Violin.” London, +1811.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Macdonald, John.</span> “Practice and Theory of the Violoncello” +(printed for Author). London, 1811. Appendix, 1815. Also +“A Treatise on the Harmonic System, Divisions of Strings, +&c. &c.” London, 1822.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto, Jacob Augustus.</span> “Treatise on the Construction, Preservation, +and Repairs of the Violin.” London: Longmans, 1833.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dubourg, George.</span> “The Violin.” H. Colburn. London, 1836. +Small octavo, fifth edition. Enlarged by John Bishop, of +Cheltenham, 1878. R. Cocks.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mackintosh.</span> “Remarks on the Construction and Materials +employed in the Manufacture of the Violin.” Dublin, 1837. +8vo pamphlet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Paine, John.</span> “A Treatise on the Violin.” Printed for the Author, +1850.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Purdy, George.</span> “A Few Words on the Violin.” W. G. +Goulburn, 1858.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sandys, William</span>, and <span class="smcap">Forster, Simon Andrew</span>. “The History +of the Violin.” London, 1864. J. R. Smith, Addison, & +Lucas. Large 8vo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fétis, François, Joseph.</span> “Notice of Anthony Stradivari.” R. +Cocks. Large 8vo. 1864.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pearce, Joseph</span>, jun. “Violins and Violin-makers.” Longmans, +1866.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Adze, Willet.</span> “Musical Notes,” including “Violinists” and +“The Violin and its History.” London, 1869. R. Bentley.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Davidson, Peter.</span> “The Violin.” Pitman: Edinburgh, Aberdeen, +1871. Small octavo. Fourth edition, 1881.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Reade, Charles.</span> “A Lost Art Revived.” Gloucester, 1873. +John Bellowes. Large 8vo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goffrie, Charles.</span> “The Violin.” Philadelphia, U.S.A., 1876. +G. André & Co. 8vo pamphlet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Smith, H. P.</span> “The Construction of the Violin.” Syracuse, +U.S.A., n.d. (1877). Roblee & Co.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schebek, Dr Edmund.</span> “The Violin Manufacture in Italy and +its German Origin.” London, 1877. W. Reeves. Large 8vo +pamphlet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Broadhouse, John.</span> “Facts about Fiddles.” London, n.d. +(1879). W. Reeves.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Porter, Thomas.</span> “How to Choose a Violin.” London, n.d. +(1879). F. Pitman. 8vo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Nicholson, J.</span> “Designs and Plans for the Construction and +New Model of Violin, and Arrangement of the New Model +Violin.” London, 1880. Printed by H. K. Lewis. Large folio.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hart, George.</span> “The Violin, its Famous Makers.” London, +1875, 1884, 1880. Dulan & Schott. Large post 4to and +small 8vo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hart, George.</span> “The Violin and its Music.” London, 1881. +Dulan & Schott.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gemünder, George.</span> George Gemünder’s “Progress in Violin-making.” +Astoria, New York, 1881. Published by the Author.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Reade, Charles.</span> “Jack of All Trades.” London, 1882. Chatto +& Windus.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heron-Allen, Edward.</span> “Opuscula Fidicularum.” London, +1882. Mitchell & Hughes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heron-Allen, Edward.</span> “De Fidiculis Opusculum” II. London, +1883. Mitchell & Hughes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heron-Allen.</span> “Markneukirchen Arts and Crafts Book” +(translated).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hill & Sons.</span> (1) “The Messie,” (2) “The Tuscan,” (3) “Gio. +Paolo Maggini.” Novello, Ewer & Co.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chanot, Georges.</span> “Hodges <i lang="la">v.</i> Chanot.” London, 1882. +Mitchell & Hughes. Large 8vo pamphlet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Engel, Carl.</span> “Researches into the Early History of the Violin +Family.” London, 1883.</p> +</div> + +<br> +<p class="center">ITALIAN.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zanneti, Gasparo.</span> “Il Scolaro.” Milan, 1645.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tartini, Giuseppe.</span> A Letter from the late Signor Tartini to +Signora Maddalena Lombardini, translated by Dr Burney. +London, 1771. R. Bremner.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bagatella, Antonio.</span> “Regole per la Costruzione de’ Violini, +Viole, Violoncelli, et Violoni.” Padova, 1786. A spese dell’ +Accademia.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pancaldi, Carlo.</span> “Progresso Italiano nella Costruzione del Violino +operato da Antonio Gibertini da Parma.” Palermo, 1845. +Tipografia Maddalena. Small 8vo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Regli, Francesco.</span> “Storia del Violino in Piemonte.” Turin, 1863. +Enrico Dalmazzo. Large 8vo.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lombardini, Paolo.</span> “Cenni sulla celebre scuola Cremonese degli +stromenti ad arco.” Cremona, 1872. Tipografia dalla Noce. +Large 8vo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rinaldi, Benedetto-Gioffredo.</span> “Classica Fabbricazione di +Violini.” Turin, 1873. Rinaldi. Large 8vo pamphlet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Valdrighi, Luigi Francesco.</span> “Liuteria Modenese antica e +moderna.” Modena, 1878. Toschi. 8vo.</p> + +<p>—— Musurgiana No. 9. “Strumenti ad arco Rinforzati.” +Modena, 1881. G. T. Vincenzi e Nep. Large 8vo pamphlet.</p> +</div> + +<br> +<p class="center">FRENCH.</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">Rousseau, Jean.</span> “Traité de la Viole.” Paris, 1687. Ch. Ballard. +8vo.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Leblanc, Hubert.</span> “Défense de la basse de Viole contre les +Entreprises du Violon et les pretensions du Violoncelle.”<br> +Amsterdam, 1740. P. Mortier. 16mo.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Jacquot, A.</span> “Music in Lorraine.”<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Terrasson, A.</span> “Sur la Vielle.” Paris, 1741.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Leclair, Jean Marie.</span> “Tablature idéale du Violon.” Paris, 1766.<br> +8vo.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Sibire, L’Abbé.</span> “La Chelonomie.” Paris, 1806. Brussels, chez<br> +l’Aullur et Millet. Second Edition, 1823. Weissenbruch. 8vo. +<br> +<span class="smcap">Chanot, François.</span> “Rapport fait à l’Académie des Beaux Arts<br> +3 Avril 1819.” Paris, 1819. 4to.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Contanger (Le Dr Henri).</span> Gaspard Duiffoprugcar et les Luthiers<br> +lyonnais du xvi<sup>e</sup> Siecle. Paris, 1893. Fischbacher.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Savart, Félix.</span> “Mémoire sur la Construction des Instruments à<br> +Cordes et à Archet.” Paris, n.d. (1819). Roret. 8vo.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Maugin, J. C.</span> “Manuel du Luthier.” Paris, 1834. Roret<br> +12mo.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Maugin, J. C.</span>, et <span class="smcap">Maigne, W.</span> “Nouveau Manuel Complet du<br> +Luthier.” Paris, 1869. Roret.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Desmarais, Cyprien.</span> “Archéologie du Violon.” Paris, 1836.<br> +Dentu et Sapia. Large 8vo pamphlet.<br> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</span></p> +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fourgeaud, Alexandre.</span> “Les Violons de Dalayrac.” Paris, 1856. +Leclerc. Large 8vo pamphlet.</p> + +<p>[<span class="smcap">Youssoupow, Prince.</span>] “Luthomonographie Historique et +Raisonnée.” Frankfort <span class="allsmcap">S/M.</span>, 1856. Ch. Fugel. Large 8vo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gallay, Jules.</span> “Les Instruments à Archet à l’Exposition +Universelle de 1867.” Juanst. 8vo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grivel, Victor.</span> “Vernis des Anciens Luthiers.” Grenoble, +1867. F. Allier. 8vo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gallay, Jules.</span> “Les Luthiers Italiens.” Nouvelle édition du +Parfait Luthier de l’Abbé Sibire. Paris, 1869. Académie des +Bibliophiles.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Plassiard, J. A.</span> “Des Cordes du Violon.” Lille, 1876. Danet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vidal, Antoine.</span> “Les Instruments à Archet, les Faiseurs, les +Joueurs d’Instruments, leur Histoire sur le Continent +Européen.” Suivi d’un Catalogue générale de la Musique +de Chambre. Orné de planches gravées à l’eau forte par +Frédéric Hillemacher. Paris, 1876: J. Claye. 3 vols. 4to. +Edition-de-luxe.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Coppée, François.</span> “Le Luthier de Cremone.” London, 1880. +Dulan & Co. 12mo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Simoutre, N. E.</span> “Aux Amateurs du Violon.” Bâle, 1883. G. +A. Bonfantini.</p> +</div> + +<br> +<p class="center">GERMAN.</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">Reichardt, Johann Friedrich.</span> “Ueber die Pflichten des Ripien-Violinisten.”<br> +Berlin und Leipzig, 1776. G. J. Decker.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Bagatella, Antonio.</span> “Ueber den Bau der Violine.” Leipzig,<br> +n.d. (1806). Kuhnel. 8vo.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Wettengel, Gustav Adolph.</span> “Neuer Schauplatz der Künste<br> +und Handwerke.” Ilmenda, 1828. B. F. Voigt.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Bachmann, Otto.</span> “Theoretisch-praktisches Handbuch des<br> +Geigenbaues.” Leipzig, 1835. G. Basse.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Baader, J.</span> “Chronik des Marktes.” Mittenwald.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Abele, Hyacinth.</span> “Die Violine.” Neuberg <span class="allsmcap">A/D.</span>, 1864. A.<br> +Zrechter. Small 8vo.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</span><br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Schubert, F. L.</span> “Die Violine.” Leipzig, 1865. Merzeburger.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Diehl, Nicolaus Louis.</span> “Die Geigenmacher der Alten<br> +Italienischen Schule.” Hamburg, 1866, 1877. J. F. Richter.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Wettengel, Gustav Adolph.</span> “G. A. W.’s weil Violin-bogenmachers<br> +zu Markneukirchen.” Weimar, 1869. B. F.<br> +Voigt.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Wasielewski, Joseph Wilhelm von.</span> “Die Violine im XVII.<br> +Jahrhundert.” Bonn, 1874. M. Cohen.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Ritter, Hermann</span>. “Die Viola Alta.” Heidelberg, 1876. G.<br> +Weiss. 4to.<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Niederheitmann, Friedrich.</span> “Die Meister der Geigenbaukunst<br> +in Italien und Tyrol.” Hamburg, 1876. Aug. Cranz, 1876.<br> +<br> +—— Cremona. “Eine Charakteristik der Italienischen<br> +Geigenbauer.” Leipzig, 1877. Carl Merzeburger. 8vo.<br> +</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</span></p> + +<p class="center">DESCRIPTION OF PLATES</p> +<br> +</div> + +<br> +<p class="center">PLATE I (<cite>to face page 18</cite>)</p> + +<p>A Duiffoprugcar viol da Gamba, owned by Mr George Donaldson. +This matchless antique is doubtless one of many, but most of the rest +have perished; it stands almost alone as a poetic specimen of the +phantasy of the old viol makers. It is elaborately decorated on the +back, after the taste of the period, with an excess of ornament, which +the fine instinct of the subsequent makers of violins rejected as prejudicial +to tone. The habit of adopting a creature’s head, or a face, +for a scroll long lingered, and is not unknown in the work of Stradivarius. +In England numerous copies of Duke that have been palmed +off as original have lion heads. These instruments were usually +“made in Germany,” and it appears to have been a favourite practice +there to use such carved scrolls.</p> + +<br> +<p class="center">PLATE II (<cite>to face page 38</cite>)</p> + +<p>A Maggini violin (the “De Beriot”) owned by Mr Antonietti. +The Maggini here given is an admirably preserved specimen of the +great Brescian master, who, next to Stradiuarius, did more than any +one man to inspire and define the ideal shape, from which even the +Amati at first departed, but which Strad had the genius to restore +and perfect. The corners, however, have been rubbed, and not in +every case renewed, otherwise it is in as perfect a condition as can +be expected in so old a fiddle. The scroll is cut with a care and an +advanced finish which reminds us of the bolder Strad period, 1700-30. +Maggini, oddly enough, was little honoured in the first quarter of this +century, but De Beriot had the insight to discern his merits; and +from the time he adopted him for his masterly and full-toned performances, +the Magginis rose, and have been continuing to rise, in public +estimation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</span></p> + +<br> +<p class="center">PLATE III (<cite>to face page 50</cite>)</p> + +<p>Her late Majesty’s Amati tenor is in beautiful condition; it is +elaborately ornamented, in lieu of the usual purfling. It was, doubtless, +originally made to order for some great prelate; and it bears on +its back a noble coat of arms hardly decipherable, and the image of +John Baptist carrying a lamb (“Behold the Lamb of God!” John +i. 36). The instrument was used in Her late Majesty’s private band +by Mr Hann (1898). Like many old viols it has been somewhat +reduced in size. For the loan of this instrument I am indebted to +the good offices of Sir Walter Parratt, director of the late Queen’s +private band.</p> + +<br> +<p class="center">PLATE IV (<cite>to face page 58</cite>)</p> + +<p>Paganini’s Joseph Guarnerius. This is a fine and very characteristic +specimen of the mighty Del Gesù. It is in his most powerful +and massive style (the head almost brutal in its bull-dog strength), +with full rich colour thickly laid on to match. Seldom, indeed, do we +find so much varnish left on the back of so old a violin. The instrument +has been very carefully dealt with. The story of how it passed +into Paganini’s hands is well known. An Italian amateur, who evidently +knew its value, lent it to the great maestro, and, after hearing +its marvellous qualities, as drawn forth by the Magician of the Violin, +declared that no other hand should henceforth set its chords in +vibration. Paganini left it to his native town of Genoa, and there it +may still be seen in the Town Hall. It was his favourite instrument; +and the giant Joseph Guarnerius was well matched with the giant +Nicolo Paganini.</p> + +<br> +<p class="center">PLATE V (<cite>to face page 66</cite>)</p> + +<p>The Rode and Spanish violins and the Spanish tenor, it will be +observed, are all inlaid. Strad was no bigot, and although we may +confidently assert that he disapproved of all inlaying or decoration on +the bellies or backs, and confined it to its narrowest limits when +resorted to in lieu of the usual strip of purfling, he probably judged +that if it did not encroach upon the vibratory surfaces much beyond +a common purfle, it was comparatively harmless. It is likely that the +Rode Strad, whose history I am unable to record, was made for Royalty +or some great Prince Cardinal of the Church, the extra decoration +being considered due to the high rank of the patron, or wrought in +obedience to a special request. We have many evidences that Strad<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</span> +was not above pleasing the individual whims of his clients. He +was himself an expert carver, and could inlay with the best of +them when he chose. The Rode Strad was sold to Messrs Hill by +M. Lamoureux, the eminent French conductor, and by them to +Dr Oldham of Brighton. The Strad ’cello is a good specimen of +Strad’s improved bass model. The size is brought down characteristically, +and the comparative smallness of the upper, contrasting +with the ample development of the lower part, gives the instrument +an appearance of lightness and grace; whilst the delicate +and somewhat narrow head, with its sufficiently massive and finely +cut out scroll, admirably balances the whole to the eye with a +certain “chic” quite <i lang="fr">a la Strad</i>.</p> + +<br> +<p class="center">PLATE VI (<cite>to face page 68</cite>)</p> + +<p>This plate contains profiles of the three Strads shown in Plate V., +and is interesting as displaying the variety exhibited in Strad’s +scroll carving. The Spanish Strad has quite an Amatisé scroll, +long, light, and very restrained, and undeveloped at the lower +extremity. Notice the greater freedom of the Rode scroll, quite in +Strad’s best manner. The Rode model is also flatter in the back, but +the bellies are all flat in the approved style, after the earlier Amati +groove had almost entirely disappeared from the Cremona model.</p> + +<br> +<p class="center">PLATE VII (<cite>to face page 82</cite>)</p> + +<p>A Panoramic View of Cremona, taken outside Porto Po from +the banks of the river, and engraved about 1830 by Caporali. +Names of buildings, counting from the right of the print: 1. Church +of S. Pietro; 2. Tower of the old prisons near the Town Hall; +3. Battisterio; 4. Cathedral; 5. Town Hall Tower; 6. Torrazzo, +the Cathedral Tower, the highest in Italy; 7. Church of S. +Marcellino; 8. Church of S. Domenico; 9. Church of S. Agostino; +10. Church of S. Lucca; 11. Church of S. Omobono, patron of the +town; 12. Church of S. Agata; 13. Church of S. Ilario; 14. +Church of S. Luca. Signor Sacchi, a native of Cremona, has +kindly identified all the above for me.</p> + +<br> +<p class="center">PLATES VIII <span class="allsmcap">AND</span> IX (<cite>to face pages 106, 110</cite>)</p> + +<p>These portraits of Tourte, Lupot, Vuillaume, and Ebsworth Hill +being fully dwelt on in the text, need no further comment.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</span></p> + +<br> +<p class="center">PLATE X (<cite>to face page 162</cite>)</p> + +<p>This plate of backs, bellies, and bows, has been fully explained +in the text.</p> + +<br> +<p class="center">PLATE XI (<cite>to face page 182</cite>)</p> + +<p>Portraits of Paganini abound. Landseer sketched a series, +which, however, are slightly of the nature of caricatures. It was +difficult to do otherwise. The Maestro’s features were so marked, +his long hair so weird, the tall forehead, the wide sensitive mouth, +the dark eyes, the ungainly and gaunt, almost dislocated attitudes +of the man lent themselves freely to a lively and not always +sympathetic or respectful pencil. The portrait, a rare one, here +produced, hits the happy mean. The finest representation of him +is, however, Danton’s small bust (admirably reproduced by Mrs +Haweis’ pencil in “My Musical Life,” where see my biographical +study of Paganini).</p> + +<br> +<p class="center">PLATE XII (<cite>to face page 238</cite>)</p> + +<p>For a fuller list of labels, the “Collector” had better consult +Mr Vidal’s most valuable book referred to in our Bibliography, +from which our seven specimens are reproduced. I may observe +that a forged fiddle may often have what purports to be a genuine +label. A reference, therefore, to these facsimiles may be useful.</p> + +<p>Buyers should also beware of labels bearing dates <em>posterior</em> to +the death of the alleged makers. I have seen Stainer’s so +decorated. Stainer labels in two different sorts of type, <i lang="la">i.e.</i>, the +name in a running type and the rest in print, are never genuine. +Duke copies of Stainer, often very good ones, sometimes present +this peculiarity. Notice that Gasparo and Gio Paolo Maggini never +<em>dated</em> their instruments. There exist numerous dated copies of +Maggini—generally recent copies—De Beriot having brought the +great Gio into notice. These are all frauds.</p> + +<p>Stradiuarius changed his labels late in life, using a <i lang="la">v</i> instead of <em>u</em>, +and spelling Stradivari or Stradivarius. This is called the cursive <i lang="la">v</i>. +Some Stradivarius-labelled violins have all the figures of the date +<em>printed</em>, <i lang="la">e.g.</i>, 1712. These are forgeries. The last two figures in +the real labels being always filled up in ink, which has much faded. It +does not, however, follow that all thus filled in are genuine—indeed, +most are frauds. A particularly favourite date for forged Stradivari +labels is 1721.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX">INDEX</h2> +</div> + + +<ul class="index"> +<li class="ifrst">Albani, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Aldric, Paris dealer, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Aireton, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Amateurs, their opinions, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Amati, the, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Americans, their wood, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Artôt’s Strad, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Balzar, great violinist, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Band, Charles II.’s, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Banks, English maker, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Barak Norman, English maker, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bernadel, French maker, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Betts, English maker, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bisexual violin nature, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Boquay, French maker, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bows, <cite>see</cite> Chap. XI.</li> + +<li class="indx">Buying fiddles, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Carlo Bergonzi, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">supremacy, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">gems, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">influence, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Charles II.’s court, influence on music, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Charles Reade, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Children, their fiddles, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Collecting mania, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Completeness of violin, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Control of violin, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Convalescent fiddles, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cracked fiddles, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cremona city, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cremona gems, discovery of, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cremona influence, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cross, English maker, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Dealers, <cite>see</cite> Chap. XV.</li> + +<li class="indx">Dodd, bow-maker, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Dolphin,” a celebrated Strad, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Duiffoprugcar, old maker, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his viol da Gamba, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Duke, English maker, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Elector fiddles by Stainer, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> + +<li class="indx">English makers, <cite>see</cite> Chap. VIII.</li> + + +<li class="ifrst">“False” strings, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fendt, Bernard, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fiddles and umbrellas, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fiddle flukes, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fiddle frauds, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fiddle judges, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fiddles, new and old, secret of, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fingerboard, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Finish” of old makers, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Foster, the family of, <a href="#Page_126">126-127</a>, &c.</li> + +<li class="indx">France, violins in, <cite>see</cite> Chap. VII.</li> + +<li class="indx">François Tourte, bow-maker, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Gagliano, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gand, French maker, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gasparo da Salo, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Genesis of violin, <cite>see</cite> Chap. I.</li> + +<li class="indx">German strings, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Germany, fiddle-makers, <cite>see</cite> Chap. VI.</li> + +<li class="indx">Geronimo Amati, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gillott’s Mr, collection, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</span>Giuseppe or Joseph Guarnerius, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Goding’s, Mr, collection, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Golden Strad period, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Guadagnini, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Guarneri family, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Guild of Markneukirchen, <a href="#Page_194">194-197</a>.</li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Hart, John, dealer, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hill, William Ebsworth, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Holmes, Oliver Wendell, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Horses, fiddles and umbrellas, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Ignorance and neglect, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Jaques, French maker, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jay, English maker, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jean and Nicolas Medard, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Joseph or Giuseppe Guarnerius, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Kennedys, the English, 1872 and 1885, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">makers, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Klotz family, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Landolpho, Italian, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lott, John, English, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Luigi Tarisio, rediscoverer of Cremonas, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"><cite>see</cite> Chap. XIV.</li> + +<li class="indx">Lupôt, French maker, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168-188</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Maggini, early Brescian maker, <a href="#Page_32">32-40</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mantegazza, Venetian maker, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Manufacture of strings process, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Markneukirchen, early home of violin manufacture, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Master” Reiter, Mittenwald maker, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Maucotel, French, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Medard, early Tyrol maker, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"><cite>see</cite> Chap. XIII.</li> + +<li class="indx">Menegand, French, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Messie,” a great Strad violin, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mirecourt, early home of violin manufacture, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mittenwald violin manufacture, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Montagnana, Venetian maker, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mutes or sordini to deaden sounds, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Neglect of English makers, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Neglect of violins, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li> + +<li class="indx">New fiddles, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nicolas Lupôt, <cite>see</cite> Lupôt.</li> + +<li class="indx">Nicolo Amati, the best of the family, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Norman, <cite>see</cite> Barak Norman.</li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Oliver Wendell Holmes, a letter, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ouri, the violinist, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Over-restoration, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Paduan strings, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Paganini, <a href="#Page_9">9-56</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pamphilon, English maker, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Panormo, maker of guitars and fiddles, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Paris, Vuillaume and Tarisio at, <a href="#Page_176">176-178</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Parker, English maker, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Peccate, Italian maker, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pernambuco wood for bows, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Personal fascination in violin-playing, secret of it, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pieray, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pique, French maker, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Prelude and postlude, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Pucelle,” a celebrated Strad, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Reade, <cite>see</cite> Charles Reade.</li> + +<li class="indx">Reiter, <cite>see</cite> “Master.”</li> + +<li class="indx">Remenyi, violinist, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Restoration, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Revarder, Mirecourt maker, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rosin, treatment and use of, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rugerius, Italian maker, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Salo, early violin centre, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Savart’s experiments, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Scale of prices, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</span>Secret or old violins, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sound qualities of old and new violins, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li> + +<li class="indx">South Kensington Collections, <cite>see</cite> Kensington.</li> + +<li class="indx">Stainer, <cite>see</cite> Chap. VI.</li> + +<li class="indx">Stainer, Miss, “Violin Manual,” <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Stradivarius, <cite>see</cite> Chap. V.</li> + +<li class="indx">Strange finds, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> + +<li class="indx">String gauge, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Strings, violin, <cite>see</cite> Chap. X.</li> + +<li class="indx">Story of the Markneukirchen Guild, <a href="#Page_194">194-197</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Subdivision of labour a cause of decline, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Tarisio, <cite>see</cite> Luigi, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, and Chap. XIV.</li> + +<li class="indx">Techler, German school, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Thibouville-Lamy, French maker, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tourte, bow-maker, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Treatment of violin, <cite>see</cite> Chap. XIV.</li> + +<li class="indx">Tubbs, bow-maker, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Tuscan,” the celebrated Strad, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Urquhart, English maker, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Varnish, <cite>see</cite> Chap. IX.</li> + +<li class="indx">Violin constitution, <cite>see</cite> Chap. II.</li> + +<li class="indx">Violin dealing and collecting, <cite>see</cite> Chap. XV.</li> + +<li class="indx">Violin progress, <cite>see</cite> Chap. I.</li> + +<li class="indx">Violin rise, <cite>see</cite> Chap. I.</li> + +<li class="indx">Violin treatment, <cite>see</cite> Chap. XIV.</li> + +<li class="indx">Viols, <cite>see</cite> Chap. I.;</li> +<li class="isub1">English, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Vision of Stradivari, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Vuillaume, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Walmesley, English maker, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> +</ul> + + +<p>PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</span></p> + +<p class="center"><cite>Uniform with this Volume</cite></p> +</div> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Fine_Prints">Fine Prints</h2> + +<p class="center">By Frederick Wedmore</p><br> + +With 12 Plates. 7s. 6d. net<br> + +<br> +Illustrations by Examples after Mantegna, Marc Antonio, Schöngauer,<br> +Dürer, Beham, Lucas van Leyden, Rembrandt, Watteau,<br> +Chardin, Reynolds, and Turner.<br> +<hr class="r5"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>: Introduction—The Task of the Collector—Claude, +Vandyke, Ostade, Hollar—Rembrandt (Illustrations)—French +Revival of Etching (Illustrations)—Whistler and Haden—Later +English Etchers—Dürer: The “Little Masters” (Illustrations)—Italian +Line Engravers (Illustrations)—French Eighteenth Century +Prints (Illustrations)—Turner Prints (Illustrations)—Mezzotints +(Illustrations)—Lithographs—Appendix: Certain Woodcuts—Postscript—Bibliography—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“The ‘collector of moderate means,’ for whose special behoof the +volumes of the Collector Series are designed, will take pleasure and find +profit in the admirable guide to Fine Prints which Mr Frederick Wedmore +has written for Mr Redway. It maps out the ground for him +who would go forth on the delightful quest of rare and beautiful +etchings, line engravings, and mezzotints; and at every turn it gives +him valuable hints and directions.”—<cite>Scotsman.</cite></p> + +<p>“It gives a bird’s-eye view of a large and important subject for the +benefit of the man of taste. Mr Wedmore is a well-known art critic, and +altogether a competent hand for the undertaking. He discusses the +work of the masters of engraving, ancient and modern, including even +the great lithographers.... A capital index completes a model +volume of its kind. The work contains many beautiful reproductions +from the best engravings of some of the best men, rendered with +admirable fidelity in the different styles of line, mezzotint, and etching.”—<cite>Daily +News.</cite></p> + +<p><cite>The Magazine of Art</cite> says:—“Mr Wedmore is one of the few professional +writers in England with a truly refined and appreciative +knowledge of prints—possessing that more eclectic sense proper for the +cult. As a guide he may be confidently commended to the reader, who +will not fail to admire the delicacy and tact with which Mr Wedmore +handles the necessarily commercial side of the subject. He deals +adequately with the great Dutch and French periods of etching, the +recent revival of that art in England, our great period of mezzotint, and +line engraving in Italy, as well as the prints of Turner, lithographs of +the present day, and famous woodcuts of the past.”</p> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</span></p> + +<p class="center"><cite>Uniform with this Volume</cite></p> +</div> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Coin_Collector">The Coin Collector</h2> + +<p class="center">By W. Carew Hazlitt + +<cite>New and Revised Edition</cite> + +Illustrated with 12 full-page Plates depicting 129 Rare Pieces<br> +<br> +<cite>Pub. 7s. 6d. net</cite></p> +<br> +<hr class="r5"> + +<p class="center">CONTENTS</p> + +<p>Introductory—Collectors and Collections—Value of Coins—Unique +or Remarkable Coins—Greek Coins—Rome—Continent of +Europe—United Kingdom—The Coin Market—Terminology—Bibliography—Description +of Plates—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“Mr Hazlitt is an expert in regard to coins; his book from the +practical standpoint is trustworthy.”—<cite>Notes and Queries.</cite></p> + +<p>“We may say at once that we have a very interesting and instructive +volume before us. The subject is, of course, only lightly touched upon, +and no attempt at dealing with any section of it in detail is made. This +is as it should be in a book on coins in general.”—<cite>Antiquary.</cite></p> + +<p>“Perhaps as excellent an introduction to the study of a delightful +pursuit as could have been written.”—<cite>Daily Telegraph.</cite></p> + +<p>“Abreast of the latest discoveries and theories, and is sure of a +welcome from the general reader as well as from the collector.”—<cite>Scotsman.</cite></p> + +<p>“This admirable volume gives a bird’s-eye view of the whole. It is +clear that Mr Hazlitt is not only an enthusiast in the subject of his +book, but also a student whose knowledge is at once singularly wide +and remarkably accurate.”—<cite>Publishers’ Circular.</cite></p> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Book_Collector">The Book Collector</h2> +</div> + +<p class="center">By W. Carew Hazlitt</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>A General Survey of the Pursuit, and of those who have engaged +in it, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time; with +an Account of Public and Private Libraries, and Anecdotes +of their Founders or Owners, and Remarks on Bookbinding +and on Special Copies of Books, illustrated with a beautiful +photogravure of a famous sale of books at Sotheby’s, square +cr 8vo, art canvas, gilt top, fore and under edges uncut</p> +</div> + +<p class="center"><cite>Pub. 7s. 6d. net</cite></p> +<hr class="r5"> + +<p>“As Mr Hazlitt shows, his field of choice is wide enough. Ancient +typography fascinates some, but here a long purse is needed. Bibles +and Testaments, Liturgies, Books of Hours, or similar devotional works +appeal to others. The British Museum Library, for instance, is singularly +rich in editions in all languages of the ‘Imitatio Christi.’ Books +of travel, of voyages, and on topography, such as county and town +histories, have all their devotees, and of late years the search for Alpine +literature has become so much keener that some books, printed barely +forty years ago, have quite doubled their published price. Yet even the +systematic collector, as Mr Hazlitt tells us, often runs risks. Here, as +among all things human, fashions and whims exist, and a particular +class of literature may have ‘booms’ and ‘slumps,’ like certain ‘stocks’ +of a questionable character. The books, for instance, in William +Morris’s library were ‘below mediocrity in state,’ and of little intrinsic +value, yet they excited keen competition, and went for sums ‘which +were simply absurd.’”—<cite>Standard.</cite></p> + +<p>“The subject abounds with stories, for, indeed, in a sense which the +author of the aphorism little imagined, <i lang="it">habent sua fata libelli</i>. We might +fill columns with curiosities about the buying and selling of books from +these pages. Mr Hazlitt, however, is not of the non-literary collectors; +no man could write such a book as this about the subject if he were. +Readers, therefore, as well as buyers, may find ‘The Book Collector’ +to their taste. Then there is the eleventh chapter, with its many +interesting anecdotes of inscriptions; often the casual name or note +which some purchaser or owner of a bye-gone time has written will be +of more interest than the volume itself.”—<cite>Spectator.</cite></p> + +<p>“There is pleasure nevertheless—nay, much intellectual and sometimes +pecuniary profit—in the pursuit, when intelligently pursued. Mr +Hazlitt discourses pleasantly on every side of book-collecting, and his +book will be valued by all interested in the subject.”—<cite>Chambers’ +Journal.</cite></p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> An unique set of instruments by the Amati family worthy of +mention is the quintett, composed of three violins, a viola, and a +violoncello, now (1898) in the possession of Miss Willmott.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> This Fent is no relation, as far as is known, to the family working +in England, whose name is spelt Fendt.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> A popular comedy (1898).</p> + +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p class="transnote"> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE</span><br> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the text and consultation of external sources.</span><br> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added,</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">when a predominant preference was found in the original book.</span><br> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.</span><br> +<br> +<span class="pad05"><a href="#tn_61">p61</a>-> ‘the boy Giuseppe Gaurneri’ amended to ‘the boy Giuseppe Guarneri’</span><br> +<span class="pad05"><a href="#tn_105">p105</a>-> ‘Jaques Boquay’ amended to ‘Jacques Boquay’</span><br> +<span class="pad05"><a href="#tn_278">p278</a>-> ‘he branded’ amended to ‘He branded’</span><br> +</p> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78831 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/78831-h/images/cover.jpg b/78831-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e94667b --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_003.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a037537 --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_003.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_018a.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_018a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d33190 --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_018a.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_038a.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_038a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ab7c0d --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_038a.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_050a.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_050a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c13d889 --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_050a.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_058a.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_058a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..433a20a --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_058a.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_066a.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_066a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70cb683 --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_066a.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_068a.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_068a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..49ce726 --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_068a.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_082a.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_082a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..71b85d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_082a.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_106a.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_106a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c5bcb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_106a.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_110a.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_110a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..78a09ac --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_110a.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_162a.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_162a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0848ab7 --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_162a.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_182a.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_182a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c3c84e --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_182a.jpg diff --git a/78831-h/images/i_238a.jpg b/78831-h/images/i_238a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..74f3a4b --- /dev/null +++ b/78831-h/images/i_238a.jpg |
