Old Violins

Collector Scries

OLD VIOLINS

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EDINBURGH

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CONTENTS

....

CHAP.

Prelude I.

II.

III.

PAGE

7

Violin Genesis

Violin Constitution

15 22

.

Violins at Brescia

30

IV. Violins at Cremona

42

V. Violins at Cremona (continued) VI. Violins in

Germany

60 91

.

VII. Violins in France VIII. Violins in

104

England

118

IX. Violin Varnish

146

X. Violin Strings

153

XI. Violin Bows

161

XII. Violin Tarisio XIII. Violins

at

171

Mirecourt,

Mittenwald,

and

Markneukirchen XIV. Violin Treatment

.....

XV. Violin Dealers, Collectors, and Amateurs Postlude

....

Dictionary of Violin Makers Bibliography

Description of Plates

241573

186

198

214 237

239 281

287

—

OLD VIOLINS PEELUDE What

is

when a

Why

the secret of the violin?

is

it

that

great violinist appears all the other soloists

have to take a back seat

The answer

?

the fascination of the violin

is:

is

the

fascination of the soul unveiled.

—the human voice hardly excepted the emotions — in such provides such a rare vehicle No

instrument

for

is

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,

far transcends it in compass, variety,

and

it

durability.

Consider the singular completeness and perfection of this

instrument as a sort of physical and vibratory

The four

counterpart of the soul. limit

and

and define

its

collectively, is

strings

no doubt

compass, and only in the quartet it

capable of extended effects of

complex harmony but as a tone-producing instrument ;

and within

its limits it is

perfect

sound between tone and semitone no other instrument can

—every gradation is

attainable,

this be claimed.

and

of

for

—

:

OLD VIOLINS

8

Next

I observe that the violin possesses a trinity in

unity of power which invests

and

with a quite singular

it

own

felicitous completeness of its

(1) Accent

—and

in

:

passages

staccato

almost

the

accent of percussion. (2) Sustained

sound

(3) Modified tone tion, that the

—

to a degree

human

capabilities of the

—and

far

beyond the

voice.

in such refinement of grada-

melting lines of the spectrum can alone

supply us with a parallel or analogy.

Your piano

possesses accent, but once strike a note,

and

it passes beyond your control The piano has little sustained and no modified tone. Your organ has accent and sustained tone, but in a very imperfect sense modified tone and a brief survey

soft or loud,

;

of all musical instruments

now

in use will convince the

student of acoustics that nowhere but in the viohn do

we

find to

anything Hke the same degree, that trinity in

unity of power

summed up

in accent, sustained sound,

modified tone.

But the of

power

half has not yet been revealed.

tioning differently.

— of

trinity

under the immediate

in the violin is placed

control of two hands

The

ten fingers, each hand func-

The hand on the finger-board

engaged in pressing the strings

;

is

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

the outpourings of the musician's soul,

in reality

—and further

!

PRELUDE Has

ever occurred to you,

it

rently the same piece of music,

same

that, the

9

my or,

reader,

how

for the

matter of

diffe-

sounds in the hands of two

violin,

different players?

A

few of Paganini's solos were written down, and

who passed

Sivori,

as his only pupil,

playing some of them

;

to frenzy or melted into a

elegant performer.

I

was

in the habit of

yet no one was ever wrought

by that

passion of tears

have often

heard

The

him.

gentlemen in the orchestra remained calm, and listened with admiration and approval. played, the

drummer on one

But when Paganini shook with

occasion so

excitement that he was utterly incapable of playing his part at first

and Professor

all,

were so

violinists

Ella, then a violinist at the

went up and did

desk,

it

for him, whilst the other

wonder that they could hardly

lost in

concentrate their attention sufficiently to come in

at

the " tutti."

When down on

Paganini raised his bow on high, his four strings with a crash.

sound

like

When

his violin wailed with sweetness long

why

thunder

?

was the thunder

It

down

did the tears roll

it

came

What made

it

in his soul

drawn

out,

the faces of hardened

orchestral veterans, and even great virtuosi like Lindley

and Dragonetti fits

of laughter

?

Why

did the people just go off into

when a comic vein

seized the prodigious

Maestro in the midst of his variations on the Carnival de Venise I

have

?

heard Wieniawski

hackneyed "Legende"

—

it

play his

may have

since

much

been somewhere

OLD VIOLINS

10

I never heard

in the sixties.

voices

the twilight

in

positively

saw

ghosts.

—the I

anything so weird

— —one

spirit

wail of lost souls

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.

What was

was the mystery

It

it ?

language of touch

is

of

The

touch.

but half understood, but the

language of

and the

language of touch

is

the

perfection of touch

is

reached when a sensitive finger

controls a vibrating string or nerve

psychic

thrill

and sends

own

its

along the waves of sound or sensibility.

The same no doubt though in a

soul,

is

true of the pianoforte touch,

degree, because

less

a percussive touch

can never have the power of a sustained and modified pressure.

Eecent science has thrown some curious sidelights

upon

this

trained

same sense

fingers

of

exercise, practice,

of

the

touch.

blind

It affirms

the

that

actually acquire

and adaptation, new nerve-cells

from filled

with grey matter exactly similar to the thinking and feeling grey nerve matter of fingers of

the brain

—in

fact,

the

have the power of

the sensitive musician

thought and emotion delegated to them; and just as thinking matter

extends

all

down

to stimulus,

know

is

not confined to

brain

cells,

but

the medulla oblongata, which responds

even when the head

that brain cells

may

is

— so we now

cut off

be acquired, I had almost

and used even by the fingers. Now, supposing we bring these thinking, pulsating

said cerebrated,

!

PRELUDE finger-tips

sound,

may

and wed

who

11

waves

their subtle pressure to

of

sound waves

shall say that these special

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 the heart and brain of the musician

generated in

is

not more

'Tis

?

inconceivable than thought-reading.

This goes far to account for the personal fascination

which players exercise through their waves becoming brain waves, whatever

is

in the musician

;

charged with

float out,

and

if

TheJr soul

art.

there

nothing in

is

the musician, as not unfrequently happens, they float

out charged with nothing

The witchery more

of the violin for collectors is

difficult to explain.

don't play,- and

still

Very

often these

more often they seem

objection to other people stringing

and playing on them.

much of

up

perhaps fanciers

to

have an

their treasures

It is the construction, not so

the sound of the violin, that deprives the collector

his senses; but

we ought

very thankful to

to be

them there would be through them the violin

these monomaniacs, for without

few masterpieces

still

extant

;

goes into a period of Devachan, or enforced all events, it

rest.

At

cannot be worn out, or chipped, or rubbed,

or trifled with

by repairers whilst in the

collector's

cabinet.

All the finest violins are

—the

known and

carefully stalked

health of their owners watched

time comes, they either find their

;

way

and when the to

the open

OLD VIOLINS

12

market or are picked up briskly by the great

Mr

sometimes for fabulous sums.

dealers,

Bond

Hill of

Street

thinks nothing of a thousand pounds for a really fine

specimen of Strad.

Watch the collector exhibiting company after lunch. You

whom

not the daft creature

want

treasures

to

a

will soon see

he

is

his

select

the uninitiated

who only

He knows

to hear the fiddle are apt to suppose.

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

him even the quaint long//'s of makers stand in lovely contrast with the more

Brescian models the old

graceful but

for

;

still

pointed sound-holes of Joseph or

more rounded ones

that ancient viola cut of viol

Amati

now

the great Antonius.

of

down from

and placed

extinct,

a larger-sized model

side

tenor, is as interesting as the

parative

anatomy

Then your

To him

by

side with

study

of

an

com-

to a scientist.

collector is never tired of

dwelhng on the

perfection of those forms which slowly emerged as the

survival of

the

fittest in

sensitiveness, sweetness,

that exciting quest for the

and sonority

of

tone which

occupied the lifelong meditations of Nicolo Amati and Stradivari.

Anon he

and sympathetically

will call

your attention excitedly

to the grace of the curves, the sur-

face never flat or board-like, but full of a variety of

a fine human body. You might almost believe that a whole system of muscle levels like the satiny surface of

—a very

living organism

—lay beneath the

"

back

"

and

!

PRELUDE which

belly,

13

to his eyes are alive

with swelling and

—and then think

of the varnish like

undulating grace

;

a sheet of thin jasper, at once shielding from decay,

whilst revealing as years roll on the transparent

ments

of the mottled

maple or sycamore and the pine,

and crossed between the

fibres

with millions of tiny

rays which betray the desiccated cells

resonance

But

—through

fila-

—now

fit

for

which the sap once flowed

must not anticipate matter which more pro-

I

perly 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

own

its

rationale.

I

may

perhaps be pardoned

if

I close this prelude

with some words which I used before the Koyal Institution in 1872. "

The

violin is perennial.

petual youth.

wear

out.

There

grows old with

no reason why

It sings over the graves of

Time, that sometimes robs

tions.

has no power over "

is

It

its

it

per-

its

should ever

many

genera-

it of a little varnish,

anointed fabric.

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.

"

The

lives

violin is the only fossil

with a fulness of

life

which stiU

lives,

and

and a freshness that contrasts

quaintly enough with the fleeting, sickly, and withering

Even should mishap

generations of man.

break

its

never

fit

beauty

it

for death

;

bruise or

can be endlessly restored. it

It is

survives a thousand calamities

j

'

OLD VIOLINS

14 nay, even

when cut up and dismembered,

parts, scattered

hundred years, in

new

'

It is fine

here "

is

several

through a dozen workshops and three live

forms, and

duality, so that

its

on with a kind of metempsychosis still

cling strangely to their indivi-

men taking up

—the front

is

a Stradivarius back

Thus human

in its

a patchwork violin say,

poor, the head

is

tame, but see

!

power and pathos, superhuman

in its immortal fabric, the violin reigns supreme, the

king and queen of

all

instruments

of a Paganini, a Joachim,

—and,

in the

hands

an Ernst, or a Sarasate, the

joy and wonder of the civilised world,"

— —

CHAPTEE

I

VIOLIN GENESIS

To me

it

has always appeared

unimportant and not

very interesting to answer the question,

were not the ancients

—by

Egyptians, or

Babylonians,

"

Were

or

which we usually mean Greeks

and

Eomans

acquainted with the fact that stretched strings could

be set in tonal vibration by means of horse-hair, reed

some other fibre?"

or

They knew most

how much they knew we

are only

now

things,

and

beginning to

discover.

At one time we thought know that water rose

not

that even the to its level,

Eomans

did

but they were

well acquainted with the fact.

We

pride ourselves upon the

surgery, but

we now

find that the

triumphs

of

modern

Egyptians were also

great surgeons and operated successfully for calculus.

The wonders modern

origin,

of electric telegraphy are doubtless of

but the Greeks were at least aware of

the attractive properties of amber, which they called "Electron," though

and they may

they made no use of

very likely

electricity,

have been acquainted with

the principle of rubbing, as they certainly were of plucking, a 16

string in

tension to produce a sound

OLD VIOLINS

16

without ever elaborating the idea in an instrument for musical purposes.

Both Fetis 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

and arrows, bow and string

likely,

it

it

for drilling holes, the

employed

and at

least as

bow

for musical purposes is

on a priori grounds alone, to be

antiquity,

have not

to us

probable that these

Like the use of the wheel, bow

savants are wrong.

or something like

known

I think

yet revealed the fact.

old as

immense

of

the knowledge of

percussion instruments such as the drum, or of wind

instruments such as the pan-pipes.

any great

I don't lay

instruments with

stress

upon pictures

something like a

prove the existence of a bow, especially

happens

to be absent

—a

of stringed

bridge taken to the

if

bow

guitar has a bridge but no

bow, so has the zither and the bandohne, which are

The much-

plucked with the fingers or a plectrum. talked-of Canino

Vase

(fig.

Storia Degli Antichi Popoli

of

Micali's

103, vol.

iii.

Italiani),

showing appa-

rently 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. that

it is

Possibly

!

Personally I

a musical instrument at

—

all

am

point

is

figured

might be anything, from a

on that same vase it or a torch to a broom or a dust-pan. in its

not satisfied

which

rattle

The strongest

favour as a musical instrument

is

not the

VIOLIN GENESIS

17

rough image on the vase, but the fact that a musician, astronomer, and doctor, by beside

We

name

Chiron,

is

seated

it.

probably see the descendants of any such in-

struments as

may have

existed in those times in the

Eavanastron, which has been recognised by some as the oriental precursor of the occidental fiddle. Altogether, I think that, from the musical point of view, too

quarian

much

lore,

time,

and a surplus

barren anti-

of

have been bestowed on the origin of the

viol tribe.

Our business begins not even with the building up Eebek, Crouth, and Eotta (see

of the viol out of the "

Music and Morals,"

p.

382), but with the

of the violin tenor, violoncello,

emergence

and double-bass out

of

that confused, tentative, and often grotesque crowd of

and

viols still

viol

da Gambas, specimens of which are

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 gleam

in

the British

of practical

because they have been cut wise used

by

violin

Museum.

A

up during the

down last

for tenors or other-

three hundred

makers: the others remain

musicians only;

few retain a

importance for the violin collector,

like

of

years

interest

to

the bones of fossil crocodiles,

they are curious studies in the comparative anatomy, not

of

reptiles,

but

of

musical

instruments,

that

is all.

No,

it is

with the distinct evolution of the

violin,

B

by

OLD VIOLINS

18

which bass

mean

I

the violin tenor, violoncello, and double-

from the nondescript, dusky, tubby, un-

types,

gainly machines, muffled in sound and dubious in form,

me

that for

at least begins the history

and the interest

of the violin tribe.

The genius

of these elect types is inseparably con-

nected with song

— sacred song.

Viols were used in churches to play chants in unison

with the monks' voices (probably also to assist their defective musical ear).

arose and

Italy

and

tenor,

companion

the

was

suitable viol

Soon

of each voice.

laid

the singing-schools of

divided the voice into treble, alto,

bass, a

divisions, the octave

cadence,

When

told

after this

and the discovery

foundation of

The

music (Monteverde, 1570).

off as

the

the modern

of the perfect

the art of modern

violin emerged.

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 agitate those

and shape,

will probably continue

to

whose minds have a special aptitude

for

violoncello size

such researches.

A

very general statement will pro-

bably satisfy general readers, and even special lovers of the violin.

The name period,

have

of Duiffoprugcar

and although the

all

j&rst

under his name

been discredited, and not always distinguished

from Vuillaume's clever the

haunts this dim transition

violins extant

forgeries, I

judges in Europe,

remember one

who was

alive to the tricks of the trade,

showing

of

certainly quite

me

a reputed

VIOLIN GENESIS

19

Duiffoprugcar (hung and labelled in the South Ken-

Museum), which

sington genuine.

It

viol tribe;

had

lost the

was, in

it

he

then

believed

be

to

tubby characteristics

of the

an early Brescian

violin,

fact,

claim to be a Duiffoprugcar was

linen-lined, but its

withdrawn. Duiffoprugcar was born in 1514 at Fussen, in the

He was an

Bavarian Tyrol.

He

is

now known

worked

There

at Lyons.

inlayer and mosaic worker.

have visited Paris, and to have

to

a

is

fine

portrait of

him

etched by the engraver Wariot in 1562, and a curious

by him, with a map of Paris inlaid at owned by Vuillaume, and within recent

viol is extant

the back, once

Museum

years secured for the Brussels Conservatoire

by

its

curator,

intelligent

Mr

Donaldson's beautiful viol da

known specimen

of

violin,

Gamba

his work.

that Duiffoprugcar ever

Victor Mahillon,

the only other

is

There

Mr

no evidence

is

made what we should

call

a

and very good negative evidence to the conIn a curious old print exhibiting his portrait,

trary.

a copy

of

which

owned by Messrs

is

Hill,

amongst the

various viols represented no such instrument as the violin appears. It

is

tion of

how

easy to see

the violin tribe

a vocal quartet

came

from the

to be

way

first

conceived

viol is selected to double a part,

in a modified

was the

inevitable

differentia-

moment of.

First the

next a viol

to suit the part,

is

and

violoncello.

made

and very soon the

modification assumes the forms and proportions as violin, viola,

that

known

— OLD VIOLINS

20

But in the early days of violin genesis the instrument was quite subordinate to the voice it only gradually ;

conquered string

thus

its

independence with the emergence of the

and

trio

string

quartet.

It

would

happen

:

Two

people would meet to sing, and

the missing

tenor or bass voice would be supplied by a viola

;

or

who could not sing at all, when it them that the vocal parts might be

three would meet

would occur

to

played instead, and with even more accuracy perhaps than the very average voices would attain

The instrumental

trio

and quartet thus

to.

at once

came

into being.

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 all to

itself,

and

thus the independent position of the instrument would

quickly be established. All attempts to date exactly the stages of differentiation

the violin tribe are

of

likely

this

to

be

misleading.

You cannot covered or

say exactly

rediscovered

developed gradually; gradually, born of

when

perspective was dis-

by the

and

so

Italian

the violin

painters,

it

developed

new musical needs and new musical

knowledge.

In the midst of the old chaotic world of viol noises that preceded

it,

the struggle to displace the old viol

"

—

;

VIOLIN GENESIS

21

players and the slow disappearance of the whole clumsy

summed up in the words of one who moment of transition. He writes

craft is aptly

at the

' In former days we had the viol in Ere the true instrument had come about But now we say, since this all ears doth win. The violin hath put the viol out.

lived

CHAPTER

II

VIOLIN CONSTITUTION

One

of the subtle

charms

of the violin is that it

may

be called bisexual. It unites in itself

and feminine Its

and welds together the masculine

qualities.

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 the maple back.

of

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

soul of the violin (I'dme

and slow

vibrations,

du

by the French the

violon), collects the

quick

and fusing them, produces the

subtle resultant of violin tone.

That tone

is

the offspring of neither back nor front,

nor ribs alone, but of surfaces, collected

all

these differently vibrating

and made musical in the "soul,"

and poured forth as the breath holes as out of

the very

from the

//

nostrils of

the

of life

mouth and

Surely the children of the violin are nothing

violin. 22

— ;

VIOLIN CONSTITUTION

23

but the sweet and subtly compounded sounds that it

utters.

The bisexual and

The bow

strings.

— swept

the male and the strings

is

are the female element?.

touched

good even to the bow

figure holds

They can only vibrate when

into a tempest of emotion or caressed

into tender whispers.

They wait and pine for their

own

they respond

sigh,

only

when

the

to

powdered and they

for this

magic touch, and long

They

fulfilment.

feathery kiss of

lightest

anointed

are so sensitive that

horse -hair

—they

the

murmur,

they scream, they weep, they laugh, but 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

They

abet the masculine power of the bow.

are its

them the might of the bow itself would be impotent; without them the very strings

ministers; without

would be unable

and is

of

to yield their infinite variety of tone

inflection of all

meaning.

instruments the most human, personal, and

sympathetic, for the violin It is

Yes, certainly the violin

is

truly bisexual.

also a miracle of art, strength,

we may say as a horse.

and simplicity

at once, as light as a feather It is

composed

and as strong

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

OLD VIOLINS

24

about a hundredweight upon the belly, neck, and

of

tailpiece,

from the tension

of the four strings.

Six sycamore ribs and twelve internal blocks and

and belly together.

linings suffice to hold the back

The neck

carries

the ebony finger-board and or

characteristic scroll

its

head

— so

makers can almost be recognised by

The neck it

only in

is

my

physiognomy.

and fastened

let solidly into the ribs

is

against the lower part of

glued

its

extremely

When

the belly.

detach

difficult to

lifts

expressive that

it,

firmly

and once

experience has the neck of a violin proved

unequal to support the enormous pull made upon

it

by

the strings. It

was

The heat was intense and

in Ceylon.

moist.

I had borrowed a violin for experimental purposes

my

at Colombo.

In the middle

in

one of

of

an attempted passage the neck quietly doubled

up;

had

my

lectures

the strings liquefied,

hands.

fell

a

loose

and the whole

What no

been able to

in

effect

cluster.

fiddle

came

The glue to pieces in

time nor wear and tear had

had been suddenly achieved by

the peculiar hothouse, vapour-bath treatment of the tropics.

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

muffled and tubby

all ;

if

were all

soft,

the sound would be

were hard, the sound would

be metallic and light; neither must the thickness of

back and front be uniform

—each

must be thicker

VIOLIN CONSTITUTION

problem was

thin

must

The

to find the relative densities

best vibrate together

can judge

of

these den3ities even

wood when

yielded by the difficult

which would

—a cunning connoisseur

Of course the densities

wood.

how

of the wood.

towards the middle, but how thick or

depend upon the relative densities

25

will

in timber

feel of the

affect

set in vibration,

Stradiuarius and

that

to believe

by the

the tone

and

it is

school

his

were unacquainted with some exact technical method of testing the acoustic properties of these woods.

Monsieur Savart's experiments with specimen of Stradiuarius backs

cases tested there

and

was the

F|

bellies

A

strips

showed that in most

difference of one tone

the belly and the back.

back both yielded a

bellies

between

1717 and a 1708 Strad

a 1724 and a 1690 Strad

gave the interval, so that Stradiuarius worked

his backs

and

bellies

examining specimens

on some regular principle.

of

Joseph Guarnerius,

made with only a

that his best were

full

it

On

was found

tone between

back and belly but occasionally the interval was greater. ;

The sound-bar is a subtly proportioned strip of pinewood running nearly all the way down the middle of the belly inside. pitch has

made

The increasing tension it

necessary to strengthen

violin sound-bars, as the increasing

tion

of the

demands

have compelled the lengthening

all

modern the old

for execu-

of all their necks.

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

— OLD VIOLINS

26

But any blundering with a sound-bar

head.

the nervous system of the violin

denly be evolved

—that

the wolf

;

is fatal

may

to

sud-

horrid dull growl which sets

the teeth on edge, and which, once generated within the violin, is so difhcult to

The best

diagnose or to cure.

old masters finished everything inside their violins as

carefully as the purfling and the joinings which would

meet the

and

eye,

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,

be seen at

Many

forgeries

cup and

make

platter, whilst within

clean the outside

you

men's bones of his slovenly dishonesty. only to

to

have thus been rudely unmasked, the

forger only having troubled to of the

might chance

all.

sell,

and

to sell

find the

dead

He worked

by deception (not because he

cared for his craft or respected his instrument), and his

works do follow him "

Men

as

But

!

as

Mr

Lowell says

worked thorough is the ones that thrive, follers you as long as yer live

But bad work

Yer

;

can't get rid on

'Tis allers askin' to

The finger-board it

was often

inlaid.

is of

it,

just as sure as sin,

be done agin."

black ebony

There need be

;

in the old fiddles

little

said about

except that the old masters would be puzzled to

it

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

VIOLIN CONSTITUTION

27

manage to produce with our extended compass and phenomenal shifts, in spite of the absence of frets to measure

intervals.

The Finger-board must be kept smooth and even, or

it

will not be possible to

You

chord in tune. strings have

will notice in old finger-boards the

The height

is to

any other

fifths or

worn deep channels, which

the vibration. finger-board

"stop"

of course

some extent a matter

of fancy,

course depends on the height of the bridge. or

young

girl

mar

the strings above the

of

and

A

of

child

would soon be discouraged with attempt-

ing to press strings raised too high above the fingerboard, and of course the higher you ascend the harder

must be the

pressure.

On

the other hand,

are too close down, the touch heart's content

vibration,

!

I

the strings

suffer.

had almost said the

indeed thereby hangs a its

if

no doubt light to your

but you cannot get a sufficiently full

;

and your tone will

The Bridge with

is

tale.

asses' bridge, for

The hard-wood

whimsical perforated visage, and

feet clinging closely to the

its

smooth belly

bridge,

two slender

of the violin,

has been sometimes treated with scant courtesy by writers, its

and even makers do not

importance.

all

seem

I notice repairers will

fully alive to

send you back

your violin with a bran-new bridge, and no apology, they happen to have mislaid or broken yours.

if

But the

bridge not only exercises the most important and indis-

pensable 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

;

OLD VIOLINS

28

any other the

wood

of its appendages.

It is so squeezed

as to be almost pressed into

than the finger-board or the blocks and linings.

far

more

even

tailpiece, or

It is charged with the

vibrations from the strings

so

the

primary

and the secondary vibra-

and back; nothing goes on in

tions of the belly, ribs,

column enclosed

that wondrous air

it,

upon

in the violin walls

without the bridge taking cognisance of hindering or aiding and abetting

its

it,

and possibly

successful exit from

the sound-holes. I this

am

aware that

I

matter, but an

convinced

me

that

it

have been thought fanciful in

many

experience of

not easy to get a bridge that

is

suits a violin perfectly,

has

years

and most dangerous

to trifle

with the close and quasi marital relations which exist

between the violin and bridges.

happens

its

I love old ones

bridge.

I

dislike

and why, when

;

all

new

the rest

to be old, is the bridge alone to bring the

raw

sap of youth to vex the mellow and desiccated repose of

melodious age

The

?

position of your bridge, like that of your sound-

post, the adjusting

your

of

your screws, the thickness of

strings, belongs rather to the

management than

to the constitution of the violin.

The only further

details

fit

to be noted here

seem

to

be the button supporting the tailpiece, which has a character of

and the

its

own, in

far less

its size,

important

material,

tailpiece, to

and

fixture

which we may

add the purfling and other occasional inlaying.

The Tailpiece,

of course, is strictly indispensable,

VIOLIN CONSTITUTION but

how

it

does not

much matter what

29

made

it is

or

of,

decorated.

it is

The PuEFLiNG, although occasionally resisting damage to the outlying edge, is chiefly ornamental, and consists and

wood

of three thin strips of

wood

or whalebone, and one of white

—two

—

inlaid.

In the purfling

we have

the

last

notice that the further you go back the rately inlaid are the viols

and

that the instrument, which

It

violins.

was

of

the

You

will

survival

inlaying as applied to musical instruments.

little

more elabowas thought

more

in those

days of rudimentary music than a toy, might exploited to skill

ebony

glued together

show

off the conceit

of cabinet-makers

;

of

artists

fitly

be

and the

but as music developed and

tone was reckoned all-important, every detail likely to interfere

with this new development gradually disin the hands

appeared,

till

the faint

memory

of

the Cremonese makers

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.

And nuded

thus the perfect sounding violin, though deof

all

superfluous decoration and meretricious

adornment, yet remains a miracle of art of beauty

and a joy

for ever."

— "a

thing

;

CHAPTER

III

VIOLINS AT BRESCIA

The

proper

violin

from the north

is

an Italian creation. Stainer,

of Italy.

it is

It

true, is

comes

an early

maker, and he bore a German name, but his date after all 1621-83, whilst that of

and

you

if

Maggini

is

visit the frontier village of

is

1590-1632

Absam, near

the town of Hall, where he lived, you will observe that

he dwelt on the high-road between the Tyrol and Italy,

were

and that

his training, his talent,

But Brescia was there

really the

home

of the viohn,

and

possibly something in the heavy salt seasoning

is

the Tyrolean pines which

of

and his market

Italian.

peculiar

resonance,

specially favours

sensitiveness,

and durability

that for

which the Brescian and Cremonese schools are famous.

The name real name),

and

violas,

of

now

G-asparo chiefly

di Salo (Bertolotti

famous

for his

was

his

double-basses

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.

Salo

is 30

a lovely spot on the shores

of

the

lake of

VIOLINS

AT BRESCIA

31

Garda, in the province of Brescia, and about twenty miles from the big town.

schools,

It

was early famed

went there

Foreigners

culture.

for its

for the sake of its

and the Corporation records show that sacred

music especially flourished

It is

there.

now

certain

that Gasparo migrated thence to Brescia and worked in that

This

is

town.

Maggini was as certainly

his

pupil.

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.

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 instru-

ments which can be called

seems

violins,

to

argue that

the piccolo violino which was presently going to

be

master of the situation was only just creeping up. I have seen violin, the

rich

and played on one very

property of Lord Amherst

fine

Gasparo

—D and A strings

and pure, 1st and 4th rather muffled, but on the is mellow and j)owerful.

whole the tone

This almost unique Gasparo violin a great is

improvement on the old

is

still

bulgy, but

viol build; the

head

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.

A giant

specimen,

known

as the

Duke

of Leinster's

OLD VIOLINS

32 bass,

may still be seen

and

I exhibited it at the

His work

South Kensington Museum,

at the

Eoyal Institution in 1872.

heavy and lacks refinement, but

is

his tone is

grand and full-bodied. Gio. age,

Paolo Maggini was the

and born

child of his father's old

at Botlicino, near the

town

of Brescia,

which afterwards became the family headquarters. Brescia was at this time a strongly fortified place,

and a print as notion of what

late as it

1764 probably gives us a

fair

looked like between 1560 and 1632.

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

;

the streets were adorned

The Cathedral

with frescoes.

was famous

Duomo

for its music,

of

San Pietro de

Dom

and had an organ and

full

The viol-makers and the monks were then,

orchestra.

as they have since been, in intimate relations, and

was a couple

of

it

monks who befriended Gasparo when

he was down in the world in health and fortune, and sadly needed

it.

The princes great patrons

of Italy at this time (1512-1630) of

letters,

art,

and

especially

Brescia in 1600 was under Venetian rule. or fortress

was from

its

were

music.

The town

very position constantly in the

midst of wars and rumours of wars, and was appropriately

famed amongst other things

of swords

for its

manufactory

and armour.

It is surprising

how

little

mihtary commotions seem

AT BRESCIA

VIOLINS to

have

Cremona, the

affected, either at Brescia or at

manufacture

of

There seems to

musical instruments.

have been an uninterrupted line of lute

33

viol

and cither and

makers at Brescia from 1300 and onwards.

But when

it is

remeniijered that war does not inter-

rupt 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 friend or foe

;

and they probably made impartially

— for

any

one, in fact,

who

for

could afford

to pay.

Up

to within the last

of this

man

Gio. Paolo

As he put only on his labels it is

the

(all

few years very

Maggini

name and

little

—Magino

was known

or Magicino.

place, but not the date,

dated Magginis are therefore frauds),

not easy to assign fixed dates to any of his instru-

ments, and the personal information to be squeezed out of

them

Brescia

is of ;

the meagrest description.

few of his instruments survive.

He worked

in

His violas are

as rare as Gaspare's violins, but he distances all other

makers

in the attention that he gave to

that new-

fangled and suspiciously regarded instrument,, the true violin.

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. of Brescia

Eecently, however, the State Archives

have revealed some interesting gleams of C

OLD VIOLINS

34

information which enable us to show him in his work-

shop with one apprentice, Franchino, and a young wife, aged

Maddalena Anna, who brought

nineteen,

him a dowry, and afterwards

A picture of

his house in the

Vechio del Podesta,

ground

lies

floor to

Contrada del Palazzo,

two

It has but

before me.

and the family lived

storeys,

children.

upstairs, surrendering the

the violin business.

In a woodcut by Jost Anian, Zurich (1539-91), we

have an authentic picture of such easy,

leisurely,

calm

workers as Maggini.

There

is

the rude substantial

and the wood

glue-pot, the planks fiddles

and

aproned

bench, the tools, the

strips of timber

in

blocks, bits of

hung up on the

artificer is carefully trying

walls

a lute as he

;

sits

the

on

his three-legged stool.

What

sunplicities

!

Were we

to enter in

imagina-

which the greatest pictures in the

tion the studios in

world were being painted about this time, the same

meagre appliances and absence

of superfluous

luxury

would doubtless have greeted our eyes.

But our gorgeous modern spoils of the East,

studios

hung with the

and iridescent with precious pottery

and curiously worked metals, our modern workshops with their exquisite mechanical appliances and of labour-saving machines,

somehow

fail

quality of production those old masters

three-legged stools, ground their their their

own glue and own wood.

varnish,

own

to

all sorts

rival

who

sat

pigments,

and chopped and

in

on

made

chiselled

VIOLINS

AT BRESCIA

35

you consider Maggini's period (1560-1632) you

If

how

will see

exactly the direction of his genius was

conditioned by the demands of his age.

The singing-schools

of

Naples had resulted in a

for stringed instruments in increased

old viols were seen to correspond

and the need

times,

call

numbers, but the

ill

the altered

to

an instrument which would

for

render leading melodies effectively was proportion as such melodies

felt

just in

became multiplied with

the rise of vocal music, sacred and profane.

Most for

a

writers on the violin

cutting up a maker's

man

to

have a passion

into periods, as though

could rise one morning and say, "

upon period number

let us enter

back shall be sloped

and the curve

thus,

life

seem

elongated thus."

so,

Go

three, in

to

now,

which the

and the belly brought down

of the bouts tilted, contracted, or

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 infer that a

and

rule,

and we may

maker came under such and such

influences,

80 forth.

Now

I

come

to

speak of Maggini,

roughly but clearly what

may

I

will

trace

be called his continuous

development, rather than any so-called three periods. Naturally at Gasparo.

the pupil

made

like

his

master

His violins suggested big viols on a small

They had a heavy look they were of large which makes the sides seem lower than they are,

scale. size,

first

;

for in reality the ribs are not higher

the Amati,

than those of

OLD VIOLINS

36

The heads look rough, size,

no increase

of

because, with

reduced

the

refinement or delicacy has yet

been reached; now, they are cut without symmetry;

now, the fluting

the scroll

of

is

not smoothed, even

the grooves for the purfling are not neat, nor

the

is

purfling itself sharp,

Maggini's early backs, sides, and bellies are cut on the slab

— that

across the grain.

is,

Then Gasparo's sound-holes have got narrower

in

the hands of his pupil, and Gaspare has probably got

some

credit for

there can be

little

Gaspare

the

are

Stradivari

the improvements of

of

Maggini, as

doubt that some violins labelled

work are

violins

of

his

pupil, just

early

as

signed

existence

in

Nicolo

Amati. If I

may

hazard the remark, in

did not copy so

my

opinion Maggini

long or so seriously the work of

Gaspare as did Stradivari copy Nicolo, is

obvious.

The

stride

The reason

between Gasparo and Mag-

gini is far greater than that between the late Nicolo

and the Strad,

By

had already risen individuality

to

the time Nicolo that

died

the violin

supreme and independent

and dignity which

it

has never since

lost.

Stradivari

got the violin

all

ready made;

it

was

Maggini's glory to have assisted at the individualisa-

King " type. Presently we become aware that Gasparo is dead and The Maggini bellies now cease to be cut on buried. the slab, but show the long parallel grain lines of the tion of the "

r

;

AT BRESCIA

VIOLINS wood

as in the

Amatis

the art of

;

37

wood

selection for

sonority and sensitiveness seems already to have reached

Cremona

the 1650

but

delicate,

The sound-holes are more

level.

a little quaint; they are invariably

still

bevelled inwards, a practice entirely discarded by the

Cremona masters. Sir

Joseph

Mr

and

Chitty's,

and the

Sternberg's,

Dumas' tenors are good specimens

Maggini's

of

first

independent work illustrating the above characteristics.

The Dumas family were enthusiastic admirers of

Beethoven, and

friends of

They pos-

Maggini's work.

sessed 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).

There are only about eight violas or tenors of Maggini's

known

;

The model

they do not vary in their proportions. of

the

most arched type

—a

Dumas

viola is

feature

Stainer and his followers.

It

of

much is,

the master's

exaggerated

like

almost

all

by this

master's specimens, adorned with double purfling, set close to the edge, with

the corner joints.

siognomy

;

the usual Maggini

These corners give

they are short, and

eye like the later Cremonas. upright, short, and liroad

same maker's

;

it

bevel at

a special phy-

make no appeal

to the

The tenor's// holes are

they are higher than in the

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

OLD VIOIJNS

38

the rough tooth of the well-known Brescian plane has

mark on the wood

left its

exquisite condition

is in

Gasparo brown, type

it

;

tenor can say, " This

a big violin." type for

unlike the old

is

is

;

tints.

Its

no one in looking at

this

little violoncello," or "

a

It is a distinct viola type,

it,

and

it

This

is

set the

The Cremona makers

succeeding violas.

all

worked on

The Dumas tenor

glows with rich golden

admirably defined

is

inside.

the varnish

but they did not re-create the tenor;

they could not.

The Dumas-Maggini tion

;

it

looks so

new

violin is in equally fine condi-

that

some have supposed

although eighty years before Stradivari,

it

that,

must be a

copy made by Strad of the older master, but

it

is

absolutely authentic and genuine.

we

Before Maggini died,

notice

in his earlier days, or, as

any

for

a very high

that

standard of finish has been reached,

unknown

the matter of

him

to

that, to

Observe the improved purfling,

of his" predecessors.

the bouts and mitres cut with clear

but

intention,

never so marked in physiognomy as the Amatis, the sound-holes quite as sharp as theirs; but, above the arching has at last so early given,

come down

—

this

true

was not at once adopted by Maggini's

Cremonese successors.

Stradivarius at last fixed

model from which no

regulated

it

in a

has found

it

safe to depart with the exception of

and Klotz, who obstinately adhered bellies

all,

hint,

later

it

and

maker

Duke

to the Stainer high

with deep side grooves.

Maggini's later varnish runs out of the old Gasparo

;

AT BRESCIA

VIOLINS

39

brown into orange and golden yellow, as luscious as anything to be found in a Joseph or a Strad.

Although Maggini adhered there are specimens of his it

and at

;

least

instrument is

is

his double

to

work

purfling,

in exhibitions without

one curiously but not carelessly made

known where

the purfling at the back

double nor even inlaid, but merely drawn

neither

sharply in

black

A

lines.

very

fine

single-purfled

formerly in the collection of Prince Caraman

violin,

Chimay, now

Mr

in the possession of

Antonietti, pos-

Many

an unrivalled tone of the Maggini timbre.

sesses

of his violins retain the old taste for other inlaid orna-

He

mentation.

does not run into

but a graceful clover-leaf pattern

and bottom purfling,

the back

that there

portraits,

often found at top

of his backs, twisted, as it were, out of the

and a sixfold

centre of

maps and

is

is

;

trefoil

sometimes occupies the

but an acute observer has noted

no instance of the central

trefoil

com-

bined with the clover-leaf pattern.

Not

less

remarkable than this great maker's definition

of the violin

and

violoncello.

The Maggini

viola types

was

his conception of the

'cello is

not the son of the

double-bass, but the father of the tenor.

more

the proportions are, as

not

It is

much

like a large tenor than like a small double-bass

reduced

bent was

from

entirely

it

were, enlarged from the tenor,

the in

flat-backed

the

direction

Maggini's

bass.

of

the

smaller

violoncello pattern.

The too

early and

large,

even the later Cremona

and there

is

very

little

'cellos

doubt

that

were the

OLD VIOLINS

40

powerful influenco of Maggini can be traced in the evolution of those perfect but moderately sized Strad

which date mostly after 1700.

'cellos

The tone Strad, or

Maggini

of

than

rather

biting

soft

full,

mellow, and plaintive,

Stainer,

bell-resonant

like

and sensitive like Nicolo Amati; but

players

great

is

like

like

Vieuxtemps, Ole

and De Beriot have found him have not extolled Maggini,

it

Bull,

sufficient,

may

and

Leonard, if

more

be on account of

the rareness and inaccessibility of his instruments. It has been said

more than

fifty

by a competent authority that not

extant Magginis are known, and in

England at present (1897) about thirty violins, ten violas, and but two violoncellos and one double-bass. Maggini died at the comparatively early age All researches

one.

his parish church,

made

of fifty-

in the archives of S. Lorenzo,

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.

We

hear plenty about his wife,

Anna

Foresti,

who

died 1651, aged fifty-eight, and was buried in a neigh-

bouring parish. 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 House, no taken.

official

At any

interred, or, dying at the Pest

note of his death

rate, in

his son describes himself as " filius

Pauli

"

His

— the son last

may have

been

1632, the year of the plague,

quondam Johaunis

of the late Gio. Paolo.

income-tax return

is

dated

1626, and he

VIOLINS was dead 1632, and fifty-one.

in 1632, so he

AT BRESCIA must have died

therefore could not have

siderable property in

the father of the

and out

what was

modern

of town, of far

violin.

at latest in

been more than

Maggini was doubtless well

of six children, and,

41

off,

owned con-

was the father

more importance,

—

!

CHAPTER IV CREMONA

VIOLINS AT

Ckemona

!

Artiati

!

two words making melody with their

very syllables, and a deeper harmony music, from

of

the association

of

for the lover

still

ideas which

they

excite.

With Brescia

name and

the assumed immigration

—

the

emergence

Amati

of

is

Amati

the

of

makers

of

from

family (the

not found in the Brescian archives),

their final residence at

Cremona

—begins the

classic

period of the violin.

Cremona, ancient city of very situation (Kpi

was the battle-point of the old

strife,

imovog, "

which, owing to

high rock

of the

"

middle ages from the days

Goths and Lombards down

times;

Cremona, with

known

or visited, yet possessing

two

lions couchant, supporting portico

antiquated back streets,

its

;

I

Cremona town

is

of

one of

Cremona, with

drowsy quiet

on apart from the beaten thoroughfares truly,

little

of the finest red

columns

the noblest cathedral facades in Italy its

modern

to quite

stately cathedral so

its

its

" alone "),

and

life

of

gliding

travel

a place to set one dreaming

have narrated elsewhere

my

pilgrimage to the place

which so ungratefully forgets almost the very tradition 42

!

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS of the

Amati, Stradivari, and Guanierii, whose fabrics

alone have given

names

43

are

it

a musical immortality, and whose

hung up high

like the stars,

which no discords

of the middle ages, sieges, or brawls can ever reach.

now

Let us

try

and come face

to

face with

these

immortal makers.

Andrea Amati {p^re) from

violins

He

1520-46.

Nicolo

brother

settled at

the

(not

Cremona, and made

him

brought with Nicolo,

great

his

afterwards

master of Stradivari, Italian, or Stradiuarius, Latin).

Andrea Amati had two

who made

Antonio and Geronimo,

sons,

Antonio

married, the fiddles of neither

prove.

The brothers ceased

together (there being,

;

names,

that they again collaborated.

— the

If

it

we

trust

of the joint violins being dated

violins at the age of 136 years,

who only worked

some

1687

follow that the venerable artificers were

himself,

much

till

later

has been assumed

being born about

brothers

to im-

a period in which there

but as there are

violins bearing their joint

and one

seemed

time at least to work

for a

it is said,

are no joint reductions)

late labels

When

violins jointly as well as separately.

of these

1555-56,

—

still

it

would

making

which beats Stradivari

he was ninety-three.

Geronimo, according to one writer's account of his labels,

went even one

violin

dated

Antonio, was certain,

1698

;

so

better, for there is a if

born about

this

Geronimo

Geronimo, brother of

1556,

which

is

tolerably

he went on working even longer than Moses,

with his eye undimmed unabated,

down

and

to the age of

his

148

natural

strength

;

OLD VIOLINS

44

The confusion has

arisen from confounding Geronimo,

brother of Antonio, with Geronimo, son of the great

But

Nicolo (born 1649, died 1740).

Geronimo

signed

and

seems very doubtful,

had well

of repute

Antonio and Geronimo

workshops in,

— the

and the

wovild be

it

demand

believe that, as the

makers

Antonio

to

for Italian instruments

by

label

was stolen from the old

figures

16

of

— being

label clapped on to cover the fraud

any Geronimo son of Nicolo

;

filled

whilst

1698 would be by Geronimo,

violin dated

;

which

1698,

certainly easier

set in before 1700, the late

two

last

there exists a

if

dated

or at most, one

made up by some

enter-

prising pupil out of the debris of the elder Geronimo's

workshop Great,

—perhaps

about the time that

Geronimo and

son of

was working with Guarnerii, and or

grandson

his pupils, Stradivari

own

his

son,

the

Nicolo the

Andrea,

of

and Andrea,

younger Geronimo

Girolamo Amati.

But with

this

1649), and a priest,

Geronimo Amati, son

certain

we need not

Don

of Nicolo (born

Nicolo Amati, an

trovible ourselves

Italian

beyond recording

their names.

A

good deal has been said about Andrea Amati and

his violins.

but not

He was

much

is

certainly the founder of the family,

known about him except

that he

probably, almost certainly, acquired from Brescia

Maggini type, and that

his

violins

are

the

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

— VIOLINS

AT CREMONA

the later Amatis have a

45

tendency to revert to the

browner hue.

That Andrea made some choice violins for Charles IX. of France

— twenty-four

small pattern,

known

there can be no Versailles

The arms backs,

twelve large, twelve

du

roi "

from

doubt, but they disappeared

the

in

violins,

as " les petits violons

disturbances

political

we

of France,

and they are

about 1790.

are told, were painted on the

have been

of

beautiful

Amati Cremonentis

faciebat,

said

to

workmanship.

A

"Andrea

'cello,

1572," was sold amongst some others belonging to Sir

WilKam

Curtis,

May

"Bridge's viollo."

This

1827.

is

known

romantic,

Its history is

it

as

the

having

been presented by Pope Pius V. to Charles IX. of France, and surnamed the " King."

The Amati

characteristic,

which culminates, along

with other qualities of sonority, in the great Nicolo, 1596-1684,

power

of

The

"

;

is

beautiful, the "

the third very full and round

E"

—

want

but a certain

noticeable, especially on the fourth

is

A"

sweetness of tone

is

and

soft

qualities

string.

delicate,

and

which are also

conspicuous in the brothers Geronimo.

But its

if

Amati tone

quality

is

sensitiveness,

of

is

of cabinet, not concert quality,

a kind

unequalled for charm and

and although not

loiid,

some

violins

made

by the brothers have a considerable carrying power.

The Amati heads plicity

or scrolls retained a certain sim-

and antique Brescian look even

and form

of the ])ody of the violin

had

after the finish left

the Brescian

OLD VIOLINS

46 school far behind.

The double

also gone, but

brothers purfled

the

purfling of Brescia

is

very beautifully,

with a bend of perfect regularity and smoothness.

The

violins of

Antonio are better than his brother's,

but the joint violins are the best, and

have been

oftenest forged.

The brothers indeed made the fashion

excellent

sometimes cut down.

violas, but, as

They have been

then was, too large. Sir Frederick

Gore Ousely once

specimen, which I remember playing upon

had a

fine

many

years ago at

Tenby

— tone very

full

and mellow.

Eichard Blagrove, a brother of Henry Blagrove, the admirable early

Monday Popular

violinist,

player, and used a reputed Amati, but

Gagliano. it

Many of

it

was a viola was really a

us (1897) can remember

how

richly

contributed to the triumph of a quartet, of which

Joachim, Eiess, and Piatti were often the other members.

Her late Majesty the Queen had a fine painted Amati, 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 unfortunately cut

;

violin of Charles IV. of Spain.

Geronimo, after separating from Antonio, reduced the arching of his

bellies, but,

singularly enough, with-

out 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,

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS with rounded

47

powerful Dukes and

bellies,

piercing

Staiuers, which, according to the orthodox theory,

no business

known

to

that

Cremona

sound as loud as they

both these Amati makers

in

flat

curve

conspicuous by

is

whilst I do not for a

moment deny

the Stradivari model

last

perfection

achieves

it

is

of

the

late

absence

;

and

preferable, I think the superi-

other things beside that.

question whether the

well

that the flatness of

Cremona tone may be due

ority of the late

many

is

its

had

is

It

did.

It will

good

to a

always be a

man who makes possible the man who actually

an art or the

really the greater genius.

Pietro Peru-

gino or Eaffaello in painting; Chaucer or Shakespeare in literature

and

;

Handel

Maggini

or

or

Beethoven in music

Stradivari

in

;

Gaspare

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

for a fine Nicolo

£1000 and

is

is

is

question as

an unusual price

nearer the mark, 1898);

uncommon figure for a good specimens command £2000 (1898).

not an

his finest

Nicolo,

(£250

settle the

£400

regards the violin-makers.

the great son

of

Strad,

Gerouimo, was born in

1596, and died close upon the seventeen hundreds, in 1684.

Nicolo was quite aware that he resumed

in

himself the fine quahties of his distinguished family

and improved upon them. trouble himself

whom

much with

It

his

is

true he

did

not

grandfather Andrea,

he probably regarded as a worthy old gentleman

OLD VIOLINS

48 quite

There could have been

out of date.

little

in

brown varnished,

those small, almost three-quarter

size,

and sweet but feeble-sounding

violins to attract the

aspiring grandson

what

but there were qualities in the some-

;

when and

famous brothers, Geronimo

larger models of the

and Antonio, which boy he

as a

bellies,

fell

copying and carving lacks

to

and twisting

his father's little

hand and head agoing,

set his

and throwing

ribs

workshop

at

scrolls, in

Cremona, opposite the

west front of the Saint Dominic Church. Nicolo the Great doubtless followed and imitated father

his

Geronimo, but wishing

and perhaps labouring under a sense merely out of genuine

acknowledgment

masters.

They run thus:

(The

italics are

Fil, ac

of

— "Nicolaus

to

both

Amatus Cre-

Antonij Nepos

fecit,

1677"

mine.)

workshop are not unfrequently

and can be picked up even

embody an

indebtedness

Nicolo the Great's smaller patterns father's

nothing,

of obligation or

affection, his labels

immortal

monem Hieronymi

miss

to

for

made in his met with,

to be

between £80 and £100, or

less.

But

as

we watch

liis

dates, the touch of Nicolo very

soon becomes distinctive.

On

and uncle he found himself

the death of his father

in possession of

a work-

shop which inherited a great name, but which was destined to transmit to future generations the greatest violin

Nicolo

names in

in

the world.

1653 sat the

Among

brothers

the

pupils

of

Guarneri, Andrea

Guarnerius having witnessed the marriage of his master

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS Nicolo and

signed

Andrea Guarnerius Stradivari, or, as

Most

we

49

the register; and by the side of sat a

young man named Antonio

usually call him, Stradiuarius.

1645 are

of the Nicolo violins before

smaller pattern, but after this date

down

of the

to 1684, the

year of his death, the eye of a connoisseur will notice

an increase in

more still

delicate

a finish in workmanship, and a

size,

(never double).

purfle

somewhat high

in

back and

increasing tendency to get is

flatter;

drawn out

into finer points

the eye, lightening as

it

is

but with an

the side-grooving

pronounced, whilst the corners

less

The model

belly,

are noticeably

full of character, arresting

were the model, and giving

the whole physiognomy of the instrument a grace and

piquancy hitherto unattempted.

The sound-holes narrow taste,

;

the scroll

of Nicolo are pointed is

cut a

little

and somewhat

too flat for the later

but passes as the century wanes into a somewhat

and bolder

larger

almost as

much

style.

The wood seems

to be

for its mottled or fine-grained

chosen beauty

as for its acoustical properties.

The early Nicolo varnish type, but later on

it

is

of

brownish Brescian

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.

Mr

Somers Cocks (1898) has a most glorious Amati

violoncello,

said to

me

"one

of

the finest ever seen or heard," so

a distinguished connoisseur.

Mr

Marshall

D

;

OLD VIOLINS

50

Jerome (the younger) Amati,

Bulley's violoncello, a also a rare gein of tone

The grand Amati

is

and workmanship.*

some

violin pattern runs

Stradivari violins verj^ hard, and

of the

evidently the model

is

on which the 1700-35 Strads are "caique," as the

French

say.

side-grooving,

Tlio

held

generally

to

interfere with the volume of tone, whilst supposed by

some

add

to

to its sweetness, has not disappeared as

Strad

the

in

The tone

pronounced. the Nicolo

grand model, but

is

truly

is

it

has become less

lovely and

delightful

sensitive,

handle.

to

It

is

and

par

excellence the lady's violin.

The one before me, where the varnish

remains,

still

melts into light orange with clear golden gleams in

Joseph

If

the strong male, Nicholas or Nicolo cer-

is

tainly belongs to the

The tone seems

It

is

most

softer

delicate,

and more yielding

vibrating silver

It continues to sing

bell, as if

bow has ceased

intoxicated with its

almost before are

Nicolo's

whilst

'tis

wooed (Plate

interested

to

long

In the sweet

contact.

;

it is

won

V.).

know

that in his

work was carefully imitated, his

on hke a

itself,

Nicolo the lover finds no bars, no obstacles

We

sex.

and of ravishing sweetness.

to leap out almost before the horse-hair has

feathered the strings.

after the

it.

supremacy over one

of

if

his

own time

not forged best

pupils,

Francesco Eugereo, Eugieri, or Eugerius, was clearly

An

unique set of instruments by the Amati family worthy of is the quintett, composed of three vioHns, a viola, and a violoncello, now (1898) in the possession of Miss Willmott. *

mention

;

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS acknowledged

Antonio

51

we find that a certain Tomaso who seems to have bought a violin for

;

Vitali,

with a Nicolo label inside, and paid twelve doubloons (or about £12, 10s.) for

removing the

complained bitterly that on

it,

false label he

Euggeri underneath

had discovered the name

The aggrieved Tomaso

it.

upon applied

to his liege sovereign, the

Modena,

summary

for

of

there-

Grand Duke

of

avowing that he had

redress,

given a higher price because the violin had a label of Nicolo, " who," he adds, " in his profession, but violin

The

by Eugerius the

violin,

he

is

pupil, a

maker

Whether he got

for redress.

to us.

of great repute

was proved

to

to be

only a

of less credit."

him more than

the petitioner therefore prayed the

doubt very important

quence

it

was scarce worth

said,

three doubloons;

Duke

was a maker

now

The

fact that

it

or not

but of very

to him,

little

was no conse-

he made the application

the point.

The GuARNERii family must have made as

violins

the sand

of

frequency of their labels

and

in truth they

violas or

the sea in number,

may

if

the

be taken as any guide

were a long-lived and industrious

made a good many instruments, But the reputation of Andrew and

family, and doubtless chiefly

violins.

and above

Peter,

all

the great Giuseppe (Joseph) del

Gesu, led to the early fabrication of pseudo Josephs,

and labels in numbers far beyond what

all

the great

Cremona together could have produced. Andrea Guarneri (Andrew Guarnerius) the appren-

makers

tice,

as

of

we have

seen,

was one

of the witnesses to the

OLD VIOLINS

52

Amati's marriage in 1641, and Nicolo

great Nicolo

enters his pupil's fifteen,

worked on sons,

and

name

church register as aged

in the

which gives us the year till

1698

;

in

He

of his birth, 1626.

1652 he married, and two of his

Giuseppe (not the great Giuseppe,

Pietro, worthily sustained

his

nephew)

and improved upon

their

father's reputation.

Many

Andrea Guarneri are

of the violins of

somewhat

smaller Nicolo pattern, but

always well

The wood

finished.

however, although plain in

of

inferior,

of the

and not

his rare 'cellos,

appearance, can boast of

singularly fine acoustic qualities.

There

is

a well-known

Miss Theobald,

second

Giuseppe,

1666

Giuseppe, born "

Del Gesu or work.

of

'cello

of his finest

son to

now (1897) belonging

to

workmanship. of

1739,

Andrea

Gianbattista

as distinguished from

Jesus " Giuseppe, struck out a freer line

His narrow-waisted boldly-curved instru-

ments, with their Brescian-looking sound-holes set low

down, his fine

rich,

almost too profusely

rich,

varnish and

wood, but not over-finished workmanship, give his

violins quite a characteristic appearance, of tone they are superior to his father's.

and in power

But next

the great Giuseppe del Gesu, Pietro Guarneri

is

to

the

flower of the family, and most sought after by amateurs.

The grain

of his bellies is often wide, the distance

between the sound-holes

is

themselves are rounder and

conspicuous, the sound-holes less Brescian, the scrolls

beautifully cut, and the varnish tints to pale red,

is

are

superb, from golden

which has thrown some writers into

VIOLINS

AT CREMONA

53

rhapsodies about setting suns and the colours of the rainbow.

Passing over a lesser Pietro, son of the lesser Giuseppe, son of Andrea,

man

one is

at

Mantua, we come

to the

who, with the exception of the great Nicolo,

worthy

He

who worked

measure swords

to

(or

bows) with Stradivari.

came, singularly enough, from a side branch, and

not in direct descent from Andrea or any vioKn-maker, being the son of one John Baptist Guarnerius, and was

born at Cremona in 1683.

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 Giuseppe from this,

his illustrious kinsfolk,

all

and

it

his teaching

Most

all,

so the

most probably

writers have

young Giuseppe owed

to his uncle

appendage "del

distinctive

and cousins.

speculated blindly enough upon Gesii,"

some talking

about the Jesuits or a supposed religious bent. is

is

that his father, Bernardo, does not seem to have

been a violin-maker at

his

fact separates our

one

of the

many

This

cases where sapient antiquaries, in

seeking for recondite origins, neglect the simplest facts

and ignore the

easiest

more simple than of

his

superiority

for to

explanations.

the

can

be

great Giuseppe, conscious of

Andrea

distinguish

himself

Gianbattista,

Guarneri, as well as anxious

from Gianbattista,

What

his father,

to

son

and coming

though preferred before them, should

call

after

both,

himself the

OLD VIOLINS

54 " del

Gesi^i,"

Baptist of

family

followed

So

?

after the

John

from indicating any

far

reverence for religion, the assumption of

particular

bold

this

who

Jesus,

or

the

title

me

seems to

certain irreverent levity

;

great Giuseppe or Joseph

and perhaps even a

and

partake more of a

to if,

as tradition says, the

was somewhat

sceptic,

he

scruples in so lightly treating sacred

The question

as to

and the influence

of a free liver,

may have had names and

who may have been

small

subjects.

his master,

(or otherwise) of Stradivari

upon him,

has also been involved, as I think, in needless mystery. Since Del Gesii worked at Cremona and must have a

been, as

cousin and

nephew, a good deal with his

uncle and cousins, Andrea, Giovanni, and Pietro, lived there,

that

it is

no great stretch

when he showed

of fancy to

who

suppose

the family bent for vioHn-making,

he should have been apprenticed to study the art with

which case he

his cousin Giuseppe, son of Andrea, in

must have working

all

lived

next door to where Stradivari was

through his finest period

and though

;

Giuseppe's violins are rightly said to be in the style of

his

cousin's Gianbattista,

his early inspirations

from his cousin,

to suppose that so able a tact

may have drawn

and he

man

it

is

impossible

could be in daily con-

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 caf4

and was

doubtless often about his shop, year in year out.

Of course the

differences in the

work

of

the two

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS

original

and

lines

less

scrupulous finish

the powerful

Great,

the

The massive,

masters are obvious.

great

55

(almost

bold, of

brutally

the loud trumpet-like imperious tone,

scroll,

and

Joseph

powerful) all

mark

the masculine as contracted 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

Gesu there are sometimes more, distinct originality, as Eafael

all

was

prove sterling and

distinct

from Peru-

gino or Michael Angolo from Leonardo da Vinci.

enough

for to

;

the master

But

draw these comparisons before describing

may seem

like putting the cart before the

horse.

So

let

us now, without further ado, locate the great

violin shops at

Cremona and peep

in the Piazza S.

Domenico, now Piazza Eoma.

into

worktop No.

6,

In about 1540, Andrea Amati had set up his modest establishment, trained his sons, and taken apprentices,

bequeathing to Nicolo his plant and pupils. Stradivari

and

the

together, cheek by jowl to

No.

5,

del Gesu,

early ;

Guarnerii then worked

by-and-by Stradivari migrated

next door, and the Guarnerii with Giuseppe

who

died in 1745, the latest and greatest of

that family (surviving Stradiuarius,

up

eight years), then set

As three

be

I

at No.

who

died in 1737,

G.

have had occasion to remark elsewhere, these

names, Amati, the Guarnerii, Stradivari, there

none

like

them

;

these

tliree

shops opposite the

OLD VIOLINS

56 big

Church

of

Domenico, now demolished, there

S.

never were nor will be three such violin shops.

Here were made,

long,

in

quiet years

of

peaceful

1560 and 1760, in steady and friendly

labour, between

rivalry, all the greatest violins in the world.

The Giuseppe

now

del Gesii

Town

in the

on which Paganini played,

Hall in Genoa, the Stradiuarius on

which Ernst, now Lady Halle (1898), plays, Canon Percy Hudson's violoncello, Joachim and Wilhelmj's "Strads," Messie,

Alard, the

the

Betts,

the

Dolphin,

the

the Tuscan, the Fountaine, the

the Pucelle,

Eode, and the Viotti

—these

be the wonders of the

violin world.

But

in following the development of the Guarnerii

family into the seventeen hundreds, the position of

Giuseppe del

of Stradivari,

king of the Guarneri, must be

Gesii, the

clearly defined before

we

who ran

describe the rise and progress

parallel with,

and who,

in the

estimation of most violinists, seems to combine in himself,

the ne phis ultra of all violin perfection.

Nothing about Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesii

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 in-

The time had come when powerful tone was wanted. The Amatis were sensitive, sweet, and

spiration.

weak;

in

the

and

larger

more

massive Brescians

Giuseppe found the suggestion of what he was destined to

volume

make to the

perfect.

Amati

If

only he could add their

sensitiveness

—an

hour more or

— AT CREMONA

VIOLINS less

57

spent on the cutting of corners or neater purfling

what did

it

Strength, power, was what he

matter?

wanted, and the sentiment

dog type of his head or

much

boards so

is

thrown

scroll, in

in the bull-

off

the thickness of his

the boldness rather than

criticibed, in

the grace and delicacy of his curves.

He

tried

sound-holes slanting,

many

experiments:

almost

cut

make,

and sometimes disproportionately

was watching the

effect

in his

calculation, then,

shortened,

He

long.

own way conquered

that secret of grand sonority, whether

by

make,

full

on the volume and quality

and when he had

of tone,

flat

perpendicularly,

and not

till

empirically or

then, his

workman-

ship improves.

He was

man who had no

like a

delicate cooking

till

His frequent habit d contre

sens, as

time to think of the

he had stayed his main appetite.

of cutting the

in the case

of

wood upon the

Mr

cross,

Alfred Gibson's

instrument (1897), a superb specimen of Del Gesi^,

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

Del

its clear

Gesii's

crystalline

varnish

is

depth and transparency.

never clotted, but

Mr

thoroughly, yet with a light hand. to say that Sir

that

brush

laid

on

Ruskin used

Joshua Reynolds^ touch was so light

he could paint on a gossamer is also

is

as light as a feather.

later violins, dating

of Stradivarius, are

veil

Some

;

of

Del

Gesi!i's

Del Gesu's

from about 1740, after the death

amongst

his finest.

The one used

OLD VIOLINS

58

by Professor Sauret, and the other lent

Mr

by

Frazer, are particularly fine, and belong to this

Paganini's Joseph,

period.

Genoa, Alard's, in the

now

Museum

Maurice Sons,

The

in the

Hall at

now

in the possession

also belong to this great period.

Joseph Guarnerius

life of

Town

of the Conservatoire of

Music, Turin, and Vieuxtemps', of

Mr Ludwig

to

veloped in mystery.

is

more or

less en-

seems, for instance, utterly

It

impossible to get at the

truth

about the so-called

Whenever a Joseph or a presumed Joseph which is not up to Joseph's standard comes

prison

fiddles.

into the market,

it is

dubbed a Del Gesi\

prison-fiddle.

The story runs that Giuseppe, being a somewhat reckless person, got into trouble and was locked up for

many

years, during

him

got

which time the

gaoler's daughter

made

any wood she could find, and he

inferior pot-boiling fiddles,

which she disposed

such moderate sums as she was

on the authority

who was not even he

may have

father,

rival

or

Del Gesu

who was

maker

seem

to

;

of

Stradivari's

be opposed, and

when

there

—

this

Carlo Bergonzi's grandson,

is

—

still

from Bergonzi, his own pupil,

and doubtless a

and tongues may wag when

of reliable facts, as there Gesil.

of a free liver

a contemporary of Del Gesii

got the gossip

finely variegated

Del

for

not have held sacred things in high estimation,

and he may have been somewhat rests

of

able.

I prefer to put this legend wholly aside.

may

these

stories will

interests are

come

forth

an extraordinary absence

undoubtedly

is

in the case of

VIOLINS There

is,

AT CREMONA

59

however, no direct evidence whatever that

Del Gesu was

for years

there, as says the legend

;

and that he died

in prison

but Canon Bazzi of Cremona

who did

has lately unearthed one Girolamo Guarneri in prison

die

different

in

1715, and the names

men, one

illustrious

of

two very

and the other obscure,

have before now got mixed up,

the detriment of

to

the illustrious one.

Something similar great

is

said to have

Athanasius, whose

happened to the

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 Anastasius since

it

now

of faith thus recited

emphasises the Trinitarian

connected with the

A

name

Giuseppe del Gesu

than a Strad Stradivarius,

—

is

by command of

passes as the creed of Saint Athanasius,

his

doctrine

chiefly

of that illustrious doctor. is

much more

output, as

as one to six

;

difficult to find

compared

liis life

working career probably more

was

to

that

shorter,

of

and

But he is placed on a level with the immortal Antonio by some who know how to handle him, and the prices of his

his

wares have already reached four

erratic.

figures.

—

CHAPTEE V VIOLINS AT CREMONA

TuERE

continued

something inexorable about the concensus of

is

posterity.

Individuals

may

chafe under

it,

and writers

You even have

try to reverse its verdict.

may

crazes for

the revival of neglected poets, painters, and musicians,

but you will never succeed in pushing from their pedestals

to

the great gods

bow down

De

whom

to.

may choose may prefer his

Beriot

Paganini

posterity has once decided

play on a Maggini, and

to

Joseph, but even Maggini,

Nicolo Amati, and Giuseppe Guarnerius,

round as

it

who stand

were saluting one another, leave Stradi-

vari

apart by himself like a

tain,

and yet no one, not the greatest connoisseur,

able

to

del Gesi\ still

to

When

say exactly why.

individual violins above is

Colossus

some

Strads,

so

on a moun-

and when Joseph

held to run the magic master very hard,

Strad stands apart upon his mountain for

look up

only say

it

and wonder

to is

the

way with

something of the mystery

municable touch to order, 60

is

many esteem

;

of

at.

all

And why? the greatest

;

all

men

We

can

there

is

heaven about the incom-

the true aureole forms about no head

and the lonely seats are kept

for the mighty.

VIOLINS

AT CREMONA

61

Antonio Stradivari or Stradiuarius was born in 1644,

and

We get the

died, in his ninety-third year, in 1737.

date of his death from the register, and the date of his birth

is

by a

fixed

writing, in

violin label (1736) in his

which he

when he made

years old

own hand-

that he was ninety-three

8 Gates

the instrument.

Stradiuarius married at the age of twenty-three a

woman

of

who had been a widow for whose maiden name was Ferraboschi, and

twenty-seven,

three years,

he adopted her one children, wife,

some

whom

children,

of

whom

By

girl.

little

he married several years

two

of

whom

her he had six

His second

died before him.

died before

Stradivari had eleven children.

later,

him

None

bore him five

— so that

in all

them seemed

of

Omobono 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 p^re, and much of it to

have inherited their father's genius

;

only

and Francesco Stradivari

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.

Antonio Stradivari and Andrea Guarneri, as stated before,

were young garzoni or apprentices together in

the workshop of the great Nicolo

same work bench, used the same

Amati tools,

— sat

on the

and doubtless

discussed the same problems.

In and out of that shop ran, no doubt, the boy

Giuseppe Gaurneri

to see his uncle

Andrea.

He must

OLD VIOLINS

62

have always found Stradivari there on,

Giuseppe imbibed a taste

became himself the great Del Gesu,

upon

it,

to believe that

;

and when,

later

fiddle-making, and

for

it is

hard, I insist

what must have been a

lifelong

acquaintance with the mighty Stradivari should have had

no influence whatever in forming his ideas and methods.

There

is

no mention

youthful Stradivari

the

of

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. " If thou first

wouldst teach, learn

copy."

It

;

if

thou wouldst create,

generally held that for some years,

is

roughly between 1660-70, Stradiuarius simply made up, blocked out, drew, glued, mixed varnish, and worked generally, but without signing fiddles.

He was

his

own name

to

any

learning; but in 1660 he begins to

sign his name, not from pr|de, but because his master

made him do

so.

1670, which brings

From us

to

Nicolo Amati's death, he called

At

Amati

before

that

date to about

within fourteen years of

made what

are

sometimes

Strads.

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 develop-

ments continuously, slowly, but

surely.

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

many

still

continued closely to copy Nicolo, and

violins of

his

between 1660 and 1670 pass as

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS

Amatis, whilst others are called

63

Araati Strads, and

some are apparently joint productions.

When

Stradiuarius

married (about

1667) and

left

Nicolo Amati, he set up round the corner in the same street as the brothers Gruarnerii, to S.

and almost next door

them, in the square opposite the great Church of

From about

Domenico.

this

time connoisseurs notice

a great improvement in Stradivari's tecluiique to

1672 at

least,

;

but up

remaining a close copyist of Amati,

he doubtless kept on terms of the closest intimacy with Nicolo,

abundance

now

in

and benefited by the

his decline,

of orders flowing in for

Amati

violins

which

the old master was unable to execute.

From 1660 perhaps haste

may then have Antonio's

up

to

1684 was a period

been made as the young family increased.

wood

is

often plain about this time, and not

to the best tasto

and selection of his master, but he

evidently remained his right-hand

when Nicolo

of great activity,

even some pot-boiling Stradivari violins

;

man

to the

end

;

and

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.

In

1680, four

years

before

the death

Antonio had so far prospered as to be able

Nicolo,

of to

buy

his

house (which I visited in 1880), at 1 Piazza Eoma, for about £800. interesting friend

Desiderio Arisi, a Cremonese, has left an

MS.

in

which he speaks

Antonio Stradivari."

of "his intimate

The MS.

is

dated

or seventeen years before the death of Stradivari.

1720,

OLD VIOIJNS

64

Arisi alludes to a point of great interest which early

my attention and curiosity — the

excited of

"

the man.

my

living

deed, he could

he did

;

many-sidedness Arisi,

" is

also

Stradivari, an ex-

of all hinds of musical instruments."

make anything

In-

that was in demand, and

" fancy-purfle "

he could

fiddles in

writes

intimate friend Antonio

maker

cellent

In Cremona,"

to order, inlay,

make

odd shapes, or with a twist in the curve

here or there, or longer or shorter for experiment, or big or small.

The Marquis Carlo dal Negro Stradivari harp

in 1820.

making mandohnes and

own

owned a

lutes to order.

Messrs Hill

a perfectly plain Stradivari guitar in fine conIt is of exquisite close-grained wood.

dition.

often

of G-enoa

The master was not above

wanted

the sound

hear

to

of

I

have

that guitar.

I

noticed a Stradivari cithern in the South Kensington

Loan Collection with an elaborately carved female head I did

of great beauty.

not wonder that he

who

carve such scrolls could carve a head or anything

There

gems

of

are, or were,

within the present century, other

workmanship, some of which fiddles,

small

arabesques.

figures,

flowers,

his

hand

is

Sometimes his decoration

it is

Everything that

finely accurate is

to be feared

instruments made with

have perished, children's

comes from

could else.

in

drawing.

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 nth, as

each branch of his

art.

mathematicians say, for

VIOLINS In these days one

AT CREMONA

man

65

draws, another blocks

out,

another inlays, another finishes,

Stradivarius did

and did

His heads and ara-

consummately

all

well.

all,

besques are worthy of Cellini, his inlaying of the finest Florentine marqueterie, his scrolls and curves are of

Pheidian beauty

On

;

his varnishing is his own.

the death of Amati, Stradiuarius and the Guar-

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 tonerii

had

the

had worked as boys together, they had

gether, they

doubtless lent each other tools, touched up each other's

backs and

bellies,

varnished each other's

each other's scrolls from boyhood

Cremona

violin

from

nobles

was

Spain,

;

in the ascendant,

France,

ribs, criticised

and now that the and kings and

Germany, Saxony, and

even England were anxious for Cremona

was a market

The

them

bitterness of competition

rival makers,

a

for

thing as

is

the of

and such

;

over-production of fiddles in those days

Nay, the orders that came in could

Music walked

not be executed fast enough. than

not always due to

but often to over-production

was unknown.

King

fiddles, there

all.

instruments

could

follow

it.

faster

When

the

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 Arisi,

"Voleme

for

the court

orchestra.

" So,"

says

arrived in 1715 on the 10th June, and

E

OLD VIOLINS

66

remained there three months, and when

ments were ready he took them with him

But "There

at

this

is

time

not in

Stradivari

was

the

to Poland."

at

world," writes

the instru-

all

Lorenzo Gius-

Venetian nobleman, to the great

tiniani, a

zenith.

his

artificer in

1715, "a more skilled maker of musical instruments

than yourself, and as I wish to preserve a record of

man and famous

such an illustrious

you with to

make me

But we must not

upon

it."

anticipate.

After the death of

the

illustrious

this patient pupil, this careful tireless

assert

his

feel disposed

a violin of the highest quality and finish

that you can bestow

and

trouble

artist, I

whether you

this letter to ask

student and

strong

Nicolo Amati, accurate

copyist, this

experimentalist,

His

individuality.

begins

to

departs

scroll

from the feminine Amati type, and becomes striking

and independent, corners are

sound-holes

his

recline

more, his

pronounced, his middle bout curves are

prolonged, his varnish

is

almost fancifully varied from

rich gold to soft velvety red.

His wood

is

now inmade

variably chosen with the utmost care, and as he chiefly for the nobility, royalty, dignitaries,

afford to

and the higher

clerical

he was not only on his mettle, but he could

work just

as he chose.

In 1682, Michele Monzi, a rich Venetian banker, sent

him an order

'cellos,

which were

for to

a

chest of

be

violins, altos

presented

to

our

and King

They were so much liked that his Majesty ordered a viol di gamba of Stradiuarius in 1686.

James

II.

CE)-0

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS

67

In 1685, Cardinal Orsini, afterwards Pope Benedict XIII., had ordered a violoncello and two violins of him, besides

making him

honorary

title,

"

one of his private attendants," an

but equivalent to appointing Stradiu-

arius 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 index expurgatorius

instruments,

of

for the solemnities of

was a pretty good

being too frivolous

as

divine service

Yet Pius IX.

!

fiddler.

In 1687 Stradivari makes his famous set of instru-

ments

for the

Spanish Court, inlaid with ivory, with a

scroll-work running round rarities

—a

violin

— found

Bull, the

famous

England

to

tenor

I

is,

market,

it

Dr

One

the sides.

way

of

these

into the hands of Ole

It has

violinist.

Charles

believe, in

had

its

Oldham

been since sold in of

Brighton.

When

existence.

lost its ivory purfling,

been exquisitely replaced by Messrs

last

in

The the

which has since

Hill.

There are extant several very small violins made evidently to order about this period. different sizes for different ages is

The

fallacy of

from childhood upwards

one which will always smile to makers and those acute

persons

who

teach the violin and

buy

their pupils' in-

struments, which of course have to be changed as the children grow up, for larger and larger ones.

always protested against

much

this.

A

child of

I

have

eight had

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

OLD VIOLINS

68 violin to

my

chin

— not quite in the

doubt, but near

when

correct position,

Thus from the very

enough.

no

first,

at six or seven years of age, I played the violin

like the violoncello, I never

had

my

to unlearn

The brain learns

intervals

in

stopping the strings.

An

habitual tenor player never plays the violin quite

in tune, is

and

vice versd

;

and

intervals.

so every time a larger violin

placed in the pupil's hands, the brain

is

bothered with

the narrower stopping learned in the preceding period.

no one can regret the exquisite

Still,

made by

cabinet, almost

Amati and Guarnerii as Artistically they are gems musically, well as by Strad. I have never got anybody to agree with me fallacies. toy specimens,

the

;

about not using dwarf

fiddles.

Joachim,

I believe, con-

tended that for a child to use a large fiddle I don't believe it;

his muscles. stiffen

mine.

I believe I

am

stiffens

certainly did

not

also in a minority in

Neither theory

partiality for old bridges.

"good

it

is,

in

my fact,

for trade."

In 1690 Stradivari executed a celebrated order for the Prince of Tuscany, through the Marquis Bartho-

lomeo writes

Of

Aribati. :

" I

these

chefs-d'oeuvre

the

Marquis

assure you the Prince has accepted

your

instruments with more pleasure than I could expect.

The players

in the orchestra are

They

ing appreciation.

be quite perfect cello

;

they

all

unanimous

declare

say they never heard a violon-

with such a tone as yours.

to the

knowledge

of

in express-

your instruments to

My

having brought

such a person as his Highness your

great skill will doubtless procure you

many

orders from

AT CREMONA

VIOIJNS his exalted

two

tenors.

house"

On

Stradivari in

of

Valle,

that

—and

69

then follow more orders for

this occasion,

we

learn,

from the

the great violin-maker

characteristically

enough made the most beautiful cases

for the royal

instruments, decorating them profusely with bearings and symbols appropriate

The order was given were not handed in seems,

came back

armorial

to each instrument.

in 1684, but the

till

relics

the Marquis della

the possession of

instruments

The Grand Duke,

1690.

for more, as there

it

was found amongst

his instruments a violin of the grand pattern bearing

the later date, 1716. I

cannot forbear to

call attention to

the exquisite

chromo-lithographs of the Tuscan violin, and the lucid description

masterpiece,

He

declares

and history Messrs

in it to

of

this

Hill's

last-named

famous

handsome monograph.

be in the very finest preservation

still,

with an unbroken and authentic record, and to possess the noblest qualities of the incomparable master.

all is

on the very verge

1690, and was bought by

Mr

David Ker

Tuscan viola and violoncello are at Florence,

and

It

of his great period, bearing the date

still

I advise all lovers

in 1794.

The

in the Institute of

Cremona who

get the chance to go and inspect them.

The only other point the year 1700, period,

ber

of

is

of great general interest before

when Stradivarius

enters on his golden

the deliberate manufacture of a certain

violins

num-

on a pattern distinct from the Amati,

and from any patterns adopted by himself before 16861694, or after 1700.

These instruments are known as

—

a

:

OLD

70

VIOLINS

long Strads, and they seem to be a sort of constructional or experimental link

pattern and the grand

between the smaller Amati

Strad pattern of 1700-37

—

model evidently suggested by the grand Nicolo, but not adopted by the cautious Strad till some years after Nicolo's death.

From 1694 to 1700 way to make long

his

Stradivari not only Strads,

went out

of

which not only looked

longer because they were narrower and pinched

in,

but

actually were longer

i.e.

1690 13-inch Strad.

In other respects also he walked

through

own

his

violin lore, he

14-inch, as compared to the

Having

traditions.

was evidently

daring experiments to settle in his for ever certain

all

own mind once and

problems of tone.

"We have known painters

same way.

mastered

at last trying a series of

trifle

with colour in the

Gainsborough would paint his blue boy,

and Whistler symphonies in green, mauve, or anything else unexpected,

that never trifling,

and Turner would recreate the

was on sea or land

;

but in reality

but study in arrangement of colour.

light

was no

it

So you

can have study in construction, empirical ventures, and a testing of tone problems, whether in sound or colour.

As

Stradivari

mused and

carved, and glued and var-

nished, year after year, his meditations " Flatten the belly

— thicker

wood, density of fibre

;

air

might run thus

here or there according to

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

—

"

;

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS

71

width, thin planks, hut try different thicknesses

how

wood go

different densities of

see

;

Try old

together.

seasoned wood for back, newer for belly, or vice versd if I

wood

hard, thin

higher ribs on

it

fiat

if

;

curves

size,

and

(did the grooves give that belly,

Adopt

?

?)

with the

did

his

Try and save

flatten his belly.

try effect of

;

What

sides.

grand pattern

his

it

lower the ribs on more

;

bulgy curves and grooved

aim at with

thicken

soft,

Nicolo

width and

his sweetness

back and

flatter

which gives louder tone, adopting the mathe-

matical curve of nature, suggested by the vibration of

a string

;

Is a joined back,

certainly that gives power.

or a back in one piece, best or indifferent

How

depend on wood attainable.

wood

bits of precious

A

rally succeeds.

if

would

inter-congenial

good secret

wanted always the patcher

that,

That would

?

it

be to patch

?

That gene-

but an open one

!

This idea of patching was certainly one of the most

He

inspired thoughts that ever occurred to him. to

have kept wood of the

his

best

orders.

He had

seems

finest acoustic properties for

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.

The plank must have been known to his pupils, the remains of it were worked up after his death.

"Now " thick

of

the

or

for

the

Stradivari;

thin, according to the density or elasticity

back and

transverse,

ponders

sound-bar,"

for

of

belly.

course

And

— shghtly

its

position?

A

little

diagonal to be in

the

OLD VIOLINS

72 line of

vibration.

strings

by placing

another

place

;

it

Study

on power of different

way

or

And

slightly aslant for experiment.

But

the varnish?"

effect

a fraction of an inch one

it

that will call for a few separate

paragraphs by-and-by. I have tried to indicate the kind of observation

meditation, demanding unlimited love,

which Stradivari devoted

century to his chefs-d'oeuvre,

art,

time,

patience,

and without which those Cremona

the Dolpliin, the Messie, Tuscan, Betts,

have alluded

Amati pattern the small

and

for the better part of a

and Pucelle Strads, could never have come I

and

Strad's taking late to the large

to

for violins, inclining for

I do not

size.

forth.

know

some time

to

that any one has yet

noticed that in violoncellos Strad reversed this order of

work, making his early violoncellos large, and diminishing their

size.

probably

felt

As he reached that

the

and tone-power were larger type of violin

his

golden period he

demands made by quite

alike

virtuosity

consistent

with a

and a smaller and more manage-

able size of violoncello.

The

violinist is well

aware of the value of Strad's

golden period, which will cost him gold;

about 1700, a

fine

for,

after

Strad will be worth to him from

£1000 and upwards, according to its condition. The long apprenticeship was at last over, and 1700 the master had reached the ripe age an age at which so work.

He was

and fame

;

many have

at the

acme

in

of fifty-six,

achieved their greatest

of his power, experience,

no one could teach him anything now, and

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS

He

apparently he had nothmg to learn.

Flaxman

a Mozart or

he wanted, and he could do

wields

his

Canova

his chisel, or as

his score.

He knew what

his pencil, a

Wagner handles

could at last

Tadema

wield his tools as a Millais or a brush, a

73

it,

and do

it

taneous ease and joy which seems even

with a spon-

now

to smile

from the saucy corners of his bouts, the free

to us

daring curves of his grand pattern, and the lightly tossed and lifted scrolls.

No

one has failed to notice the masterful

emancipation from

ease, the

mannerism, the cool defiance of

all

precedent and uniformity, and even symmetry, which characterises his great period from 1700 to 1730.

The

violins are not all alike.

was not merely

secret

knew

Strad

in the pattern or

shape

;

that the

he could

vary his curves, and yet produce masterpieces, because

he knew

about the

all

air

column, the wood densities,

and the proportions and quantities which should be combined

them

for the requisite

and he could mix

result,

differently like a master colourist.

treated every violin as

if

it

is

not so

much

and so much

no more

human body

than does a physician treat every it

He

had the same constitution alike;

nitrogenous or carbonaceous food,

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 tissue,

human body

quality,

fibre,

— how varied

is

and density

of

the texture, the the

component

OLD VIOIJNS

74 each

parts of

—

have endeavoured to pomt out as

I

succinctly as I could. So, in the

are

all

grand period, the grand pattern Strads

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

;

They have the charm

at.

com-

of imaginative variety,

bined with the unity of supreme excellence.

To

this great period belongs the

called, it is said,

To me, however, the

tints of the varnish.

suggests the

special,

of

the

violin almost

freedom, and elegant poise of that

life,

graceful fish whose acoustic

Dolphin Strad, so

from the melting and almost iridescent

name

The beauty and

bears.

it

the Dolphin

properties of

wood

are

quite

and can easily be compared with other violins

same

some

period,

and somewhat

to look at,

which are much plainer

of

different in form,

and though

very charming, hardly so bell-like in tone.

The

last

time I had the privilege of touching the

Dolphin Strad was at

my

lecture on violins before the

Koyal Institution in 1880. ringing notes and

its

anxious to speak before it

seemed

to

do

I

it

was spoken

all for itself

the player showing

shall

never forget

exquisite sensibility.

it off, it

to

;

when

like magic.

shows

It

its

seemed touched,

Instead of

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

merely have

to

make

elaborate music, and

you

dummy

key-

put your hands on a

board, press the keys, and appear to be playing, and

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS then you

75

Chopin and Mendelssohn perfectly,

roll off

though you can scarce play your scales

Since

!

then

Vuillaume's sound-bar has been replaced with a stronger

one by Messrs Hill. before, but

I

It

seemed

me

to

quite

perfect

suppose one must bow to experts in

such matters.

The

number

best opinion limits the

which Strad made

hundred

of

of instruments

about two thousand, only eight

to

which at most are known

be extant.

to

Compared with any other maker except Vuillaume, both as regards output and survival of work, Strad probably bears the palm.

An

elaborate

careful

description, a

every known Strad, together with as recoverable, I

must

I

portraiture history, as

some more

leave for

industrious recorder.

its

gifted

I

is

ever

likely to

It will

certainly,

monumental work, and there

many

when is

Stradivari

appear, and

MS. and

only wish I could dip into their

few pages.

and

believe Messrs Hill are pre-

paring the most complete monograph on

which has ever yet or

of far

it

steal

a

appears, be a

no time to

lose, as

gems are known to have been destroyed, others dismembered, whilst some are at the bottom of There are, however, a few more famous specithe sea. of these

mens, which are of such unique interest that they cannot be passed over even in so general a survey as

Mr

Croall (1897) of Edinburgh

is

the

this.

happy owner

M. Ar tot's Strad, varnished dark rod, quite perfect, and one of the finest known for tone; it is dated 1716. Lady Halle still plays on Ernst's violin, bought for of

OLD VIOLINS

76

£500, and presented to her by the Earl of Dudley

and some

from

effects elicited

in his

palmy

wonderful

by the great magician Ernst

it

days, nor can I understand the statement

made

recently

I shall never forget the

others.

that its tone

I

is difficult to elicit.

heard the faintest vanishing whisper of

its

have

strings on

the Covent Garden stage when, as a boy, I was seated

up

top

the

in

one of Benedict's monster

gallery at

season concerts early in the

A

fifties.

romantic interest attaches to two Stradivari violins

which have come down dition

one

:

is

to us in absolutely perfect con-

called the Messie, the other the Pucelle

or the Virgin.

The Messie was secured by Vuillaume on

possessed

would never it

He

upon.

new

;

it

let it

whom

further

It bears date 1716.

be seen

till

Vuillaume

had then never been touched or played

lengthened the neck, but, without inserting

neck, he fixed

it to

a block placed outside the

Count Cozio de Salabue had bought

ribs.

but never allowed Tarisio bought his

after the death

Luigi Tarisio, to

devote a special section.

I

Tarisio

his

man

remarkable

of that

own death

in

it to it

after

1854

it

in 1760,

be played upon.

it

the Count's death, and

at

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.

When eyes.

It

I first

saw the Messie

I

could not believe

my

was covered throughout and uniformly with

thick rich red-brown varnish, laid on with a firm brush.

—

;

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS and

level

It

lavish.

seemed

have

to

left

77 the workshop

only the day before; the anointed glitter of the fresh varnish was upon

looked hardly dry.

the great iJel

of

Pheidian carving,

full

One"/"

elegance.

It is

of

but not heavy and massive like

the grand pattern,

some

it

it,

is

but beautiful as

Gesu's,

a certain special grace

of

a

and

a shade lower than the other

a practice so commo7i with Strad, especially in his later period, that it

must have been

intentional, his artistic

eye not tolerating even the suggestion of mechanical

The Greeks worked

uniformity.

similarly,

no two sides

of their Corinthian capitals ever quite matching.

The "Messiah" back

in

is

two

pieces, the corners

are absolutely unrubbed, and completely covered with

varnish

head

—

is

of

no other specimen can

and

light

graceful,

" the

this be said.

The

as I

have

scroll,"

elsewhere observed, thrown off like a ribbon lightly curled about

the finger, and drawn

the scroll cut a

little

in,

one side of

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 full attention to istic

artistically conceived, as it called

the scroll curve, always so character-

a part of violin physiognomy.

As

the Messiah recently bought by

Mr

Crawford

£2000 has now been played upon,

of

Edinburgh

it

seems a pity that the world should not sometimes

for

be allowed to hear

its

a well-advertised

concert,

violinists should be

voice

and

;

in

invited

I

venture to say that

which two to

of our finest

play on the Messiah

—

—

—

;

OLD VIOLINS

78

and the Pucelle

ment

each player upon each instru-

i.e.,

once, thus giving four solos, so that the audience

might hear the same

would be an epoch

under different fingers

violins

The announcement would doubtless pack St James's or any other London hall. the musical world.

in

The Pucelle or Virgin I have space

because it

came

with

into

i.e.,

the last Stradivari violin

The "Virgin"

notice.

to

its interior

is

so

is

called

organism had, up to the time when

M. Vuillaume's hands, not been

interfered

the inside bass bar had never been touched.

All the old violins have had these bars strengthened,

and

their necks lengthened, to

modern high-pitch tension

meet the strain

of the strings

on the

of the belly,

and the lengthened finger-board which the develop-

ment

of

advanced virtuosity demands.

These readjustments the Pucelle owes to Vuillaume.

She

in

is

varnish

is

preservation

fine

otherwise,

so fanciful are even good judges,

more graceful than that ful

by

;

each

is

bright red.

rather

Her

contour,

by some considered

of the Messiah, but less graceto be little to choose

a distinct conception.

Virgin's varnish

yellow tone,

is

To me there seems

others.

between them

The

although her

a good deal rubbed in places.

is

of

a rich

contrasting

The head

is

soft

brown and

with the

Messiah's

stronger and less graceful

than that of some Strads (the Dolphin's, for instance) the Virgin's back

higher than

is

in

two

parts, the belly is a little

that of the Messiah.

repair about her

is

The only

vestige of

where the chin has rubbed into the

a

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS

79

which has accordingly been renewed.

purfling,

corners are

somewhat

The

fancifully cut, running straight

out in the top bouts, and hanging away in the lower bouts; there

a rather marked indentation of the

is

curve beneath them.

The Virgin 1840

in

is

course

(of

owned by Mons. a

it

le

member

of the

is

a Tarisio violin);

has been

it

Eoy, a banker, and passed to his

Mons. Glanday.

heir,

and she reached Paris

labelled 1709,

She

now

is

same family, and

property

the is

of

very jealously

guarded by her owner. In vain does imagination seek to recover the image of the great

maker

as he lived

being through ninety-three

liis

shine.

and moved and had years of shower and

Undisturbed by petty sieges and

local

dis-

turbances and changes of administration, sought for

and admired impartially by the friends and the foes of his country,

he wrought out calmly his own match-

less ideal.

Violins have no politics, and

Art dominates the

ages,

survives the rise and

fall of

I sometimes at the tall,

a

seem

the great republic of

and comprehends whilst

it

dynasties and empires.

to see the

grand old

man

standing

door of his modest but comfortable house

—

thin, perhaps rather gaunt figure, most likely not

man

of

many

words, carrying on for ever mental pro-

cesses connected with his subtle handicraft, seldom seen

without a chisel in his hand.

Behold him just risen from his to

stool, or

come round

superintend or criticise a carelessly cut scroll of

OLD VIOLINS

80

Bergonzi, his best pupil; and before he goes up into that almost sacred attic, open

the

to

at the

air,

top

the house, where hang the varnished fiddles and

of

anointed strips a-drying, he mutters a rebuke or rectifies

a curve.

The

old

moment

man comes

looking

down

to

the door, and stands for a

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

know he

speak to him, they

Only

later, at

has no leisure for that.

the caf6-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

known

if

they do not work harder

that the master

as

it is

at

home, in those moments

of

;

and

detests interruptions

rare

leisure

when he

emerges with the regularity of clockwork to sip his vino or sirop or coffee, or

Monsignor

C.

inquire timidly

may

Capelmeister A. or Padre B. surprise

when the

him

for

violoncello

or

a chat, and quartet of

violins ordered are likely to be ready, and get for reply

something too enigmatic or oracular vice at

;

so patrons or patrons' emissaries

Cremona and wait on the

to be of

had

to

ser-

down

master's convenience for

the masterpieces that could be got nowhere

His prices seem

any

to sit

else.

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.

He

sold his violins for

£10

(

= £40);

the original

— !

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS

and

price of his violoncellos

81

seem

violas does not

to

be known.

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,

Some

As

rich as Stradivari."

my

visit to the

house

of Stradivari, then still standing in the Piazza

Eoma,

years ago, fresh from

Cremona, I gave a

full description of the great

entourage, which I need not here repeat

may

paragraph can

now

serve

than

better

;

maker's

but a single

anything that

I

write, at the distance of over a decade, to

place the reader in the atmosphere in which Antonio Stradivari worked for I stood in the

where

still

more than

open

in the old

his violins.

upon the north the wide blue

looked up from his work,

if

I

saw out

sky, just mellowing to

"Whenever Stradiuarius he looked north his eye

if

on the old towers of

tonio,

And

nails

and flecked here and there with orange

streaks prophetic of sunset.

fell

top of his house

beams stuck the rusty old

upon which he hung up rich purple,

half a century.

the

at

loft

S.

Marcellino and

he looked west the Cathedral with

S.

An-

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.

Here, up in the high

air,

with the sun his helper,

the light his minister, the blessed soft airs his jour-

F

;

OLD VIOLINS

82

neymen, what time the work-a-day noise rose

and the sound

the city

matins and vespers was in his

of

warm

through the long

ears,

of

days worked Antonio

Stradivari.

Before the time came for the busy hand to

Antonio ceased to sign

the violins that he

all

fail,

made

an old man's natural pride, he continued

but, with

sign a few

down

to

to the year of his death, registering

m

the number of his years

each case, and

it is

from

one of the latest of these, dated 1736, that we know his age.

He rally

and of

sank quietly to

and nobly,

if

rest,

evidently worn out natu-

not with his eye quite

undimmed

his natural strength unabated, certainly still full

marvellous vigour, unpalsied

and undulled

senses,

perception.

When S.

the Chapel of

life,

was pulled down,

and

it

is

now the

Cremona, or

Are they

in

the

:

Anno

—

in

parish of

The

unable to ascertain.

Many

Town Hall

Stradivaris,

simple inscription svoi Eredi,

his funeral tablet

the

in

where are his ashes ? vault of

E

the Eosary in the Church of

Domenico, opposite to which he had lived

"

at

all his

was rescued,

Cremona; but

in the present family

the S.

Campo Santo Matthew?

I

of

was

tablet

bears the following

Sepolcro di

Antonio Stradivari

1729."

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

cant and painful event in a

life

so regular

signifi-

and unevent-

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS may None of

83

ful,

and one which

not unnaturally have hastened

his

own

the family seem to have been

end.

buried in the

S.

Domenico

ing to Signor Francesco

vault, but in one belong-

Vitani, in the

parish of S.

Matthew so it may oe Antonio lies there. The Church of S. Domenico was pulled down ;

years ago

;

the house

of Stradiuarius

The Piazza

recently.

Domenico

S.

several

was destroyed only is

now

Roma, and when an average Cremonese

is

the Piazza

asked about

Stradivari, he thinks of the fashionable avocat of that

name, who appears

to

spend his time chiefly at Milan,

and may possibly resent the notion that a man Sic transit.

The achievements

in violin-making

up

to the

quarter of the eighteenth century are clearly

up

names

in the

good

had ancestors connected with

society should ever have

fiddle-making.

in

of

first

summed

Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe

(del Gesii) Guarneri. It

would be an interesting and thorny question

to

debate whether any variations of importance or additions

excellence have

in

been noticeable, and

since

we naturally look to the best Cremonese makers, who followed these giants of tone-power and of

course

sweetness.

The name worthy,

if

of Carlo Bergonzi at once stands out as

not to be bracketed with that of the two

mighty men, at reflect

something

least

to

receive

of their lustre.

Stradivari's favourite pupil;

their

mantle and

Carlo Bergonzi was

he lived next door, and

afterwards occupied Stradivari's

own house with

his son.

OLD VIOLINS

84

He

finished

many

issued

some others

debris

of

left

him

the great man's workshop

He worked made

after his death collected

all his tools

followed at

at

first

and Stradivari

Cremona between 1720-47 Stradivari's

his early fiddles

example

on the pattern

;

or 50,

and

Antonio

for as

of Nicolo

Amati,

copy the grand Strad pattern.

and before the death

later on,

;

from the

and plant.

so did Bergonzi closely

But

and

of his master's late violins,

of

the old man,

Bergonzi conceived the ambition of attempting to weld the

power

of

Giuseppe Guarnerius with the round,

To what

bright, bell-like sweetness of the Stradivari.

extent he succeeded must be decision

which

violins are

his

left to

connoisseurs, but

of

doubt, their powerful

the judgment and

the grand

quality

increasingly appreciated

for

is,

no

sonority; that he clearly saw

must be the indispensable quality

for all violins of the

future.

The

old tinkling days were over

and muffled

viol tone

;

the feeble, scraping,

was a thing

of the past.

instrument had finally emerged from the

no longer sacristies

was were

to be a

mere adjunct

and cathedral choirs;

to be out in the wide, to be

won

And

so,

its

in

was

dim

sphere henceforth

wide world,

its

triumphs

in the concert room, the opera house,

and the grand musical arenas body

cloister,

to the voice

The

of solo virtuosity.

undoubtedly, what Bergonzi aimed at was

of tone

and carry infi power, and he won

dominant idea has modified even looks bold and loud.

Yet

is

his

it.

pattern.

This

He

the pattern not Guarneri,

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS

Notice the larger breadth of

but Stradivari modified. the

curve, a

top

and a

bouts,

angularity about the

bold

certain

development

freer

95

of the lower part of the

and nearer

violin as well; the sound-holes set lower

the purfling, and the

to

model which Stradivari

flat

The

discovered to be favourable to loudness. also characteristic of his master, but

—

made

by reason

assertion

flatter

nent curl of the

scroll is

some places than that

in

to look bold

and

full of self-

of the strongly-defined

and promi-

which stands out and at once

ear,

challenges attention.

The whole build

massive.

is

outlast the

Strad;

the

fittest,

of

laid

on with a lavish hand,

tear

;

it

is

specimens of

is

will

it

the

The

Bergonzi will

be the survival,

The

strongest. to

very varnish

allow

even clotted in places, and to

not of

if

for is

some

said in

have cracked and become scurfy.

a red Cremona

is

wear and

It

brown, velvety, and quite the

right sort.

Until within the last few years Bergonzi has not received his dues in part in

account for this

England, he

sought

after.

authentic life

the scarcity of his instruments

;

is

;

but in France, and especially

now

There

may

are,

instruments of

fully

recognised and

much

however, only about sixty his

was but about twenty-five

known.

His working

Two

years.

notable

Bergonzi violins are those in the possession of Miss Eissler

and Signor Simonetti.

There

is

a

Bergonzi double-bass of singularly fine quality possession of

Mr

I,

Sears of Boston.

famous

now

in

In Count Cozio

OLD VIOLINS

86

de Salabue's collection there were two very

There were

five

they

made

sons

;

and were selves

fine

Bergonzi

dated 1731 and 1733.

violins,

all

other Bergonzis fiddles,

far surpassed

—a

son and grand-

but they were of no account,

by some other makers who them-

belong to the decline period of the Cremona

school.

Although pupil, it

I

have called Bergonzi Stradivari's best

would be very unfair

to ignore the merit of

Lorenzo Guadagnini (1695-1740), the only one of that

name who

He was

born

about 1740.

In

poses as a pupil of Stradivari.

at Piacenza, but lived at

Cremona

till

about 1795 he removed to Milan after leaving his

master at Cremona, but returned to die in his native

His make

town.

is

model

bold, his

his varnish

flat,

not so rich as his master's, his head original, but with-

out the grace of Antonio.

His son, Giovanni Battista, born at Piacenza, 17111786,

made

violins

esteemed than his

which father's.

almost more

are

He

imitated

highly

Stradivari

perhaps more closely than his father, but Count Cozio de Salabue,

who

bought several instruments from him,

mention that Giovanni himself

him and

thought very highly of

Battista

upon being no mere

Guadagnini in the hands

of

careful to

Guadagnini

copyist.

Mr

is

In

fact,

Willy Hess

equal to the best of Lorenzo's work.

prided

He was

is

the

quite

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

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS

87

each town too hot for him, but his neighbours said

hot

There

temper.

made the

violins

first

account It

due

frequent migrations were

that his

were

seven

between 1695 and

and

two, father

1881, but of these

alone need

son,

own who

his

to

Guadagninis

be

taken

of.

has been the

fashion

they happened to

live

— the

Neapolitan, the Bolognese,

separate

to

makers into schools according

to the

the

place

Italian

which

at

Milanese, the Venetian, the etc.

but

;

it is

much more

important to notice the influences under which the chief

makers worked than

to identify

them with

special

towns.

A

Cremonese who works

at

Cremonese traditions with him,

Cremona

belongs to the

Thus, the

"

a Cremonese, and

mighty Montagnana," as the

made Cremona

He worked

Venice.

But he came

to

novelist

violins

and

between 1700-40

and survived

as a pupil of Stradivari,

three years.

is still

school.

Charles Eeade called him, violoncellos at

Venice but carries the

his

master only

him when the Cremona

was already perfected, and studied the finest models, assisting in all probability at the very manufacture of

art

the most wonderful instruments in the world.

such a training, on

his arrival at

the lead and kept

it,

and

to this

day his instruments,

especially his matchless violoncellos

number

—are

little

if

at

all

With

Venice he easily took

—

inferior

alas! too

to

the

few in best of

Antonio.

Montagnana's outline

is

by no means a

servile copy,

OLD VIOLINS

88

seems

and bottom, and

It is flattened at top

of Stradivari.

to the eye less graceful

;

but in his selection of

wood, his glorious varnish, the relative thickness of his slabs,

and

sities in

in the

cunning knowledge of those

back and belly which are likely

together, he

is

to

den-

fibre

sound well

second to none.

Montagnana no doubt embodies and transplants of Bergonzi,

to

As

I noticed in the case

Montagnana, owing

to the paucity of his

Venice the Cremona

secrets.

instruments as well as to the splendour of his contemporaries, Strad

and Giuseppe Guarneri, has not until

lately received the suffers, too,

honour which

is

due

He

to him.

from having often been labelled Guarnerius

or Bergonzi,

makers who had the vogue

of

day.

the

These frauds are now being unmasked, and the few great

successors

of

the

Cremona

giants,

Bergonzi,

Montagnana, Guadagnini, and Balestrieri (very Guadagnini's style, Storioni,

have at

flat,

last a

fine in

big build, powerful tone),

and

chance of taking their proper

places and fetching their prices.

When we come come to the any show of

last

to

Lorenzo Storioni (1769-99) we

maker

of

plausibility be

third rate master of

importance who can with called even a second

Cremona.

Storioni's

or

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

AT CREMONA

VIOLINS interesting problem

shall

I

89

my

have to consider in

chapter on Cremona varnish.

instruments are not

Storioni's

much esteemed

in

more

of

as yet, but are thought a good deal

England in Italy. I

may

here

fitly

derive

mention the Gagliano family, who

with the Neapolitan school, but really

are associated

Gagliano, the

first of

the name, was distinguished for

A

his very fine red varnish, 1695-1730.

able for its tone

been used by during

Alessandro

importance from Cremona.

their

many

is

Mr

the

violin

remark-

Gennaro Gagliano that has

Otto Peiniger for solo

purposes

years.

Alessandro Gagliano was actually in early fide pupil of Stradivari.

life

a hond

Finding himself, no doubt, un-

mercifully overshadowed by the prestige of the immortal

workshops in the square

and being a person

of

of S.

native

Domenico

at Cremona,

enterprise, Alessandro

Gagliano migrated to the South, carrying with him the

Cremona school.

craft,

and founded the

His model was,

one of the golden

age,

the work

is

but

1700-37,

small and rather mean, the

//

Neapolitan

so-called

of course, the

approved his

scroll

It is in the

finish.

varnish of Alessandro Gagliano that

we

see

some con-

nection with Stradivari, his varnish very often

and

is

are set low down, and

sometimes lacking in

fine in colour

flat

being

of the right texture.

Attempts have been made

to classify

the various

towns in which Itahan violins were made during the

Cremona period

into schools,

which

is

about as

profit-

OLD VIOLINS

90

able an occupation as the attempts to divide the

makers into

of individual

distinct periods

—one

work period

runs into another, and one school runs into another.

Eoughly speaking, you Cremona,

the

i.e.,

find but

Nicolo,

greater Antonio influence curves, and red

the

with

two influences

—the

Giuseppe

and

great its

flat

form, gentle

and yellow varnish and the German, ;

i.e.,

the Stainer model, of which I shall presently speak, with its

elongated form, arched belly, deep side-grooves, and

brown-yellow varnish.

Some

fine

Venetian and Milanese makers like Mon-

tagnana and Serafino inclined to Stainer, whilst the

Eoman and

Neapolitan adhered more to the Cremona

type; but Stainer himself learnt at Cremona, and the

best

(Naples)

Giuseppe Guarnerius. of

the

all

men like Tecchler (Kome) and Gagliano who went South copied either Stradivari or

attracted good of Grancino),

The Milanese

importance

great

makers

like

of

the

school, capital,

on account naturally

Grancino, Testore (pupil

and Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza (1687-

1720).

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 style, for the

catalogue

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.

;

CHAPTER VI GERMANY

VIOLINS IN

Of

by

course,

this

time, " every

schoolboy,"

use

to

Macaulay's famous phrase, knows that most things

—including, faster

alas

violins

!

—can

Germany if we Dr Shebek, we might be

made

and cheaper than anywhere

German

trust to

almost

writers

that

believe

like

not

viols,

in

else;

say

to

and

the

violin,

originated in Germany. I

am

quite willing to leave the viol origin an open

question.

If,

father-in-law

on the one hand, Albert Durer and his both

made

1500, Benvenuto Cellini his father

made

violins tells

and dated back

to

us that long before 1500

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

small violin pochette or kit rather

upset

— which,

the idea that

a

by the way, has

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. is

thus triumphantly

even the predecessor 91

argued by of,

Mr

Fleming

and every suggestion

of,

It

that

the

OLD VIOLINS

92

came from

but iu 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

violin

same have been If I see

"

Italy

made

;

in

an English picture with a tomahawk and

assume

a boomerang, I do not

depicted were necessarily

But, as far as this book are

of

the

Germany."

quite

at once that the objects

"made

in England."

concerned, such questions

is

secondary importance.

It

is

sufficient

to notice that the first instruments possessing the dis-

tinctive features

of

what we

from the

violin, as distinguished

Brescia and

Cremona

call the

;

and the

viola

viol tribe,

came from

and that the greatest,

if

not

German maker. Jacobus Steiner or Stainer, commonly reputed to have studied at Venice, or, as some say, learnt his art under Nicolo Amati at Cremona. 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. the earliest,

is

Indeed, so great a musician and eminent an authority as Sir

John Hawkins writes

in

1776

:

"

The

violins

Cremona are exceeded [sic] only by those of Stainer German whose instruments are remarkable for a The popularity of an English full and piercing tone." 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 of

a

chefs-d'oeuvre

But

it

is

— few

of which,

no small tribute

if

any, he had ever seen.

to the

power

of the

German

that for at least a hundred years he retarded the due

— VIOLINS IN recognition of the

— GERMANY

93

Cremonas and gave a faulty direction

to the violin pattern

throughout England, France, and

Germany.

The arguments

Cremona

— the

his having been a pupil of

whose daughter he

first

to

romance

is

said to

the great

have refused to

Whether he went home

unreliable.

is

home and married

at

having visited

in his early life rest a good deal on

story of

Nicolo,

marry,

in favour of Stainer

the village belle

whom

or stayed

he appears

have compromised, and who bore him seven

daughters and one son after marriage and one daughter before, it matters very little to us.

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 Kuf,

who

died at Hall in 1877

:

Jacob Steiner or Stainer was undoubtedly born at

Absam, a

village not far

The townlet lay

from Hall.

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

and pedlars constantly carried

—

viols,

and

and

violins,

way

to Hall, for

mules

merchandise

all sorts of

and lutes amongst other things

The great argument against Steiner ever having received early instruction at Cremona seems to be that he affected the tubby raised bellies and to

fro.

deep side-grooves of the old German viols be remembered that Amati's influence,

it

if

as a

was

;

but

it

must

boy he came under Nicolo

at a time

when Nicolo him-

— OLD VIOLINS

94

approached far more nearly the raised

self

viol

form

than he did later on when his own model improved.

The Steiner pattern these

theories

Firstly,

which

therefore consistent with

is

all

:

that

adopted

Steiner

he found

pattern

raised

Cremona, and which was then

at

common throughout

the

the

violin-making

returning early to Absara, he

world

adhered to

;

that,

and,

it,

perhaps from motives of national pride, accentuated it

Germano more.

Cremona

Secondly, that he visited

own model was alter

to

Thirdly, that

already formed, and was too proud

German he

was,

and German he

All these questions, upon which

much

quarian than to the collector.

Still,

ink and paper

and a deep human pathos seem

number

of violins

been attributed

to

was

so

to the anti-

an indescribable to cling about

the meagre facts of this remarkable man's Stainer's popularity

re-

all.

have been spent, remain more interesting

the

his

it.

mained, and never went to Cremona at

interest

when

later,

life.

enormous that ten times

he could ever have made have

name has been

him, and his

quite as often as that of

forged

the great Stradivari.

Stainer married in 1645, and was appointed one of

the Archducal servants, 1669 favour,

became violin-maker

;

he advanced rapidly in

to

the Emperor's court,

and was turning out instruments as

make

fast as

he could

them, forming such admirable pupHs as Klotz

;

GERMANY

VIOLINS IN and Albani, when he

fell

a victim

95 the

to

odium

theologicum.

Heretical

books were found in his possession, or

heretical opinions

were expressed by him, or both.

was, in fact, a Lutheran,

and a Lutheran

far too near to the preserves of

in

He

Absam was

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.

In 1677, having got out of prison. Jacobus petitioned

Emperor Leopold, whose protege and employe he had been, and who was a great musical amateur, for the

money.

Leopold lost his opportunity

unlike

;

Ludwig

who won for himself an easy immortality by supplying Wagner with funds, Leopold turned a of Bavaria,

deaf ear to the immortal violin-maker, Stainer seems to have dragged on a wretched existence for six years longer,

The attentions

overburdened with care and debt.

and eight daughters did not

of his wife

prevent him from going

mad with worry and want may even have

nay, a helpless and incompetent family

contributed to this so unhappy close of a splendid but blighted career.

They show even now the wretched

man

paroxysms came but insolvent.

is

on.

at

Absam

the bench to which

said to have been

He

bound when

his

died in 1683, not only insane

His wife died in great poverty

six years

afterwards, in 1689.

There seems no room in this sad life-story for his

OLD VIOLINS

96

sentimental retreat into a monastery on account of his inconsolable grief for the death

Had

of his wife.

(?)

she been such an inestimable blessing,

we might have

expected her to have kept her gifted husband alive,

managed

his

household more

thriftily,

moved the hearts of his saved him from going mad.

his debts, least

rescued him from

great patrons, or at

But, on the other hand, eight daughters were doubtless a trial to

the one son, born in learn

who seemed always hard up and 1657 and dying in infancy, as we

a couple

;

from a tombstone in the Pilgrims' Church at

Absam, deprived the great

artificer of a

might have been interested in building up the and, perhaps, brought into

it

A

of Hfe so often

certain

firm,

those business faculties

without which the most brilliant

partment

who

coadjutor

abilities in

every de-

make shipwreck.

Marcus Stamer, whose reputed date

is

about 1665-69, and who called himself citizen and vioHn-maker,

it is

difficult to

connect with the

illus-

trious Jacob, although he has been called his brother,

and some say he was a monk and actually assisted Jacob Stainer in the workshop.

The great two

of this

violinist Tartini is said to

have possessed

man's instruments, called Peter and Paul.

Veracini, another eminent soloist,

is

said to

have

lost

both of them in a shipwreck.

Herr von Eeimer possesses a violin with label " Markus und Geigenmacher, anno 1659" (not a

Steiner Burger

very clerical

label,

by the way), and that

is

all

that

can be ascertained about this other Stainer; for of

VIOLINS IN

GERMANY

97

an Andreas Stainer, 1660, nothing but the name

is

known. So everything tends the Cremonese school

genius Jacob rival of

alone he stands at the head of

;

Genuine Stainer instruments are

the Germans.

rare;

ill-fated

Alone he remains as the one important

apart.

all

keep the

to

Stainer labels, copies, and

forgeries

are innu-

merable, and one of the greatest curses of the fiddle

market.

of

The general look of a Stainer is so distinct from that any maker except such as copied him, that it must

arrest the attention of even a casual observer.

The Stainer

belly

is

much

kept up through

rise is

higher than the back, the

half its length

;

the varnish

is

yellow (or as in the Elector Stainers), with a sort of pale-rose flush in

The early

it.

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.

His

earlier

the Amatis

;

specimens bear varnish something akin to they are also of the smaller pattern.

good example of them

is

one in the possession of

A Mr

Eussell of Bedale, Yorkshire, dated 1645. Jacob's finest type Stainer

;

of these

he

may be

seen in the famous Elector

is said to

have made twelve, one

G

OLD VIOLINS

98 for each of

them

his Benedictine monastery, but there

to

shadow

The popular legend

the Electors.

he ever was there at

of proof that

however,

one Markus Stainer who

if

made Peter and Paul was

is

a monk, he

all

refers

;

reputed to have

may have

been a

Benedictine monk, and as the obscure Guarneri

by

did get locked up seems to be responsible ference

for

incarceration, J.

the great Joseph del Gesu's so

Monk Markus may

Stainer's reputed sojourn

monastery.

dictine

very

little

who

trans-

legendary

duty

do

and residence

It matters

no

is

perhaps,

in a

for

Bene-

when the

Elector Stainers were made; most connoisseurs are

agreed that the two quite authentic " survivals of the are miracles of workmanship, beauty, and the

fittest "

perfection of Stainer tone.

What

The Stainer tone! which

for

is

there about that tone,

150 years so fascinated the musical world

as to dull the perceptions of so experienced a professor

as Sir

John Hawkins

the finest Cremonas

to the

more

No one

?

exquisite timbre of

but myself

is

responsible

for the following conjecture.

Perhaps there early

early

is

tonal difference between the

less

Amati and the later Strad than between the Amati and the full-blown Stainer; and it may

have been the sharp, pungent contrast tone

that was quite

creation

—which

that epoch.

new, as

at once arrested

For, after

all,

it

—the

type of

an

original

were

and held the ear

of

musicians in the seventeenth

century were only beginning to be cultivated in the delicate

appreciation of

tone nuances.

The proof

of

GERMANY

VIOLINS IN this

would not be

99

It is quite notorious,

far to seek.

though to us amazing, that the differences between the Amati, the Strad, the Guarnerius, and the Bergonzi or Euggerius, should not have been more clearly

When,

apprehended. tral leader, too

a Joseph, it

—had bought

we do not

man

a

for instance,

— an

orches-

a Euggerius and paid for

find that

he was

until he discovered that the

with

dissatisfied

label

was

The

false.

superb quaHties of the great Joseph have been appreciated only since the Strad craze cult of Strad dates

from

sharp,

But any tyro would be tone

biting

orchestra could first fiddles,

was

who began

Tarisio,

of

make

arrested

A

Stainer.

would be

to the ear,

is

work

through

what is

clear,

in

the

all

the

taste for that sort of to the ear

vinegar, or quinine bitter, or absinthe

The Stainer tone

by the

violinist

his Stainer cut

and once the

excited, it

his

and discovery in 1827, dying only

of violin exploration

in 1854.

but the world-wide

;

tone

curry, or

to the palate.

a sort of drastic, stinging stimulant

almost an intoxication

been once caught by

it

craves for

in the loud richness of Joseph,

;

and the ear that has

it,

and misses

it

even

the exquisite velvety

timbre of Amati, or the superb ringing brightness of the great Antonio.

own

met the

cry-

ing want of his age for loud and piercing tone.

He

Thus, in his

original way, Stainer

was the very antipodes the old viols. pole.

tickled

With

The coarse

a

of the tubby, muffled

sound

of

bound he reached the opposite

ears of the multitude were at once

and "gris^," as the French

say,

by

his

wiry

OLD VIOLINS

100

and

intensity;

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.

my

These considerations alone, in

opinion, account

for the popularity of Stainer in all ages

hearers

;

the bulk of

belong to the musically untrained,

pungency, and desire above

all

who

like

have their

to

ears

tickled.

music

Just in proportion as

developed and

the

higher and higher refine-

musical ear got trained to

ment, 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,

Klotz, and I have artificers.

and the

Duke

the rage for Stainer,

whilst

declined.

no wish

to disparage these

The increasing

last-named fine

rarity of their instruments,

really splendid qualities

which we grant un-

grudgingly to the best of them, must always

them much

make

in a

few

years there will be a revival of the Stainer craze,

and

prized,

that his violins

may

shall be very glad

we

shall get

and I fully expect that

if

then touch Cremona prices.

they do

;

it

will

mean

I

that at last

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)

VIOLINS IN

—

will fall off into the

things "

The

made

;

101

limbo of violin refuse and other

Germany."

in

best pupils

and Albani

GERMANY

and followers

but as

it

of Stainer

were Klotz

became the fashion to dub every

one who made respectable violins in Germany about that time, and showed traces of the " pupils " of the great

Stainer model,

man, modern writers have grown

properly cautious about dogmatising. 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 responsibihties.

Sebastian Klotz or Kloz (1675) and his son Mathias

(1696-1709) made excellent the son's to the father's.

and some prefer

violins,

There were, besides, four

other Klotz, relationship uncertain.

Sebastian of Mit-

tenwald visited Florence and Cremona; but although

when he returned to his native town he announced his making a second Cremona of Mittenwald,

intention of

he and his family

adhered

mainly

to

the

Stainer

model, and reproduced very successfully the Stainer

Vidal says that his sons inundated Germany

tone.

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

mains

;

lived

and worked, a pretty steady stream

but

it

is

re-

certain that, whilst the Klotz family

(or scuola) Stainers

about the year 1750.

of

pseudo-

poured forth from Mittenwald

till

OLD VIOLINS

102

The Albani

way between

family,

stand mid-

the Tecchler,

like

Cremona and the Absam

the

school, but

Albani ^^re (1621-73) was certainly Italian, though he was born and lived

and

style

with

bitten

Albani's violins pass for

and

Italian

fiddles in the

the Italian market, although

for

Joseph was also

red,

Botzen, in the

at

made German

Tyrol, where he

rival

Amati

the

son

Cremona model.

the

Italian;

Italian liis

they are varnished

and

tone,

Joseph

the

Albanis are more highly esteemed than the violins

Albani

of

'pere.

It is further significant

Albani's popularity in

of

maestro and com-

that the most accomphshed

Italy,

poser of the early part of the eighteenth century, Corelli,

This appears certain from an

played on an Albani.

examination made by

fiddles, is

and disposed

made

of

of

an Albani

memorandum is

Mr

Arthur Hill

William Corbet, who had a large

late

that

it

them

of the will of the

collection of rare

in his will, where mention

fiddle,

which he

had belonged

to

left

Corelli.

This

a very interesting example of a carefully excavated

fact,

and does

Mr

Arthur Hill great

credit.

Tecchler, also called a pupil of Stainer,

most esteemed run the Strad 'cello is in

seems

to

is

'cellos

very hard.

the possession of

Mr

A E.

W. Hennell

if

any, violins, which

if

any, violoncellos

Kome between 1695 and

1735.

;

(1898),

Tecchler

tins country.

made

few,

which

very fine Tecchler

have made few,

as his master

perhaps

for his violoncellos, the best of

and there are several others in

in

with the

is

strange,

he worked

His instruments

VIOLINS IN

GERMANY

are sometimes rather cumbrous

;

103

his varnish is yellow,

like Stainer's,

The subsequent

many"

is,

to

history of

say the

least,

"violins

made

in

Ger-

very mixed; nothing so

good as Stainer was done there before him, and nothing equal to

him has been done

The golden age

of

there since.

German violin-making

ends with Jacobus Stainer.

begins and

CHAPTEK

VII

VIOLINS IN FRANCE

Italy and Germany have to look back to their golden age, but it

seems as

if

France and England had to look

forward.

Erance and England have never yet gone beyond a doubtful silver age,

but there

think that the manipulation and

by wear and

whilst thinning out

is

good reason

alchemy of tear

and

to

time,

loss

the

only transform the Piques and

older gems, will not

Lupots, and perhaps the Vuillaumes and Chanots, but the Banks, Forsters,

also

the

Dukes and

advanced prices

Hills, into ;

and

so,

and Fendts, and probably golden quality, with very

to

Artemus

instead of being, like

Ward's future, behind them, they may

still

be found

have their future before them.

The French work contemporaneous with the Cre-

mona

period

is

makers appear

men who

not nearly so interesting, nor do the to

have been nearly so capable as the

followed

seventeen hundreds.

by the streams

of

them towards the This

is

close

violins pouring out of

and German workshops, the

superior

the

the Italian

reputation of

Cremona, which drew at once the patronage 104

of

no doubt accounted for

of

the

FRANCE

VIOLINS IN

105

Spanish and French Courts, and perhaps the small de-

mand

for stringed instruments in

demand

the huge

in Italy

France compared with

and throughout Germany.

So there was a poor market as yet for French work. In Italy, in the luxurious palities, as well as in

little

Duchies and Princi-

Germany

the churches, and in

the small Electorates, each of which supported

and gave an

indirect impetus to the churches,

and Eoman Catholic, violin-makmg it

came

to pass that Italy

its

in

band

Eeformed

flourished,

and so

and Germany made

for all

the world.

The Cremona period

in

France can boast of but

two considerable names, Jaques Boquay (1705-30) and Pieray (1700-25).

Boquay worked on the

early

Cremo-

nese model, which had already been left behind the modified forms of

His

violins

but

may

his

varnish

soft.

even a

He

have not yet reached a high selling

possibly rise; they are by no is

means

reddish-brown, transparent,

reverted to the

little

by

Stradivari (1700 great period). figure,

scarce;

warm and

Jerome Amati type, arching

more than Jerome.

The quality

of his tone is good,

which in these advanced days

tells

but

it

lacks power,

against

him except

for cabinet playing.

Claude Pieray (1700-25) worked in Paris, and

lowed the

later

Amati

contour, but he

removed from the Cremonese influence of his own.

was

far

fol-

enough

to follow a line

Whilst varying, some think capriciously,

the thickness of his wood, and not always securing the best quality of

wood, he varnished pale red, and

OLD VIOLINS

106

turned out a small and large pattern inclined

the

to

pattern of

larger

;

but he evidently the

Amati

late

Strad.

A

vioUn of Pieray's was advertised in the sale of

Tom

Britton,

beautiful

the musical

violin,

coal-heaver,

as

then so strong in England, had not

Cremona.

a

very

and as good as a Cremona," which

shows that even at that date the Stainer

of

"

However,

it

would

dimmed

of course

influence,

the fame

have been

absurd to compare him to Stainer, the affinity between Pieray and Amati being too obvious.

But the

really great silver-gilt

if

not golden age of

French violin-making dawned with Lupot (1736-58),

was extended by Pique (1788-1822), Vuillaume (17981875), Chanot (1801),

Gaud

1840), famous for his varnish copyist,

whose

(1802), ;

and Aldric (1792-

and Pent,* an admirable

violins often sell as Lupot's

copies

of

Strad.

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

mate Cremona form, which he had

The

firm of

Lupot, immortalised by Nicolas Lupot

(1758-1824), dates back to 1696 or somewhat

The

father and grandfather of Nicolas

earlier.

Lupot resided

This Fent is no relation, as far as is known, to the family working England, whose name is spelt Fendt.

*

in

ulti-

defined.

.Jf^*'-

i

^^^rS^^^~"

''^^i^

w H D

O H

I

FRANCE

VIOLINS IN

107

at different times at Plombiers, Luneville,

but

Nicolas was born at

Stuttgart in

and Orleans,

He

1758.

returned to Orleans in 1770. Nicolas Lupot was a

man

and

of great discernment,

not carried away with the fashion of the times.

though during the

twenty years of his

first

must have seen and heard the German model

own work nor

extolled, neither his

show any leaning towards

Al-

life

he

of Stainer

yet his father's

His eye was enamoured

it.

with the Stradivari grand pattern, and his best violins are such loving and faithful copies of

judges

have

been

deceived

by

An-

the great

many amateurs and some

that

tonio

them.

professional

But Lupot

never got rid of the glassy, chippy French varnish,

and

although

his

warm

orange tints

and the varnish has been

laid

from that fading away upon the always

seems to

a

subtler

linger, a sort of

generous

on with a lavish hand,

the rubbing bare by time of a Lupot

where

are

film

is

fibres

very different of

protecting

a Strad, the

wood

mist of varnish to the end.

But Nicolas Lupot was a great workman, and, as Hamlet modestly puts it, " indifferently honest " that

—

is,

he

honest as violin copyists go. copied,

He

did not imitate,

and varnished throughout; he never aged

his copies prematurely, or

tried

to

take in buyers;

he reverenced his great Cremona model too

palm

off his

own work

as those

of

much

the master.

to

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

OLD VIOLINS

108

The moment Nicolas

and sensitive quality.

in tone

Lupot arrived in

Paris, early in this century, his talents

were recognised

;

orders flowed

and remains without a

He was

French school.

rival in the

appointed maker to the Paris Conservatoire,

which involved the manufacture be presented

violin to

year,

and he remained

in,

and

to the

annual prize

the

of

gold

medallist of

the

academic privilege we are doubtless

to this

indebted for some

his

of

finest

A

efforts.

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 cer-

forth the mettle

tainly

call

" took

the cake,"

but was

of

one who admittedly

not without

formidable

rivals.

One it

is

of these rivals of

said,

Lupot's

He was

in the habit,

fiddles

unvarnished,

them, and labelling them with his

varnishing

name.

was Pique.

buying

He

had better have

left

and contented himself with a fraudulent is

surprising

device.

that

Pique

is

label.

he should have stooped to such a

He must

have been

influenced by commercial considerations, but

honesty

is

and merit

It

quite a considerable person, second

Lupot as a maker.

only to

own

the varnishing alone

his dis-

a great tribute to the superior popularity of Lupot.

Still

Pique was so clever that

he could have afforded to be honest.

Frangois Gand,

who

was much beloved by

entered as Lupot's pupil in 1802, his master.

He became

his best

;

VIOLINS IN FRANCE pupil, married his daughter,

ness in the

Eue Croix

and succeeded

des Petits

Champs

Time has invented a new industry ing

109

—which Frangois Gand raised

to his busi-

in 1824.

— the art of

repair-

to a veritable fine art

(Mennegand, Kolliker, Eambeaux and W. Ebsworth Hill Pique would join and

have since rivalled him). mutilated grain in such a a microscope,

it

the patch or closed fissure

He would

spotted.

sort of passion of ingenuity.

was almost worth breaking a

mended by Gand, and

fiddle

his exquisite skill

have

to

it

and profound

knowledge as a repairer no doubt gave

common

cannot be

spend days over mending a crack

became with him a It

way

split

without the aid of

that,

to

rise

the

but risky notion that an old violin was im-

proved by being mended, as some surgeons pretend that a skilful operation will not only prolong

and Bernadel

is

still

of high standing in

life,

but

of

Gand

Paris.

The

The firm

positively improve the constitution.

Francois are useful and solidly built, but

violins of

lack altogether

the Italian grace and

finish

of

his

master, Lupot.

Pique (1788-1822)

is

by some held

to

very hard as a copyist of Stradivari.

have run Lupot

Pique avoids at

once the error of the vulgar copyist,

who cannot

from emphasising the peculiarities

of

the sin of the brazen forger,

with

acids,

model, and

who bakes and

rubs, treats

and simulates the cracks and the wear and

tear of time.

may have

refrain

his

But Pique had some

conscience.

He

passed himself off as Lupot, but at least he

never posed as Stradivari.

OLD VIOLINS

110

Those conversant with Pique's instruments observe a very high and conscientious

Spohr,

finish throughout.

the violinist and composer, played for

many

years on a

Lupot, and was never tired of extolling both Lupot

and Pique.

Pique died

in

1822, two years

before

Lupot, and his violins improve every year, and will

by-and-by fetch prices second only to those of Lup6t,

which are already up to £200 (1897).

A If I

were

YlGNETTE OF to seek for

VUILLAUME.

J. B.

an appropriate pendant

William Ebsworth Hill in London,

figure of

to the

I could

not find a better one than Jean Baptiste Vuillaume of

Yet the two men were very

Paris.

different;

careful, neat, systematic enthusiast, with a

to business,

— the

shrewd eye

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,

his wares,

who

forgot

and the

careless distributor of

what he owed

kept them waiting for months

;

his customers,

and

the clever copyist, the

reverent repairer, the ingenious brain for ever evolv-

ing

new

sorts of bows, fiddle shapes, screws;

idolater of the old forms,

the truth that violins and

who had all

so

and the

firmly grasped

that belonged to

had culminated at Cremona before the middle

them of

the

eighteenth century, that he never aspired to invent

anything new or alter anything old

;

— the

Parisian,

who

OLD VIOLINS

112

Vuillaume was early saturated, shop at Mirecourt, with

he served his apprenticeship.

trade, long before

Paris drew the

an

irresistible

work-

in his father's

the secrets and arts of the

all

young

fellow,

But

then only nineteen, with

magnetism.

Victor Hugo, that typical Parisian of Parisians, has

somewhere described the Frenchman's inborn love his

capital,

him

the centre to

of

movement, industry, and invention. your Jean Baptiste

go.

But

So

must

to Paris

whom?

to

—

of

pleasure,

art,

life,

whom

to

but Chanot (Francis), incomparable worker, copyist, forger, suitable adept, indeed, for

such a bright novice.

With Chanot, Vuillaume remained he went over dabbled in

beck and

L^t6,

to

fiddles,

call as

and

1821,

till

the organ-builder,

was

glad

to

when

who

have

also

at

a foreman such a specialist, with

his all

the experience of Mirecourt and the craft of Chanot at his

back; in

young man

fact,

he lost no time in taking the

into partnership,

and the partner throve

so

well that he married in 1828, being then just thirty

years old.

Things ran smoothly with Vuillaume; his wife did not drink, or abuse him, or waste his money.

was happy, and, talents

expanded in the direction

market which was created by the excited

by

His home

in the sunshine of domestic peace, his

Tarisio,

of

that

growing

taste for old fiddles,

and supplied by the not always

scrupulous skill of Chanot.

But Vuillaume went one better than Chanot. Chatrick was to produce such deceptive copies or

not's

— VIOLINS IN

FRANCE

113

own

patch with counterfeit backs and bellies of his

or to forge downright a whole antique, to be foisted

But

upon some unwary but ill-informed enthusiast. Vuillaume, to his honour be

it

said,

that the world at large could not be

but that

men were

soon discerned

won by

fraud,

the slaves of imagination and senti-

made

This timely and philosophic discovery

ment.

him famous and wealthy, almost

He

bound.

at a

loved the old Italian fiddles; he had the best opportunities

seeing

of

them;

his

admirable

enabled him to copy them accurately

—

technique

to counterfeit

the wear and tear, even the cracks and worm-holes, the

wood; and

inlaying, the rubbed varnish, the old

about

pounds, or even

five

people with fifty or

new

fiddles,

less,

for

he proposed to provide

which looked

like old ones

worth

a hundred pounds.

The device succeeded beyond the dreams

of avarice.

Orders poured in faster than they could be executed.

Just look at the old man's

Can you not

face.

see the

shrewdness, betrayed by that slight pucker in the

which discovered and worked dency

of

human

can't afford to of cheap art,

mon

galore

familiar

nature to possess what seems,

buy what is really good

?

if

lip,

ten-

you

It is the secret

shoddy satsuma, coarse blue china, com-

oleographs, and

silks,

now

this

—every bazaar

sham

reeks with

Pg.lais it

;

Eoyal jewellery

whilst the biggest

warehouses are not above selling a made-up wine that deceives the palate, a walking-stick

paint or

stain,

ditto ditto.

not ebony, only

and furniture not really

inlaid,

but

So Vuillaume began early those amazing

H

;

OLD VIOLINS

114

which even now deceive moment may even puzzle a

copies, chiefly of Stradiuarius,

the innocent, and for a

Well,

connoisseur.

of the best sort

;

it

was no doubt shoddy, but shoddy

shoddy raised

to a fine art, like those

made out of silk or cambric that we pop them into water to prevent them from

roses so subtly

might easily fading.

This new-found copying industry was a delight as well as a profit to the clever French craftsman.

He

loved a Cremona

old masters again of the " I

;

he copied

and again,

till

it

they

as men copy the know every touch

immortal workman, and revel in

its

reproduction.

have completed," remarked Vuillaume in his de-

clining years, " three thousand instruments, all sold, all

me

great

Like Ebsworth Hill, Jean Baptiste loved to do

it all

paid

for,

and the money spent, and

it

affords

satisfaction."

Every instrument was varnished carefully by

himself. his

own

hands, and

But what

is

many

are

made [throughout by him.

the actual merit of Vuillaume's violins

?

Fine work, yes; admirable counterfeits, yes; but the great expectations raised by the appearances are unfor-

tunately not always answered by the tone.

His best

are good, and will run into forty pounds, perhaps

but his worst are dear at

five

laume pretend

power

decessors.

to rival in

pounds.

more

Nor can Vuil-

his great

French pre-

Pique or Lupot, who copied, but without

registering the defects

of

age,

accident,

and decay,

which are so cleverly reproduced in Vuillaume's typical specimens.

FRANCE

VIOLINS IN an exaggeration

It is

worm-holes not only

and

;

carry the mellowness and timbre of

wood grown naturally instead

pair

but seems actually to im-

old,

improving

of

even

age put upon his planks

this artificial

fails to

cracks and

reproducing

ways, besides

various

Vuillaume baked

but he treated the wood chemically in

fiddles;

his

to say that

115

its

and

quality,

this

is

but too apparent as the instruments recede in time farther

and farther from the hand

of the too

cunning

artificer.

There

however, a few fine quartets of instru-

are,

ments, one of wliich,

was

made

lately exposed to public

dows

in

Bond

tampering

with

thi'oughout

is

Comte de Chimay,

view in Messrs

surface

charming and

everything about them ;

is

everything

still,

win-

attempt at aging the wood or

the

is

The work

visible.

in the

finished, as

Cremonese models, and the only wonder

better

Hill's

These are varnished equally

Street.

throughout, and no

for the

so

is

good,

is,

the tone

best

that is

as

not

But Vuillaume

relative.

claims to be judged by a high standard, and so

we

judge him. Vuillaume's ingenious brain was ever devising im-

provements and novelties, but few of them have turned out successes.

He made use, it

a violin tenor, but

being

too

cumbrous.

but, although hollow, it

He made bridge, but

a

sourdine it

it

never came into

He made

was found

tailpiece

to

a steel bow; be

too heavy.

which acted on

the

has never superseded the usual simple

"

—

"

;

OLD VIOLINS

116

dummy which

He made a by Mr Withers

contrivance. sold

is still

;

prefer to pay a small

most men prefer

just as

it is less

trouble,

Apart from

his

skill as a copyist,

fame

sum and

but bought

but most violinists

get their bows haired,

get themselves shaved

to

and does not cost much. undoubted

workman, and

finish as a

Jean Baptiste Vuillaume's

will rest largely

As we have

bow,

self-hairing

to

title

on his connection with

Tarisio.

him living, the bedroom along

seen, he not only dealt with

all

the violins found in

with the peasant carpenter's

body.

lifeless

His possession of the Messie, which he kept in a

and never allowed any one

glass case,

mune

He

in 1870.

writes

to

Madame

Alard, his daughter,

married the celebrated violinist of that name last I

and

spoke to you of Alard's vioHn and

have here.

of certain valuables I

what

to

do with them, for

when

And

again:

referred

my

Messie,

is

over

violins cannot

"Where ought

these in case of pillage

my

who

In

do not know

the hubbub

and some sous can be buried, but buried."

I

"

:

one survives, one will be

if

able to recover the valuables

He

was a

to touch,

him during the Paris Com-

source of great anxiety to

I

to

be

place all

?

chiefly to

his

and old medals

violins,

received in the Paris Exhibition from 1827

to 1855,

and the Great Exhibition medal in London, 1851. Later on

we

are relieved

by reading

:

" I

quite a safe hiding-place protected from la grace de

Dieu

!

have found

fire, et

puis

d>

!

FRANCE

VIOLINS IN

117

All went well with the treasures, and in 1875, died, the

Messie

children,

Jeanne and

bought out

fell to

when he

the joint share of his only two

Jeanne (Madame Alard)

Claire.

Claire's interest

hundred pounds,

for five

the violin at that time being valued at one thousand.

In 1890 Messrs Hill bought

it

Mr

for

R

Crawford

for

the unprecedented figure of two thousand pounds, the largest

sum

ever given by a dealer for a single instru-

ment.

Mr

Charles Eeade valued

at six

it

but that was several years ago, when a

hundred,

first-class

Strad

could be obtained for about three hundred and twenty

Down

Aunt

" * as

end

to the

we

write) are " still

of his life

and he hurried over

dealer,

old

up since then, and

Prices have run

pounds.

" Charley's

man

to

to attend the sale of

into

Mr

Hill's

London when quite an

Mr

when

in

He He

Gillot's fiddles. sale.

shop in Wardour Street, and gave

vent to his disappointment. visited

running "

Vuillaume was a great

mistook the date, and arrived a day after the

came

(like

Mr

Hill,

whom

he always

London, had bought several instru-

ments, and had a second deal with Vuillaume then and there,

much

to the

Frenchman's

gratification.

interesting to catch this glimpse of

dealers

and

artificers

of

the age

It

is

the two greatest face

to

face

for

one moment, and in such friendly and characteristic relations. *

A

popular comedy (1898).

;

CHAPTEE VIOLINS It

is

IN

VIII

ENGLAND

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

day

I heard the other

which

out

left

portant

calculated

details

Duke may

to

confuse the minds

of the first to disappear.

of

Barak Norman, Banks, Forster, and

be somewhat confusing, but

the mention of

of

England, of course, being a small

was one

The names

an American school atlas

the islands in the world as unim-

all

young students. island,

of

art.

them

we must

risk

just for the sake of an approxi-

mate completeness.

The lish

fact

is,

that in

Queen

Elizabeth's time the

were really almost a musical people.

Eng-

Whether

Low Countries or Germany or from Italy has never seemed to me a matter Undoubtedly the viol and its of much importance. the viols came across from the

descendants all

is cloisteral,

and that means

Italian, since

the arts along with Christianity spread from the

great Italian centres lis

— Eome, Florence, Milan, Brescia

VIOLINS IN

ENGLAND

and in Elizabeth's time Italian influence music as

in English

as

marked

and tapestries that

us behind glass at the South Kensington

dazzle

Museum,

is

in the Shakspearian drama, or

it is

in these gorgeous brocades, silks, still

119

or in such Elizabethan

architecture

Knole and

as

gems

Hatfield,

of Eenaissance

which seem

to

touch as with the glory of a foreign world the palatial seats " of our old nobility."

Modern music

rises in Elizabeth's reign

Verde and the discovery

of the octave

with Monte

and the perfect

cadence.

Along with

rise

it

Naples; whilst the

the ItaKan singing-schools

viols,

improved

to

of

meet the new

demands, culminate in the Brescian, Maggini and the

Cremonese Amati patterns (the very word Madrigala, the

hymn

teral),

Mother

of the

and the

viols

of

God,

Italian

is

and

clois-

which accompanied such part-

songs were doubtless of Italian origin.

But, for

all that,

the viols were genuinely naturalised

and acclimatised in England, and seemed as

for a short

England were even going

if

time

it

to lead the art

of viol manufacture.

The

father of

Galileo

the astronomer declared in

1583 that the best lutes were at that time made in England, and we

making

so

know

that lute-making

invariably went together

and Italy the violin-maker " lutier "

;

and

J. J.

is

to

and

that in

this

Eousseau remarks, a

viol-

France

day called a little

loosely

perhaps: "The viol passed from the Italians to the English,

who

first

began to compose and play har-

OLD VIOLINS

120

monised pieces for

it,

and who imparted the knowledge

to other kingdoms,"

Mace, an old writer and quite a musical expert Ross (1598) and Smith (1633) as " old instruments " in his day. But the move(1676), mentions the viols of

ment did not go that

on,

and I cannot for a moment doubt

what checked the

music and the manufac-

rise of

musical instruments in this country was that

ture of

same Puritan craze which snubbed

art,

smashed the

stained glass, and mutilated our cathedrals throughout

the land.

Viols had by this time crept out of the cloister and joined hands with the frivolous Eebek, used at fairs

and pothouses. the

"

At

all events, in

Barebones-praise-God

Cromwell's time and

period,"

everything

that

savoured of festivity was tabooed, and the fury against art

seemed part and parcel

according to the masses at

of

all

To Cromwell's honour be

it

set

personally no such extremist, and

saved for us Raffael's cartoons of its secular forms

Puritans, whilst in

sincere

rehgion,

least.

;

but

down

that he was

that he, moreover, still

music in any

was mightily discouraged by the its

higher religious form

associated with Prelacy and Papacy, and

it

we have

wait for that reaction in favour of the world, the

and the also

devil,

made

was to

flesh,

which marked the Restoration, and which

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.

In Charles

I.'s

band (1625)

there

were

"eleven

ENGLAND

VIOLINS IN and four

violins

viols,"

so

at

did

come

the full-fledged violin

four-and-twenty "

violin

II.'s

restoration

in with

a rush of

less a

whom

over

fiddlers,

was

the

last

creeping up; but not until Charles

"

121

no

presided

person than the immortal Thomas Purcell, who,

in a brief span of

achieved his almost Mozartian

life,

fame, and died at the early age of twenty-seven, just

younger than the incomparable Wolfgang

ten years

Amadeus.

The King had no doubt got bands from Louis

his

notion of fiddle

XIII.'s " petits violons

du

roi "

;

and

from the French Court, our "merrie monarch" bor-

rowed a good many other ideas

of

a less respectable

and harmless character.

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

"They played Anthony Wood in airy

and

at

his

the diary of his

life,

and brisk than the

much

him

before

viols "

;

fiddlers.

meals," writes " as being

more

and the grave Evelyn

" resents the invasion of the upstart " petit violon

its

profane intrusion.

He

writes in 1662

:

"

One

of his Majesty's chaplains preached, after which, instead of

anthem

organ,

or solemn

wind music accompanying the

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." 'Tis

an

good, and

ill

wind that blows nobody and nothing any

we cannot doubt

that

his

Majesty's royal

;

OLD VIOLINS

122 mistresses,

the Duchess of

like

Cleveland

Palmer), the Duchess of St Albans (Nell actress), the

mother

Duchess

the

Walters),

of the

Querouaille, a French

more

Duke

of

Monmouth

Portsmouth

of

(Lucy-

(Louise

de

greatly favoured all the

girl),

diversions with which

frivolous

(Barbara

Gwynn, the

secular music,

and especially the new-fangled vioHn, were

associated.

These ladies were bound to be musical, as music

undoubtedly flattered his

"merrie

the

delighted

jaded tastes by

its

monarch,"

and

frequent novelty and

emotional excitations.

The

revellers

at Whitehall

soon attracted to

capital the greatest violin players

The supremacy and the rage of

of the

new

from foreign

violin pattern

the

parts.

was achieved,

virtuosity began.

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

able "

;

culties

the Court.

Evelyn

him "incomparthe most amazing difficalls

he played off at sight with ravishing sweetness and " improvements "

he played a

full concert

on his single instrument, so

down their violins, acknowledging As to worthy Mr Paul Wheeler and who were the Spohrs and De Beriots of

that the rest flung

the victory.

Mr

Mell,

their day, they

We

had

to hide their diminished heads.

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.

— ENGLAND

VIOLINS IN It

be convenient

will

123

focus our attention

to

on

English violin-making about this time, for doubtless the arrival of these foreign players, and the popularity

gave a great impetus to our native

of the king's band,

manufacture.

The supply

demand abroad

was now a growing

there

England and France

— began

to give out as

There were plenty of old

tury waned. violins to fall

viols,

i.e.,

in

the cen-

but no old

back upon; the violin was a new pro-

and, as the court set

duct;

which

of foreign violins, for

naturally expect the

the fashion,

English

we should

viol-makers would be

wide awake to the importance of supplying the new want, and such was the case.

The Brescian and Cremonese fiddles were hardly in England, and what the Italians made were

known

home consumption.

chiefly for

As time,

the English were great viol-makers in Elizabeth's

Why did they allow violins? Why is the

we may ask

:

take the lead in of violins

at least fifty,

a hundred

Why

d'ceuvrel

whilst

years later

W.

is

Forster

is

The answer

1795?

English school

and the best English

than the early Cremona

Nicolo

Amati's

1713-1801, is

the ItaUans to

Duke

date

violins chefs-

1596-1684,

1769, and Banks

not far to seek: the fact that

violin

manufacture was checked by the Puritan move-

ment

in

England, whilst

its

progress in

Italy

was

steady and continuous, enabled the Italians to steal

march upon us which turned us into pupils, and pupils afar off too, when we resumed the industry.

a

I do not say that the superior climatic conditions

and

!

OLD VIOLINS

124 generally the courts

art

must not

attention

was

atmosphere

small Italian

the

of

also be taken into account

called to

;

but when

improved tonal quality, and

a timbre, power, and sensibility undreamed of by the old viol-makers

became de rigueur, in response

to the

demands of virtuosity and the advance of the musical was bound

Italy

art,

win;

to

such Tyrolean woods,

such varnish, such sun, such sentiment, as was required for the perfect evolution of the violin, could hardly be

Both Spain and Germany con-

found outside Italy.

fessed to the fact, nor could England put

it

aside.

Accordingly, the highest praise that was ever given to

an English maker was given

(1727-95), to this

who was

called "

to

Benjamin Banks

The English Amati "

day no one has ever been

called "

;

but

The English

Stradivari "

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 masters),

most

by dancing-

but mediocre fabricators, chiefly of violins

prolific

and tenors

chiefly

the Kennedys, father and son (1730-1870),

;

Panormo and Parker, the two first excellent we make special mention

eighteenth-century makers; of

John Eayman, one

of,

if

violin-maker,

"An

amongst the

violins

coal-heaver.

Urquhart was

not the earliest, English

extraordinary

owned by also a

Eayman"

Britton,

maker

the

was

musical

of exceptional

originality,

Pamphilon (1685) was a

fair

and excellent workman.

ENGLAND

VIOLINS IN

125

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.

"Barak Norman" worked and with a >^ and crown above

Del Gesu, some

of

fiddles

at

St

label runs thus,

similar to the labels of

it,

which he

Norman and Nathaniel

sold

His

Paul's Churchyard (1683-1740).

may

have seen: "Barak

Cross, at the Bass Viol

in

S.

Windermere had one

of

Paul's Churchyard, London, fecit 1702."

Mr

Walter Brooksbank

of

the Cross viol da gamba, in which, after the style

instrument

of the early bell founders, the

thus to speak for

my

is

supposed

"Nathaniel Cross wrought

itself.

back and belly" (the scroll and sides being by

Barak Norman). Meares, about

whom

to

little

speak of

known,

is

except that he was probably a pupil of Eayman's,

is

reputed to have taught Barak Norman.

Meares

He

model.

known

is

came

in.

have

was probably the

of violoncellos.

of purfling,

to

He

retains

adopted the

English maker

earliest

some

of the decorative use

which rapidly went out as the new violins

He

runs his purfle into his monogram with

Meares

made

at

attendant

flourishes.

viols, after

that tenors of excellent quality.

His

Brescian

violins are

much

esteemed.

first

He was

chiefly

a close

copyist of Maggini.

Three of his viols

were

exhibited

in

the

South

OLD VIOLINS

126

Kensington Loan Collection of 1872, but one

of

them,

dated 1690, had been cut down. It remained for Stradiuarius, in the

dawning year

the eighteenth century, to discover and of the bass viol that

fix

of

the model

needed no cutting down.

The musical world owes a debt to the Forster family

;

of eternal gratitude

there were four of them.

"Great-grandfather John (1683), maker of spinning-

wheels and " '

violins.

Grandfather William, the Forster, commonly called

Old

Forster.'

"Father William, No.

who

2,

also

made

spinning-

wheels. "

William, No. 3 (1764-1824)."

His sons, the two brothers William (1733-1824), and

Simon Andrew (1731-1869).

The second Forster "

Old Forster," bears

Born

(1739-1807),

off the

William,

called

palm.

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 of violins, the greatest

maker

in

all

viols,

maker

and afterwards a maker in the north

— the greatest

England.

He commended on them himself.

his violins to the public

He was

by playing

not beneath playing

at

country dances and on village greens.

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

VIOLINS IN

ENGLAND

127

with a desire to possess themselves of an instrument

which they had heard discourse such excellent music

and

to the purpose.

Indeed, I have sometimes

known

professors in these

days who would so cunnmgly play to their pupils that they have been able to palm off for considerable sums quite inferior instruments.

How much

more easy must

have been for the

it

who made them, and made none but the

best,

man and

played them on occasions when his purchasers' spirits

were high and their dispositions yielding,

to dispose of

his exceptional wares.

About 1759 Forster seems Cumberland was played

have concluded that

He was

he came south.

to conquer,

to

out, and, sighing for

quite a young man,

but in the great whirlpool of London, as then, he seems to have

but that pluck.

is

in itself

a

sunk

so

low as

it

was even

cattle-driving,

tribute to his versatility

and

Presently he sets up in the Commercial Koad,

East, but finding there neither

wheels nor

fiddles,

demands

makes such

for spinning-

takes to gunstock-making,

last "strikes ile" with one Beck, of

there

new worlds

fiddles

that

Tower

till

he at

Hill,

Beck grows

and

fat while

Forster remains lean.

Unable

to get his

1762, and sets

up

wages

raised,

he leaves Beck in

at Duke's Court, a site

now

occupied

by the National Gallery. 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

OLD VIOLINS

128

he set up in St Martin's Lane, and then went

348

George

him

He had by

Strand,

attention

of

III.'s son, is said

off black

time

attracted of

the

Cumberland,

even to have once dined with

pudding.

Old Forster's

shown by

this

and the Duke

royalty,

to

versatility

his opening

Joseph Haydn, and

and enterprise

is still

further

communications with the great

it is

chiefly to

him

that England

owes the introduction and publication of Haydn's immortal Symphonies.

The shrewd

old

man

doubtless saw the profit which

lay hid in a scheme which would popularise the greatest writer for stringed instruments

who

ever lived, and he

had not miscalculated.

The same cleverness which prompted him to give the EngKsh 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.

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."

Peter Pindar (Dr Walcot) and Bartolozzi the engraver were also amongst Forster's patrons.

He made

ENGLAND

VIOLINS IN

129

but four double-basses, and his tenors and

thought better of than his

Ho

rising in value.

violins.

They

'cellos are

are steadily

died in the same year as

Haydn

His son William already suffered much from

(1808).

the foreign competition, which was just beginning to tell,

the duty which protected the English manufac-

tures having been removed.

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.

There was no doubt a certain erratic vein in the Forster family, which in Old Forster took the shape of

amazing

versatility

in his son

and profitable enterprise, but which

and grandson degenerated into speculative

eccentricity.

The son went

and invested

in

in

buying grocery,

for

other bad businesses.

The grandson

turned out very unmanageable, but clever and manysided;

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 violon-

He made

cello desk.

gether,

two or three

Forster high level. still

about of

He

fifteen

instruments alto-

which only approached the

died in 1824, suddenly, whilst

quite a young man.

His brother Simon made a large number

— tenors Forster,

the

and

'cellos;

of violins

they are those signed

but they do not rank very high.

first

to

write

deserved well of

him with

a

a all

history of

the violin,

succeeding writers,

touching simplicity of

S.

A.

He was and has

who quote

faith, as

though,

—

;

OLD VIOLINS

130

forsooth, because the

first,

he must needs be the best

authority.

At

the

name

players

'cello

Benjamin Banks

of

lift

their

all

tenor and

for although the

hats;

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 name extolled by

the great virtuoso

favourite instrument

neglected

may

hold the market again; and a

to

was a Banks,

by Lindley's

is

Lindley, whose

not likely to be

successors, even

though they

be the happy possessors of Stradivari basses.

Benjamin Banks (1727-1795) was a contemporary of

Old Forster (1713-1801), but there

to suppose that the rially interfered

two

artificers ever

with each other

Salisbury, whilst Forster

for

;

worked

in

is

no reason

met

or

mate-

Banks worked

at

London, and no

express trains bore fiddles or fiddle-buyers swiftly to

and

fro in those days.

Benjamin Banks copied Nicolo Amati very closely but

Mr

cello

of

Sandys speaks of a rare long-shaped violonhis

round-topped

quite of Stainer

the

Stainer pattern, with

sound-holes.

than the great Lindley's

other

which so nearly escaped destruction dent. '

spill,

was

This

famous

none

instrument

in a coach acci-

The passengers had a bad shakmg and a bad and Lindley and his violoncello among them;

but the rare enthusiast, in the midst of fusion, case,

the

had but one thought.

and was found seated

He

the con-

flew to his 'cello-

in a ditch, quietly play-

;

VIOLINS IN away

ing

assure

to

ENGLAND

himself

that

his

131

was

beloved

uninjured.

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

parlance,

being often clotted, so

it is

The Earl

that, in

technical

said to kill the grain.

Pembroke, who presumably knew no

of

better, ordered a violoncello of

Banks

to be

made

en-

tirely

out of an old cedar-tree, which had been blown

down

in his lordship's park (Wilton).

It was, as

have been foreseen, a great failure in tone.

Banks made money, but

it

it is

and

enough,"

"right

might

Of course

pocketed

the

doubtful whether the Earl ever got

money's worth.

his

I

remember a very

carefully

made

violin, all of silver,

another expensive freak of ignorance and eccentricity doubtless of

it

sounded

like a tin kettle,

no use whatever.

Some

of us

and was musically

may

have heard an

ingenious itmerant violinist playing on a tin biscuit-

box with similar Benjamin's

results.

scrolls

not very elegant, but that

are

Benjamin had a very good

does not affect his tone. idea of his

own

importance, and probably, too, a sus-

picion of the extent to which his in vain after his death. difficult

He

by not only varying

different ways, but also

several places with his

name would be taken make this more

tried to

his labels in about four

stamping his instruments in

own

peculiar seal, B.B.

;

OLD VIOLINS

132 Benjamin's sons old

man

left

fell

below their father, but the

far

number

quite a

white unvarnished

of

instruments in a cellar when the business was sold, of

which were duly completed and sent forth with

all

his

name, to which, however, they have but a partial right sons worked with him,

for, as his

it is

by no means

certain that every fiddle in Bank's shop at the time of his death

Duke

was made by Benjamin ^^re.

(1754-69) was remarkable as having largely

contributed to create in England the Stainer furore

which so confused the judgment country, and retarded

triumph best

of the Stradivari

Dukes

are on the

at

of

least

amateurs in this fifty

grand pattern.

Amati

years

the

In reality the

pattern, but they are few

and though there are innumerable fraudu-

in number,

lent

for

Dukes

Duke

about, a real

is

seldom seen.

The

fraudulent Dukes exaggerate the high bellies and deep

grooving of the earlier Amati, and thus pass for Stainer

Duke's varnish

pattern.

is

also of a yellow or yellow-

not likely that Duke's reputation

brown hue.

It is

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. I cannot close this brief survey of the old English

makers without a mention 1832.

coming Dodd, violins.

He was to

for

of

Bernard Fendt (1756-

originally a Swiss

cabinet-maker, but

London, went into business with Thomas

whom, and with whom, he began Fendt soon got

hold

of

another

to

make

cabinet-

maker, a compatriot, and Dodd took him also into the

ENGLAND

VIOLINS IN These two clever

business.

artificers

business to great prosperity, and

honour

of putting his

own name

he had done, however, was

133

soon raised Dodd's

Dodd

thus had the All

in their violins.

them, but he did

to varnish

that superlatively well, so that Dodd's varnish became as

famous as Dodd's bows.

Eendt afterwards Betts,

Dodd and worked

left

who was famous

for his

imitations

which he said paid better than making

for of

fiddles

John

Amati,

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 is

expense of the fiddles themselves

—

for it

notorious that such frauds do not improve by age.

A Dark

—

Vignette of W. E. Hill.

yes, to

my

William Ebsworth

was good enough

eyes very dark

Hill's old

for

him

;

;

but the light in

shop in Wardour Street

a greater glare might have

flouted those hundreds of old

brown

fiddles,

and dusty

d6bris of fiddles, which that very moderately sized estab-

lishment was hung, lined, strewn, and littered o'er with.

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

moonbeam, according

to Sir

Walter

—even

as the

Scott, touched the

— OLD VIOLINS

134

grey ruins of Melrose more tenderly than the light of day.

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.

Mr

Hill tried to do too much.

he conducted

repairs,

In his back shop

and frequently brought

pairs " into the front shop.

I

his " re-

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

they were received one and

up

with the same mild

all

and tolerant inattention, born not

of incivility,

but of

knew Mr Hill in those days, knew the nearest approach we shall perhaps ever see I do not say that to the great Cremona makers. Such

abstraction.

any

of

Mr

Hill's

and carving)

is

as

work (barring

likely to

exquisite repairs

his

rank with theirs

admirable maker, but he very soon

When

;

left

he was an off

making.

the duty on foreign violins was removed there

poured into lEngland a continuous stream of

which entirely swamped the demand English make.

Mr

fiddles,

new ones

of

Hill, following the market, turned

repairing and dealing; but

his

attention

and

craft atmosphere, the

to

for

with violin constitution, the single-minded love of

the

art

knowledge, the familiarity infallible

the violin

for

intuition its

own

and sake,

ENGLAND

VIOLINS IN as a

thing of

enough

wonder, mystery, more than

beauty,

monopolise a lifetime of devotion

to

Mr

what made

Ebsworth Hill the

maker

know

I

?

Joseph used,

the sort of tools

I can see the

knife here or gouge there. to cut

and

slice,

such a kind of

handling of one

I can see

no more

is

touch of one painter

is

Stradivari or

another's than

like

show

in to

time

immediately he was spoken

Mr

or knife,

file

and

tell

a

fiddle.

Well, I

when

there are days

day or two

he seldom answered

;

but would look up

to,

this fiddle

thing

and

;

—those

state of

mind

my

judgment

— days

I leave off looking at fiddles

and when

I

and just at

that,

me

come back first

I take

up

I can't see any-

nothing;

a peculiar

fiddles

tell

—

as a player or a surgeon's

^just

down

some such dogmatic and

let off

I don't trust

;

you

"You want to know how I can don't know how I can tell and

I can't see, for instance. for a

the

Hill,

dreamily through his spectacles without laying

oracular sentence as:

and

his tool for such

'em at work, and the

like another's."

When you took a fiddle had to wait Mr Hill's good

his

or

of this

mark of a special favourite I know which way he used

and how he held

finish.

is

me

said to

knowing the touch

once, "talk about not

— this

spiritual heir of

"Why," he

the grand old fiddle-makers.

that

135

it's

hand

know exactly when I see and when I can't see, and when I can't see and I know exactly how much I I hold my tongue

gets out, so a judge's eye gets out.

I

;

can

see,

could

but I don't

make very

tell

everybody."

little

of

old

The casual

Hill at

first.

visitor

There

OLD VIOLINS

136

was a curious

sort of inner otherwhereness

—about him.

—to coin

a

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, word

;

you discovered that he had not only heard your words, but that he had accurately gauged you.

His action was often

who had it

was a

unexpected and

day entered

I one

alarming.

much

a fiddle which he

sometimes

shop with a friend

his

prized,

and indeed

really valuable instrument, but needed over-

hauling.

We

both stood in front of the counter, and old Hill

was bending over a

new

he was fitting on to a him on behalf of my friend, but

scroll that

I addressed

neck.

he took no notice whatever

he remained absorbed in

;

and no Prince

his delicate adjustments;

would have fared any better than finished friend's

what he was about.

name

look at by

ought

:

my

"

Mr

Again

mentioned

I

my

has brought you his fiddle to

Perhaps you can

advice.

tell

him what

Hill looked up, nodded, eyed

to be done."

friend through his

we

of the blood

did until he had

then resumed his work.

I

my

with cold interest, and

spectacles

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.

At

last

Hill laid

down

instrument in his hands, gave a couple of taps

;

his it

tool,

and taking the

one quick glance and

he then deliberately looked in

its

VIOLINS IN owner's

astonished

ENGLAND

tore

face,

off

the

137 finger-board,

loosened the neck, and drove a knife under the belly.

The

fiddle

was soon

and he threw the loose

in pieces,

fragments aside in a heap, took up his repairs again,

and

said

he would attend

the

to

and the gentleman need not stop

;

matter by-and-by,

and we got no more

who immediately became

out of old Hill that day,

re-

absorbed in his work. I shall never forget the rueful

which

my

Cremona, but

his

shop, assuring

him on the arm, and seeing

I touched

that Hill was in no

mood

him that

great repairer had

for talk, got

it

was

to pieces then

strove to comfort I

am bound

him out

of the

and that the

all right,

shown more

his valuable instrument, or he it

and amazed look with

poor friend beheld the tearing to pieces of

interest than usual in

would never have torn

and there; and with such words

my

to

I

perplexed and anxious friend.

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.

Mr

William Ebsworth Hill came

violin-makers and

violin-players.

was born 1715, was proud the

"Mr

employed

of

a family of

Joseph

Hill,

to trace his descent

who from

Hill" mentioned in Pepys' Diary as being to alter his lute

Joseph was a

prolific

and

viall.

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.

OLD VIOLINS

138

He had

five sons

;

made

all

violins

four

brothers Hill

Bond The

in

father's vocation alone.

and three played

two, like the

professionally, whilst the other

Street,

present

followed

third son,

their

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 was the father

of

Henry Lockey

The

violin-maker, died in 1835. in sons,

and Lockey

Hill,

seem

prolific

Henry

distin-

Hills

four sons.

left

guished himself as an admirable quartet player, and

remember the splendid tone

well do I

Norman

tenor at Willis'

Eooms

of his

Barak

as far back I think as

— one

1848, when, with Sainton, Piatti, and Cooper

the best, as in

London

it

was almost the

—he

of

earliest string quartet cast

assisted in delighting

select public in the mysteries of

and educating a

chamber music, which

has been since so freely expounded by Ella's Musical

Union and the Monday Popular Concerts. Berlioz always spoke of

highest praise

considered It is

;

Henry

Hill in terms of the

he even went so far as to say that he

him one

of the first performers in Europe.

seldom that a tenor player ever comes in for

direct commendation. to violoncello

and

He

violin;

acts as a sort of go-between

but his individual

although so important to the combined usually lost sight of between the grand

efforts,

effect,

work

are

of the

bass and the brilliant lead and musical embroideries of

the

first

and second

violins.

There are too few concertos or strong parts written

VIOIJNS IN

ENGLAND

139

for the poor tenor, the Cinderella of the establishment,

which

is

now

the property of

William Ebsworth seur,

and dealer

Mr

the glorious

of

Mr

Maggini and the Amati.

violas of

Norman

when one thinks

regrettable

is

Barak

Hill's

Doyle.

Hill, our great repairer, connois-

was born

all in one,

He was

1817.

in

educated at the Borough Road School, under the well-

known Dr

Lancaster, but

it is

certain that he

to the bench, for at the age of fourteen

employed For

find

him

in cutting bridges in his father's workshop.

this

purpose he used only a bradawl and a knife,

and towards the end cutting,

went early

we

and has

he returned

of his life

left

many

to bridge-

His

specimens.

beautiful

sons have a collection of two hundred, and no two of

the same pattern

they have also reverently preserved

;

under glass his simple

He

preferred the

by

commonest

of the finest metal.

He

labour-saving appliances to turn out

He worked

tools.

ordinary rapidity, equalled

his

with extra-

fastidious

tools, so

used to scorn the mechanical

which now enable workmen

hundreds instead of dozens of

he heartily despised

finish.

only they were

artificers

fiddles,

who needed an

and

elabo-

rate 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 Fetis, of the Brussels Conservatoire.

In 1851, the Prince Consort having expressed a wish to hear a concert of

which was

to be

old instruments, a

viol

d'amore

played by Ebs worth's brother, Henry

OLD VIOLINS

140 Hill,

new bridge, which Ebsworth very remember hearing Hill perform on

required a

quickly made. this viol

I

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

In due time the

heard since.

viol d'amore,

which had

been lent by the Brussels Conservatoire, was returned,

and Monsieur at that

He happened

bridges.

Mr

happened to

the Principal, and engaged

to pitch

upon the

d'amore

viol

which he declared to be a highly interesting

specimen of the period.

who was

was very much bent upon hunting up old

Stradivari,

bridge,

F^tis,

time in writing his valuable monograph on

artistic

to be at Brussels,

Monsieur

F^tis'

of

the great

Cremona

and his attention was called

eulogium on the antique

"That," says

bridge.

work

Alfred Hill, one of Ebsworth Hill's sons,

Mr

viol

Mahillon the curator, "is not an old bridge; cut by

my

father."

An

d'amore

Alfred to Monsieur Victor it

was

incredulous smile overspread

the worthy curator's face, which was quickly changed into a look of apologetic admiration

Mr "

W.

Hill,

turning up

junior,

E. Hill " stamped

Ebsworth

upon

and surprise when

the bridge, pointed

to

it.

Hill's father died in 1835,

and not long

afterwards Ebsworth, wishing to perfect himself in the

technique of his plished

art,

went

maker Charles

About 1838 he Koad, Southwark.

set

to study

under the accom-

Harris, of Oxford.

up

for

himself in St George's

VIOLINS IN

Mr

ENGLAND

Woolhouse, the well-known

his earliest patrons

;

141

collector,

was one

of

but his fame soon spread, and he

found he had more work than he could well manage.

He was

much

also

men

resorted to as one of the few

whose judgment on a

admitted of no appeal,

violin

and who could be trusted

to give

an honest opinion.

From Southwark, Hill went to Wardour Street, which many years was as much the violin quarter in London as the Eue 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

for

my

to take

him

young

boys, his

fiddles,

sons,

and

was always drawn

I

who frequented

their

to the 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 childhood, and

opportunities from their earliest

have

not failed to qualify themselves assiduously for the high position that the firm of Hill

&

Sons now holds in the

violin world.

The

boys inherited violin tendencies.

steeped from childhood in violin tradition. special

most

of

chances for seeing, handling, and diagnosing the great violins

money was spared by tion,

They were They had

now

extant.

their father

No

time or

on the boys' educa-

and certainly no boys ever made a better use

of

their privileges.

Alfred and Walter went to Mirecourt, to study that could be taught in the most scientific and

brated workshop in the world.

all

cele-

OLD VIOLINS

142

Arthur stayed at home and kept his eye always

new

missing an opportunity of acquiring a fiddle, old or

being

in,

on his father, and never

in close attendance

fact, or

a

new, which was likely to bring grist to

the mill or credit to the firm.

From what and

not

has been said

it

may have been

that Ebsworth

erroneously,

man

financially speaking, a business all his

own

every

doctored

inferred,

was

— though

not,

he did

For years everything that came

business.

into the shop passed through his hands repair,

Hill

fiddle,

he made every

;

every screw,

adjusted

regulated or replaced every sound-bar and sound-post,

and even strung the

hand

—

in short,

thing; division of is

now

fiddles for his clients

with his

own

he did or closely superintended everylabour, to

carried, being a thing

extent to which

the

unknown

it

in those early

days.

That such a system could not bring in large

was obvious. for fiddles

was

Hill had infallible,

many bad debts; but his memory

shocking, and he was cheated right and

his

profits

memory

for accounts

left.

His fame was so widespread that orders poured wliich could not be executed

;

in

and when the old man's

apparently inexhaustible powers of work began to give out, the sons,

and

who had watched

proceedings for years

slowly qualified themselves for every department,

came

in

and broke up the one-man system

—not

before

financially confusion

was becoming worse confounded.

They

workmen, distributed

trained

their

kept proper accounts for the

first

the

work,

time, and in a few

;

ENGLAND

VIOLINS IN up what

years built

when considered

in all

the largest individual violin-dealing in-

branches,

its

perhaps,

is,

143

dustry in the world.

Mr

Hill was

a

man

spare, with light hair,

striking appearance: thin,

of

and moustache early gone grey

very keen; a thoughtful

blue-grey eyes, lighted

up with a whimsical smile

full of

humour, though mostly

He was people

very

much more

of

—

often

face,

for the

man was

of a genial sort.

an all-round

who merely conversed with him on

man than

violins

would

Highly educated, in the usual sense of the

suppose.

word, he was certainly not; but he had a great ac-

quaintance with

human

nature, and an

extraordinary

insight into character.

His

sly

remarks on

their morals,

men and

their manners, including

were a perpetual feast to

rival.

He

who were

In his own special line he

admitted to his intimacy.

was without a

all

did not always say

what he

knew, but he never said what he did not know.

He was but was difficult

lead to

to

to

doubtful

in

litigation,

and

cases, it

was

extract from him any opinion likely to

to

in

the witness-box he was what the lawyers

dangerous

a

fectly

opposed

it.

Once call

frequently appealed greatly

quiet,

customer.

assured,

and

His

manner was

straightforward.

absolutely decided, and would never opinion,

and under pressure

per-

He was

budge from his

of cross-examination often

raised a laugh at the expense of counsel.

His sons have treasured many

of his wise

and witty

OLD VIOLINS

144

On

sayings.

one occasion he refused to

sell to

a cus-

tomer who already owed more than he could

when the gentleman had

Hill remarked dryly

shop, " That man's complaint

is

Of an amateur who was proud on

his fiddles, Hill, looking

of

wind

pay.

left the

in the pockets."

showing

up from

off his style

his work,

would

say with a comical twinkle, "Hark, now, he's doing the lovely."

The manner was

often worth

more than the matter.

His memory was as extraordinary as

On

Tarisio's.

one occasion a claim was brought against a railway

company damages

damage to the belly of a The company demanded a valuation, and be assessed by Hill. The claimant at last

for sixty pounds'

violoncello.

to

Hill reported on

angrily submitted.

which

he repaired for about thirty

pounds he thought would be very

The owner was fifteen

furious,

Mr

guineas.

made the

instrument,

the

shillings.

and would not even accept

Hill was

at last called up, and

unpleasant statement: "This in-

following

strument does not belong

to this

man

at

It is

all.

The

of the private band."

one

and used

of the instruments belonging to her Majesty,

by the members

Five

damages.

liberal

soi-disant

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

only seen

A

it

violin,

it.

Mr

Hill had

once before. said

to

be by F. Panormo, was sold as

such by a dealer in Pentonville Road.

It

came

into

ENGLAND

VIOLINS IN Hill's

to

take

said

:

many

hands

in

it

part

" This fiddle

made by my

years afterwards,

payment

my

English maple.

It

difficulty

made

father

On

belly.

brother

gettmg good

of

could not possibly have a good it,

and

will allow

£10

Hill immediately proceeded to remove the

the inside was written in pencil, "

my son Henry in Mr Hill led

Made

for

the year 1812."

an extremely abstemious

only relaxations were

Sundays.

my

was

it

;

the back and ribs from

but I should like to have

Mr

He

for another violin.

father about the year 1812 for

foreign wood,

for it."

who was asked

was not made by Panormo

Henry, and owing to the

tone,

145

reading

Towards the

and of

close

walks

long

his

His

life.

on

he found

life

himself surrounded by his sons, superintending a large staff

of

adjoining

workmen, and his

his

workshops

country home, are

some years before he died the practically passed into the

well

at

Hanwell,

known.

For

direction of affairs had

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.

William Ebsworth Hill sank gradually from exhaustion of brain power, and died in seventy-seven.

senile

1895, aged

CHAPTER

IX

VIOLIN VARNISH

When

a

true

chemist enters a laboratory

up

fitted

with the usual mysterious tubes, crucibles, "baths,"

and general apparatus

what

not,

and his nose

distillation,

he experiences an

which enthuses him of

for

the aroma of gums, spirits, essential

scents

stables

paint to

is

to

and

oils,

atmospheric

sensation

What

the odour

for his work.

the lover of horses, or the smell of

the artist,

that

is

the laboratory aroma to

the chemist. I have no

insight into crucibles,

The proportion

smells.

avoirdupois or troy, are beyond of

and I don't

of subtle weights

me; the

science and the general incapacity of

like

and measures, disputations scientists

to

agree about mixed problems puzzles and sometimes

"impatients" me, as the French say.

In wading through various treatises on varnish

I

regret to

say I have

Cremona vague

experienced

emotions of annoyance and perplexity which I would fain

conceal

from the reader.

as the clear exponent

or

of

I should like to

the famous

Cremona

pose

secret,

hold some one fixed opinion, buttressed by argu-

ments weighty enough 146

to

confound

all

opponents, and

VIOLIN VARNISH

147

based upon the "triumphs of modern research."

triumph

of

modern research seems

we have

the discovery that

me

to

as yet

The

to consist in

failed to discover

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. the

Cremona

may

It

varnish, as, although

be consoling, but not very satisfactory, to

that no

reflect

Cremona fashion serves

one has mixed

it

in

and each writer

appetite,

renewed disquisitions,

braces himself for shops, and

applied

or

since about 1750; but that fact only

whet the curious

to

it

scrapes

Cremonas when he

off

bits

work-

visits

can,

perhaps dabbles himself with gums and alcohol, and

pumps

with

fiddle-makers

secret out of the

a view

So entirely mixed

the

is

the whole subject that the

world can't even decide in what the proper

violin

functions of the varnish consist. it is

wringing

to

Cremona sphynx.

One maintains

that

merely for the preservation of the wood, another greatly affects

that

it

it is

chiefly decorative.

To me varnish

it

is

for

open to discussion

all

;

three purposes:

certain,

is

that

though exactly how

that

is

decorative

is

as

that

is

the tone still

it

pre-

is

is

equally

a moot point;

obvious, though

colouring has varied with

much

that

though exactly how

it affects

certain, it

the third

seems almost a truism to say that the

good

the wood

serves

the tone, and

taste

in the

each school of makers as

some makers have varied with themselves.

OLD VIOLINS

148

my

For the

part, after reading a dozen disquisitions

varnish, and inspecting hundreds of fiddles

Cremona

applaud the courage and

for a quarter of a century, I

Mr

of

reticence

on

book on old

George Hart, who, in his valuable on Italian

just five pages

violins, gives

varnish, with an intelligent description of

appearances, a

from the

quotation

brief

various

its

inimitable

writer Charles Keade, and not a single recipe.

As for

I

am

not writing for violin-makers, but only

collectors,

authorities

I

like

certainly

shall

Mr

Hart

fear

not rush in where

and

tread,

to

shall

content myself with a few probable suppositions and a few more generally descriptive remarks.

Some

authorities

maintain

saturated with

be

first

is

applied, a practice which

the pores, so that until the

that the

wood should

before the colouring varnish

oil

has a tendency to clog

some age has been put on and

wood has become desiccated and shaken

free

from

the grosser oily particles, the vibrations are stifled and the tone consequently dull.

Others declare that the sizing of penetrate the

by

itself,

wood

far,

but leave

and merely act as a

oil

should not

free to desiccate

it

sort of veneer

for the

colour varnish which has got to be spread over the

transparent sized first

oil

covering.

The wood,

in fact, has to be

and varnished afterwards.

the process would

white belly

is

be something of

Taking this

this view,

kind: The

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

VIOLIN VARNISH resinous

that

of

gum

beloved

of

149 artists,

Gamboga, Siam, or China,

yellow, from

is

gamboge

then pow-

dered 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

and

flavouring to taste,

The

tints,

is

belly,

added.

of

of

sandal-wood, one yielding red orange

from Calcutta, and the other a deeper red, from

An

the Coromandel Coast. is

back,

colouring ingredients appear to be

chief

two kinds

the

thoroughly dry, the colouring, like a

are

ribs

When

pure alcohol.

with

treated

mixed with

alcoholic solution of these

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

dry separately.

to

The colour coating thus the

oil sizing,

coloured glass

brown

—

all

shown up

as

may

by a kind

soft,

dammar

—dyed

of

orange, or red, or

Eontgen rays by the

that the resins used

and that of these the

and dammar, are the friendly to

be seen

the delicate curls and fibres of the wood,

We are told hard and

an agate film over

lies like

and through the top varnish as through

may soft,

best, because the

the waves of vibration.

resins

seem

oil size.

be divided into

such as mastic

most

elastic

and

The mastic and

to unite, in the greatest perfection,

the three essential properties most suitable for varnish

—

and transparency. The Cremonese are said to have used nothing but the soft resins. The much-talked-of, old-fashioned elasticity, solidity,

—

—

;

OLD VIOLINS

150 dragon's

The Calami Draco dragon's

old

some

of

now

Draconian

the

commonly forthcoming. Borneo has taken its place. The to be

blood has been

credited with flush to

gum from

resinous

blood, a

Draco, does not seem

giving a

much

Cremonese

of the rare

talked about, and

splendid sanguineous

certain

bellies

upon which

the judicious amateur dotes.

And now, what is,

by

there

is

is

amber varnish

The usual answer Certainly it was never used

no such thing.

?

Stradivari, for it is said the secret of fusing that

gum was

hard

only discovered by Martin the chemist

On

in 1737, the year of Stradivari's death.

the other

hand, I hear that amber has been found in the varnish of

Giuseppe del Gesu

The usual way

of

— by what analysis I do not know.

rubbing a violin and smelling the

surface has always seemed to reliable test. " I

One

smell mastic "

fourth, " I smell

organs

is

;

me

saith, " I smell

and a

to furnish a

benzoin

third, " I smell

nought "

;

and

"

;

most un-

or another,

amber " and a ;

this battle of olfactory

like to go on, as saith the poet

" As long as man has passions. As long as life has woes " or, as

we may say '*

As long

as

man

So here I desire to take ject,

and with a sense

the expert, and

oils

my

has nose."

leave of this thorny sub-

of relief I

and resins

abandon crucibles to

to

the disputatious,

merely reminding our collectors for practical purpose that the Brescian varnish

is soft

and brown, but with-

;;

VIOLIN VARNISH

151

out the magical Cremonese transparency is

the

Cremona

amber-coloured (early) or (later) light red orange,

and sometimes velvety brown, and very as

;

it

soft

and glossy

rubs away.

The Venetian varnish

of

many

shades

is

very clear

the Stainer, yellow- brown, with a subtle roseate flush at

times

German, brown and muddy

the normal

;

the French, Cremonese in colour, but glassy and chip-

Some of the English Dodd even approximating

ping rather than soft and glossy. varnish

is

remarkable, that of

closely to the

On

Cremona

school, etc.

the whole, the best solution of the

mystery seems which

to

me

that

it

Cremona

was probably no mystery

also best accounts for the disappearance

at

all,

of

the varnish towards the middle of the eighteenth It is absurd to

century.

by at

least

suppose that the varnish used

one hundred makers for more than one hun-

dred years (for Italian violins from 1550 to 1660 up to

1740

all

have

it)

could have been a secret;

it

was pro-

bably 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

qualities,

not prized for

its

resonant or variously tinted

but they unfortunately put out of court the

kind of varnish best suited for violins soft, elastic oil

— the

yielding,

varnish; and the very ingi'edients,

dragon blood (of the

liliacese trees),

e.g.

ceased to be in de-

mand, and consequently disappeared from the Italian markets.

— OLD VIOLINS

152

The materials being now absent, the varnish was The trick of mixing it got lost

differently composed.

along with the stuff to be mixed, and the Cremonese secret,

once an open secret, lapsed and lapsed, as

it

seems, most irrecoverably.

At one time every one knew how the ancient wargalleys 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. Of the Cremona varnish it must be written, as we ;

;

;

have to write of these unexplained disappearances of the lost and missing " Gone, and made no sign."

CHAPTEE X VIOLIN STRINGS

"To

scrape the inside of a cat with the outside of a

horse " of

is far

violin

strings

from an accurate or exhaustive description

playing,

why

violin

siace they are

made

nor can I understand

are called cat-gut at

all,

from the intestines of the sheep, goat, or lamb, and have absolutely nothing to do with pussy. I can only suppose that the frightful

and melancholy

tones habitually elicited by inexperienced players

have reminded people of the nocturnal cat

may

sufficiently

to credit that maligned animal with providing part of

the mechanical apparatus for their production.

Of

been said about the

late years a great deal has

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 better than people with

generally that old

it

weaker muscles.

would be a mistake

I also admit

to string a sensitive

Nicolo Amati with thick strings, which a robust

Joseph or Bergonzi might be able

new

effect

fiddle to be

take to thick strings 153

to bear

;

that a raw

rubbed down in the orchestra wUl also ;

and that

it

is

pretty obvious, as

;

OLD VIOLINS

154

every player knows,

good tune

one cannot stop

that

in

fifths

the strings are not relatively well pro-

if

portioned. It is also a truism that

it

best to buy the

is

strings, and that false strings are abominable.

do not go

much beyond

what

strings

I

tools,

—although as a mere

and

trick

—

But

I

would say about

workmen

say about bows, that bad

I

always complain of their able

and

this,

best

that, as

Paganini was

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.

Practically I do not suppose that fifty

uses

sufficiently

a string-gauge

;

by the eye what

one

violinist

in

judge

he soon learns

to

his fingers want,

what

his

tone requires, and what his violin exacts. in

Still,

these days of

analysis

being nothing left untalked

and

detail,

about, writers

have

there fas-

tened 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.

by

rule,

than

fiddler ject.

I

Perfect gut, rosin

and an exquisitely poised bow, no more make a scientific sanitation

makes a healthy sub-

cannot too persistently urge that the violinist

bends conditions to the magic of his will and his skill.

His business

is

to qualify himself,

and then get the

VIOLIN STRINGS

155

best fiddle, bow, and strings that he can.

This ought

he to do, and not to leave the others undone.

There

is

no reason to suppose that any advance in

the manufacture of gut -strings has been

made

since

Even a work by Le Roy,

the seventeenth century.

known

dated 1570, gives the best recipe yet

the

for

detection of false strings.

"It

is

he says, "to prove them between

needful,"

the hands in the

set forth in the figure "

manner

(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 In Doni's book (1647) we find

simpler woven cords.

such subtleties as these

:

"

many

There are

particulars

relating to the construction of instruments

unknown

to

strings are

modern

artificers, as,

made when the north (and

the south) wind blows

"

which are

namely, that the best

—a suggestive

the worst

when

hint relating to

the acknowledged importance of atmospheric, perhaps

magnetic, and at any rate climatic, conditions.

How

do we make our strings

?

Putting aside mature sheep and goats, we

young

it

Italian

lamb

and take the

once,

on

an

thoroughly

We

in September.

intestine whilst

inclined

without

plane

;

delay.

still

scrape

We

it

then

our

kill

open him at

warm and

;

steep

about fifteen hours in cold water, with a

stretch

clean it

little

it

for car-

bonate of soda, and then substitute tepid water for a

few hours more.

OLD VIOLINS

156

Now we are ready to remove membrane from between the membrane.

the fibrous or muscular

and mucous

peritoneal

is done by women, who scrape it The precious selected membranes are

This

with a cane.

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,

spun

and

cut,

—three

split;

and,

the threads are

finally,

or four thin threads for first violin strings,

three or four thicknesses for the second, six or seven for "

D"

Double-bass strings take up to eighty-

string.

Further twistings, soakings, and polish-

five threads.

we need not

ings take place, into wliich are

strings

with olive

dressed

finally

enter, oil

and the

and

then

coiled.

I

have gone into these details

care and

show with what

to

complex elaboration string manufacture

is

carried on.

The

false

string

is

due

to inequalities,

varieties of texture in the gut

tive

the

becomes

vice versd, will

true.

is

This

why

is

tail

the experiment

of

portion headwise or

silver string the

wrapped with pure

nate silver and patent silver

lumps, and

only the defec-

sometimes remedy the defect.

For the fourth or used)

if

outside the vibratory length, your false

tailpiece,

reversing the string, putting

is

and

be distributed either near the head or

part can

string

;

as

silk

(which

silver, or copper, or alter-

copper wire.

fourth,

gut or

The

smooth

incomparably best for solo playing

beautiful

French

as polished steel, is ;

it

is

also thinner,

VIOLIN STRINGS

my

in

opinion too

much

157

mixed

thinner, than the

silver

and copper fourths, which are very serviceable

for

rougher orchestral work.

The

vice of silver strings

to fall) with heat

;

but

if

is

to rise (and of gut strings

your screws are in perfect order,

and you are expert enough, you a

rapid

subtle

will

remedy

either

by

twist during a bar's rest, or a quick

nipping the head of the peg between the third joint of your left-hand forefinger.

I

first

and

have seen

Sarasate tune two pegs thus in the course

a very

of

brief " tutti."

Mr

Hart may be accepted as a

authority on

final

the relative merits and the different schools of violin strings

at

present in the market, and his dicta sub-

stantially agree

with

my own

Of course

experience.

he gives the palm to the Italian strings, which

due

to the good climatic conditions,

manufacture

to be carried

is

largely

which enable

their

air

and sun-

and

brilliant,

on in the open

light of that favoured clime.

In

Eome

and a

little

strings are yellowish, hard,

rough in

finish.

The Neapolitans are smooth,

soft

in

texture,

and

whiter in appearance.

The

Paduans

"false."

set

off

Strings

"made

Germany" of

trade

and

frequently

(Saxony), as a

German

third.

Their larger strings are

than their seconds, which are often patent

fiddles,

Italian.

The French rank better

in

against the swarms

rank next to

their

durable,

polished,

first

accrihelles,

made

of

silk,

brittle;

are

hard

OLD VIOLINS

158

and

brilliant,

fine

Eoman

my

but not comparable, in

opinion, to a

gut " E " string.

The English make a good,

serviceable, dull green

looking string, durable, uneven, and not unfrequently

To

false.

my mind, English strings are only fit for rank-

and-file orchestral fiddling, but not

Mr Heron

leader. to

such

Allen,

good enough for the

who has given

details, says that the best strings in the

are imported from Signor

Andrew

great

buying

caution,

market

Euffini of Naples,

but I have always had a weakness for

Too

great attention

Koman

however, cannot

strings.

used

be

in

Never buy from any but the best

strings.

firms; they can't afford to keep "job lots, going vera

chep "

and

— these may be

retailed to

bought up by provincial houses

an undiscerning public.

Notice that small "job lot"

how

keep their strings

to

—

or,

know

people do not I

should rather say,

they keep them too long and too dry. does not follow that even the best strings will

It

turn out successes

if

they have been kept too long or

too dry. I once ordered

£1 worth

myself, and another

£1 worth

arrived as dry and brittle as

snapped as

put them

I

furious

letter

trusted

me

I

—

from

all his

Eoman

of

my

on.

advice

can afford

it.

E"

strings for

for a friend.

mummy

wood

all

they

all

;

I

got a

who had

unfortunate friend

strings

They

In about a week

had snapped.

have but one counsel to

firm's

"

and pay the best

give.

firm's

Always keep a couple

Take the price of

—

best

if

tested,

you i.e.

VIOLIN STRINGS

E " lengths in

stretched "

E"

"

So

;

then,

faint far-off

call for a separate chapter.

chin-rest.

The mute

is

I allude

occasionally

bridge to give the sound that singular

twang

like the

The mute has the

whisper of a ghostly

made of wood, metal, or vulcanite; much prefer the metal mute it does

—

more thoroughly.

It is

mute habitually while

violin.

making the

singular property of

The mute

abnormally sensitive for the time.

is

The

soloist

and no further, need I discuss violin

mute and the

fixed on the

violin

you are a

but there are two other violin adjuncts not

important enough to to the

If

string go in the middle of a performance.

far,

strings

case.

you some annoyance and delay should

this will save

your

your

159

personally, I

the business

not a good practice to use the

practising to subdue the sound.

violin really resents the use of

but will put up with

it

for a short

the

mute

at

all,

time (just as a

good horse will not resent a spur or a bearing-rein in

For a minute or two after the removal

moderation). of the

some

mute the

violin does not quite recover its tone

;

wood have been exposed vibration by the dominating

of the particles in its

to a different or eccentric

mute, and the recoverable.

full tonal vibration is

It is as

not immediately

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 supple-

ness of movement.

Quite within the last thirty years the cult of chinrests has

become almost

universal.

When

I

was a boy

people held the violin honestly under their chins, and

OLD VIOLINS

160

a few used a silk pocket handkerchief. it

to this

is

no doubt good

instruments already too beards and

for the protection of old

much rubbed by

to

and ebony

say against the various velvet, fixed substitutes for the

pocket-handkerchief, except that in

extremely ugly, and to able

;

minor

would

but I

centuries of

bristles.

have nothing

vulcanite,

prefer

day; but something between the chin and

the violin

I

much

I

my

my

chin extremely uncomfort-

may be very much

out of date, and in such

matters "chacun a son goM," say, " there's

an end

homely

eyes they are

on't."

or,

as

Pepys

CHAPTEE XI VIOLIN

He who

bow

wields the violin

of a magician.

it is

wand

aright wields the

mortal could

If ever

from the vasty deep,

BOWS

the virtuoso

call

the spirits

who throws

into

sympathetic vibrations the cords of a Cremona.

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.

The back of hairs which are

his

thumb

will often touch

even the

in direct contact with the strings,

and

therefore the psychic and emotional vibrations of the artist's soul are

of

wedded

closely to the physical pulses

sound which throb in the agitated

Cremona, and flow forth in the

and

heat), fiUing space

air

air

column

organisms

human nerve

to

light

with their musical magnetism,

and seeking only the medium of kindred suitable

of the

waves (hke

utter

through

tissues of others the

the

spirits

and

vibrating

open secrets

of the

player's soul.

No Mesmer,

or magician of the East, controls a

more

subtle force than does the violinist, who, face to face 161

T

OLD VIOLINS

162 with his audience,

lifts his

tapering

wand and

rules

therewith the " Tides

By violin,

up

who

those

indite exhaustive

or con-

historical

the —the bow, has been treated archseologically —we have been

structive

led

of music's golden sea setting towards eternity."

treatises

to ancient

on the violin

like

monuments and shown bows

(or things

supposed to be bows) on vases, sculptured

We

and other monkish manuscripts.

missals,

frescoes,

have

been sent out to wild islands and continents, and intro-

duced

bow

to the

of the

Eavanastron bow of ancient Ceylon

Moorish rebab

and thirteenth century

;

viol

;

the

the ninth, eleventh, twelfth,

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.

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. C. Simpson (the division what more advanced

viol

" viol "), 1667, gives a

wood and hair and Of course, when held to the

chin, this

finger regulation of the hair tension

would be

the difference between

both (Fig.

clumsy less

some-

bow, in which the hand splits

iii.).

rests

on

convenient to manage, and hence we come upon

the eighteenth century with a strip of notched metal (Fig. iv.)

and a movable

sliding nut.

/6J0

\ri u^

n I^

^

Core.ll

"^If^

I

Cramer

IJOO

ff

f

3

BOWS

VIOLIN As

163

purpose the violin proper began in the

for our

eighteenth century with the emergence of

from the viol

its

true type

bow

our purpose the violin

tribe, so for

begins with the emergence of the violin.

A

glance at

the bows of CorelU (1700), Cramer (1770), Viotti (1780),

and Tartini (1740)

bow

the direction of the Tourte

(1740)

is

show the evolution

(Fig. vi.) will

in

and although Tourte

;

generally credited with substituting the screw

for the cr^maillere,

it

to 1740, the earliest

be noticed that Corelli's

will

bow (1700) has already Corelli bow authentic, or

But is the bow subsequent

got the screw. in reality a

working date

Tourte ^^re ?

of

"With Francois Tourte, the younger son, culminated

We

the bow.

give his portrait,

were both master-workers. vi.)

He

bow making.

the art of violin

the Stradivari of

is

but father and son

Although the Stentor

(Fig.

bow's head has superseded, for some reason, the

more rounded form

of Francois Tourte,

nothing has been

done since in advance of Tourte, and "after Tourte" is still

the greatest recommendation a

It is easy to see

He came

in

what

answer to a need.

Tartini and examined his bow.

short and cumbrous.

comes

to Paris,

violin

playing.

upper

shifts

He

doubtless heard of

It

was comparatively

and with him dawns a new era

in

Eefinements and delicacies of tone,

and

of bowing, dealing

of

have.

Forty years afterwards Viotti

varieties of execution, various styles

with staccato, arpeggio, and rubato,

methods varied and brought qualities

bow can

called forth Francois Tourte.

to

balance, lightness,

perfection,

and

demanded

elasticity

which

OLD VIOLINS

164

would have been quite thrown away on the old sawing and scraping school very Cremona

The

of the seventeenth century.

beginning

violins,

mature as the

to

century waned, called aloud for a suitable and sym-

companion

pathetic

to

caress,

excite,

draw

charm,

from them their sweetest tones and most vigorous powers.

Francois Tourte was rescued from the clock -making business, to which he

had been early apprenticed, by

the sheer bent of his

own

worked with

His brother, who

genius.

was not the genius, and, as

his father,

is

often the case, the father failed to see which of the

two sons was to carry on the fame there

may have

The poor

after eight years of

Francois

had

pence each.

into bows,

But

perimented with

all

which he sold

for about fifteen-

was v&cy

hand he ex-

kinds of wood, and arrived at the

was Fernambuc wood.

many

suggests that he

little,

of the family.

as soon as he got a free

conclusion that the only

ness, but

work upon when,

with strips of old sugar-barrels and

to deal

them

to

watch-making, he was allowed to

was the male Cinderella

He

and

been jealousies and disputes besides.

stuff given

enter the parental workshop a

fashion

of the house,

wood It

suitable for his purpose

combined

difficult to obtain,

stiffness

and

light-

on account of so

ports being in those disturbed times blockaded.

Fernambuc wood was only imported

for dyeing pur-

and the price had risen in Paris

to five francs a

poses,

pound.

Then, as only pieces with straight grain were

required, whole trees

might be cut up in search

of a

BOWS

VIOLIN few likely

This accounts for the high prices

strips.

of Tourte bows,

even when

They were doubtless matchless

165

first

produced.

largely labours of love with this

who could neither read nor write. often made of tortoise-shell, jewelled

artificer,

The nut would be

with mother-of-pearl, and gleaming with a gold screw

These cost £12, and would now fetch,

button.

ever

if

His

they came into the open market, fancy prices.

bows, mounted in silver with ebon nuts, sold for three guineas, and

Tourte

now

;ph'G

bow, which

is

fetch £30.

originated the

backward bend

the

of

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

—

them by modern players not so Francois all bows made " after Tourte."

upon

Tourte's,

and

He

fixed

the proportions

inches and 29-528 inches.

—length,

The weight

between 29134 of the

bend

is

nicely poised with the gold, tortoise-shell, or ebon of

the nut Fig.

;

viii.,

in each is a small wedge, as

may

be seen in

which nips the hairs and keeps them

fine selection of hairs,

require more, or

up

flat.

The

150 to 200 (modern exigencies

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

some time

the exquisitely

in the

shambles

graduated thicknesses,

now

;

above held to

all,

lain

be de rigueur,

all

characterise the intuitive genius of Tourte. for

Tourte had

no education but that of a watch-maker.

This may.

I say advisedly "intuitive genius,"

— OLD VIOLINS

166

him

indeed, have given

exact proportions, but

remarkable that exami-

nations of the diameter of Tourte bows

The bows

places give uniform results. in the

same

place,

of Strad give the

yield the

and as the

same

and

his fine sense of delicate

it is still

in

different

swell or taper

columns in the violins

air

note, so do the

same proportions, which

bows

of Tourte

has not been found

it

safe or expedient to depart from.

Violin bows

may

be smaller or larger,

or longer, as far as I can see, without to

Tourte's

tionally

but the

principle

children,

;

the

proportions,

shorter

women, and excep-

men may have

long armed

i.e.

any detriment

wood,

the

use

to

them,

even

balance,

the mechanique, must be left as Tourte left them perfect.

The one point of F. B.

in

Vuillaume

upon Tourte

is

is

may

in his

violoncello bows.

alone

mechanique

in

which the invention

be thought to have improved fixed

nut

for

viola, tenor,

or

This consists of a metal nut, which

moved by the screw up and down

main nut, which remains

rigid

;

inside the

thus the length of the

hair exposed for playing always remains the same.

The only other original maker of the first rank and excellence, who has been nicknamed the English Tourte, was John Dodd. at

Kew, and

He was

born in 1752, and lived chiefly

there he was buried.

at elbows, even

when

his reputation

He

was always out

was at

Poor Dodd had his friends and admirers.

own worst enemy; he was undersized in walked with a shuffling

gait.

He wore

its

height.

He was stature,

his

and

his clothes until

VIOLIN

BOWS

167

they were in rags, and a broad-brimmed hat somehow

gave him an additionally dilapidated

am

I

most regular

said to be regular, the

four daily visits

his

consumed what

When

the

to

of the town,

Mr

them

all

was

where he seemed an

known

to be excessively

Eichard Piatt, a musical professor

and Dr

the above details, tired

them

of a drink called " pearl."

the old fellow was

hard up, kind

of

public-house,

to less experienced topers

immoderate quantity

maker

air.

afraid he drank, for although his habits were

Selle,

came

to

all out,

who has given us some of But the bowthe rescue. and ended at

last

in

the

Eichmond Workhouse. I will

frightful

not say whether he can be exactly cited as a

example

of

the degrading effects of liquor,

he died of bronchitis at the altogether respectable

for

age of eighty-four. Indeed, he had his qualities

;

no bribe or stress of

want could make him swerve from was due

what

to his art.

His wood

is

as magnificent as his workmanship.

doubtless had his secret, but

he could not impart. for

his sense of

He

it

He

was possibly one that

would take no apprentice,

fear he should learn the trick;

and whether he

offered it, he refused £1000 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

could or could not teach

into a five-pound note yet (1898).

John Dodd the bow-maker must not be confounded

!

OLD VIOLINS

168

with Thomas Dodd the

fiddle

and varnisher,

dealer

who employed Feudt and Lott to make the fiddles. John Dodd the bow-maker was the brother of Thomas John

Dodd.

Mint

lived in Blue Bell Alley,

Street,

Southwark, before he went to Kew, but the rustic suburbs suited his habits, and as he had acquired a

European reputation before he where he

lived.

Vuillaume

of Paris

made

excellent bows, and even

founded a school of bow-making. don't

mattered

died, it little

sell

as

his

is

that

stamped "d'apres Vuillaume,"

are

"scuola de," which

Many bows

certainly

more respectable than

a forged label to which vioHn dealers do so

commonly

resort.

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

wonder and enthusiasm

on one occasion excited the

of his audience

by performing

on his instrument with a long churchwarden clay pipe,

and at another time with a rush It would be unfair even in a sketch

like this,

which

only professes to seize the salient point of general to

mention

Jacques Lafleur (1760-1832), an admirable

imitator

interest to

collectors

and amateurs, not

of Tourte.

Lupot, brother of the great violin-maker (1774-1837),

was the

first to line

with metal the groove in the under-

;

BOWS

VIOLIN side of the nut, to prevent

169

wear and tear of the ebony

or tortoise-shell.

Domminique Peccate (1810-74)

He was

have almost rivalled Tourte.

is

also thought to

originally a barber,

hand required

in ton-

and transferred the delicacy

of

sorial operations to the fine

adjustments and elegant

tapering and octagonal proportions of violin bows.

Peccate went to Vuillaume in

him eleven began

years,

He

Lupot.

it;

1826, stayed

and then became foreman

ended his

latterly

life

at

with

to Francois

Mirecourt, where he

he worked entirely on

his

own

account.

We have now among us one James Tubbs, whose bows are already known throughout the world owing to their attractive

appearance and good balance.

will alone decide Tubbs' position in the scale of

Time bow-

makers, for time alone will determine the question of

"last,"

durance of

On

"warp," and

flexibility,

rosin,

general

en-

about which pages have been unnecessarily

written, I have but one

You

and

efficiency.

word

to

say

—get

it

pure.

can do this by confining yourself to the best

shops, or those

who

deal

with them.

Go

to

Hill,

Chanot, Hart, Withers, and Vuillaume.

Some ignorant people talk of rosin the bow." Smooth horsehair or greased of course, useless.

It is not the absence

as

"greasing

horsehair

is,

but the pres-

ence of friction which sets the strings in vibration it

is

the surface of the horsehair, roughened by in-

finitesimal particles of rosin,

which prevents the horse-

;

OLD VIOLINS

170

hair 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.

Without

the violin, in spite of strings and

rosin,

bow, and the art of

To average early given

all

Cremona, would be mute.

rosiners let

me by my

me

give a word of advice,

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 avoid rubbing the

oleaginous

;

in

particles

way you

this

gum

the

of

into stickiness." I notice that the best players

and never

let

the

matchless violinist

bow and

use plenty of rosin

bow get thirsty. I remember the Eemenye taking up my violin 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

was not enough for Eemenye, who away in clouds. But please to rememhowever thirsty the bow may be, the violin

rosin on, but it

powdered ber that,

it

does not require to drink, and the habit of smothering

and smearing nous dust

is

its

beautiful

a most vile

smooth belly with thin

one, and worthy only

rate second violins at fourth-rate music halls.

musical galley-slaves

you

of

fit

Dodd bows

guardian of

These

not have time to clean up

the Stradivari and the

Tourte and the are no

may

gluti-

of third-

Amati

violins

ought to have,

such treasures.

and the or

you

CHAPTEE

XII

VIOLIN TAKISIO

This extraordinary man, originally an obscure Italian

and answered that demand

carpenter, at once created for

Italian

and

to

a

violins

great

which followed both in England, France, the rage for the

extent in

German, and especially German

of

the Stainer and

Klotz pattern. 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.

He

wandered from place

to

vintages were being gathered

who turned out

in their

place, in,

Sunday

what time the

and the simple

folk,

finery for a little re-

laxation 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.

Our Charles Mathews has given

in his delightful

autobiography interesting glimpses of that air,

open-hearted

life; for

amongst these rustics their

of

he a

also, for a

free,

time, lived

favoured clime, enjoying

simple pleasures, and contributing in his 171

open-

own

— OLD VIOLINS

172

peculiar way, by his histrionic gifts and a

somewhat

free-handed distribution of coin, to their revels and their needs.

began

Luigi Tarisio soon spell of

repair

them

all in

to be

dominated by the

he got to notice other

his violin;

way

the

of trade, to possess

not always very honestly, pitting his

knowledge

of

merits

their

necessity of their owners.

violins, to

them,

own growing

the ignorance or

against

Gradually Tarisio the car-

penter and Tarisio the fiddler seemed to be merged in

the cunning repairer and Tarisio the

Tarisio

still

more knowing buyer.

He little

bought chiefly by exchange, for money he had none; but he began in the early years of

or

this nineteenth it

seemed

century to lead

to outsiders, the life of a

which enabled him

to

glide

—

nomad life as common pedlar

that

without suspicion into

half the sacristies and convents in Italy,

"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."

He

usually had with

the shape

of

common

him a decoy fiddles in

violin or two, in

good playing order;

lemonade or a bottle

and over a glass

of

some

or monasterial domicile of

local

cafe

of wine, in

priest or

cathedral musician, the cunning Tarisio would view

with unaffected pity the miserable old battered

monas which were then lurking siastical

Cre-

in a thousand eccle-

nooks, split as with the "wolf," ill-adjusted,

ill-strung,

and generally out

of sorts,

and whipping out

VIOLIN TARISIO common

his

fiddle in perfect order,

on each, so manifestly

notes

173

would play a few

to the

disadvantage of

the Cremona that an exchange was soon effected, and

would decamp wich an Amati, a Strad, a Joseph

Tarisio

mend-

or Bergonzi treasure, which, after a little clever

might be worth a fortune; and in

ing,

this

way he

possessed himself, often for a few francs, of instru-

ments which now fetch over £1000

—

if

in the

open market

ever they get there.

with the infallible instinct of a born

Tarisio,

and connoisseur,

lector

accurately

and how

to

col-

gauge

merits of the different great Italian

the

He knew

makers.

few years was able

in a

exactly where to rank the Amatis,

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

ignorant

England seemed entirely

in

All Amatis at that time were lumped

of.

together, and Stradivari

hardly

known

But

Tarisio

at

and Giuseppe Guarneri were

all.

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

was there their

he could,

for

Paris; for

in Italy for such priceless

owners were prepared

worth from

five to

But why did

twenty

Tarisio

to give

shillings

Cremonas when

them up

for fiddles

?

go to Paris?

judged wisely that the Stainer

what market

craze,

He

probably

and the huge

OLD VIOLINS

174 crop of

common

would have

must have heard

made

in

Germany,

market nearer home.

Then he

violins then being

killed his

when a boy how Napoleon

I.

had

ransacked the art treasures of Italy, and how, under the advice of the cultivated Marquis

d'Aveze,

who

had narrowly enough escaped the guillotine in 1793, had

conqueror

the great

inaugurated

high

a

Art

Exhibition for the people.

The famous

bronze-gilt horses

from

S.

Marco, Venice,

the Dying Gladiator, the Apollo Belvedere, the Cupid

and Psyche from Eome, and tion itself,

Eaffaello's Transfigura-

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

for old Italian fiddles

have thought,

why

not a rage

?

One day in the year 1827 there arrived at of M. Aldric, at that time a famous violin Paris, a travel-worn

man

in ragged clothes,

the shop dealer in

who had

begged and fiddled his way for days and weeks across

shoulder.

He carried a huge He seemed to M.

of pedlar,

grimy and unkempt enough

country.

with the

man who had

years ago, since

"

dustman's sack over his Aldric a very poor sort to claim kinship

used somebody's soap sixteen

when he had used no

other."

fashionable viohn dealer was at

first inclined to The 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

VIOLIN TARISIO pity than with any serious intent to

175

make a

deal,

M.

Aldric allowed the pedlar to empty his sack of fiddles

on his counter. at

what he saw

;

It is easy to

imagine his astonishment

but he seems to have kept up his indif-

ferent manner, not supposing the poor creature before

him could be

in the least aware of

sought to dispose

the

treasures

he

of.

M. Aldric was soon undeceived.

He

quickly found the tables turned upon him.

The

clever French tradesman

was conversing with the

greatest violin connoisseur that the world has ever seen,

human

or in all

probability ever will see, for no one can

ever again have Tarisio's opportunities, even should he unite in himself Tarisio's extraordinary qualities.

Now, the sacrifice,

pedlar, with all

was a man

tact, quickness, affability,

known

to

his

amateur of old

de vertu, or to such as

self-

and had that

and bonhomie which

well

is

and has often proved so

tourists in Italy,

fatal to the

enthusiasm and

of exceeding cunning,

laces, pottery,

may have

and objects

tried to

do a

little

fancy collecting as they passed through the Italian towns, and haggled over bargains in

shops and market-places.

So,

small curiosity-

with due astuteness, the

shrewd carpenter had not brought his this his first visit;

covery, and

test

wares on

he had come on a voyage of

only produced a

small

dis-

pattern Nicolo

Amati, and half a dozen Maggini, Ruggerii, and suchlike.

He had

with him no Strad, no Joseph, not even

a grand pattern Nicolo, but he had brought enough.

M.

Aldric,

concealing his

emotion, and

fervently

OLD VIOLINS

176

hoping the shabby

man

him

his wares, offered

know sum for

did not

a small

Tarisio refused, doubtless with those

vocations

which seem necessary "

the

to the Italian

lot,

which

picturesque in-

horror to the Virgin and

of

convey to a

the value of

the Saints

all

who attempts

to

screw " the mingled indignation and pity

excited in his generous and artistic breast

by a mean

offer.

was certainly disappointed

Tarisio

;

but he forgot

that he himself had to create the market; and so at last

he

left,

with his empty bag indeed, but with his

ragged pockets far from

Back a

little

menced

back

to Italy,

dazzled

full.

to his

monasteries and cabarets,

but, with unabated energy,

;

he recom-

his search.

He was now

beginning to be

known

far

a clever repairer and a convenient dealer. of good, bad,

and

and wide as

As

his stock

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.

When

next he journeyed to Paris he met with a

ferent reception.

elder opened their privileged doors to him, cially

Vuillaume had the acumen

and espe-

to see that in Tarisio

he had lighted upon what gold-diggers " pocket,"

dif-

Vuillaume, Thibaut, and Chanot the

call a veritable

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.

Tarisio

was

far

more than a connoisseur and dealer

\

VIOLIN TARISIO

177

he was a singular and most whole-hearted enthusiast.

As

the novelist Charles Eeade (who was himself a great

and knew Tarisio) has well

fiddle dealer

said,

"The

He was a great He had gems by him money would buy from him." Mr Eeade

man's whole soul was in his

fiddles.

dealer, but a greater amateur.

which no

then goes on

how

relate

to

when a splendid

once,

equipage rolled by him in Paris, the carpenter re-

marked,

"He would

possess

sooner

He would

twenty such carriages."

a valuable

or the belly of

the whole, just as the

stalk

the

back

until he recovered

fiddle

Eoman

one Strad than

antiquary stalked the

fragments of the Hercules Farnese, finding the trunk in one place

and the head in a ditch miles away.

Chanot had stumbled upon the cracked belly Strad violin in Spain.

of

a

Ortega, the fiddle-maker, had

sold the remainder, ribs and back, to a Spanish lady,

them nicely with a brand-new back made by

fitting

The precious

himself!

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,

had

sold,

the patched Strad, the required information,

interviewed the donna

and who,

Strad,

after

Spaniard, at once said, " disposition,"

with

it

who

possessed

patched

the

the fashion of the high-born the instrument is at your

Sir,

which only meant that she would part

for a

to be the

who

consideration,

good round sum

of

or

what she considered

4000

francs.

This was

a mere bagatelle for such a treasure, which, refitted

M

!

OLD VIOLINS

178 with

own

its

belly

by Vuillaume,

is

now known

as the

Spanish Bass.

was sold

It

for £800,

Kensington Collection

On

of

and exhibited

Bay

The ship

Bass.

1872 (No. 188).

of Biscay with his

rolled;

and trembled.

tightly

was a

my

!

of Spain lost,

is

'

!

not too

much

memorable exception,

to all

much

say that, the great

with

now command such

have passed through

the

pedlar,

cunning

and most

of

hands

frix fous, of

them have

time been benefited by the tender and of

hardly a

Cremonese and

Brescian fiddles, which

Tarisio the

spoke

"with a shudder.

Mr

that did not seem to matter so

It

and for

" Tarisio

the Bass Eeade,' he exclaimed, "* all but lost As to Tarisio also being

poor

was

treasure

his

terrible gale,

to me," continues his friend,

it

Ah

famous Spanish

clasped

Tarisio

It

one whole day they were in real danger.

'

south

the

one occasion, says Charles Reade, Tarisio was

crossing the

of

in

Luigi at

one

artistic skill

Vuillaume, his great patron.

When

Tarisio,

who by

this

time wore

a decent

and no longer carried Cremonas in a sack on his back, visited England in 1851, he was received by

coat,

the whole trade as a person of rare quality, as indeed

he was.

Mr

John Hart took him to see Mr Goding's unique As one by one the owner took his treasures

collection.

out of a glass cabinet, before ever he had got within

two paces

names

of Tarisio,

called out.

he was amazed at hearing their

A glance was sufficient.

Tarisio

had

VIOLIN TARISIO had them

through his hands

all

nerius, Lafont's Guarnerius,

179

— the

"King" Guar-

matchless Bergonzi,

the

the Marquis de la Eosa's Amati, Ole Bull's Guarnerius, the famous Serafino

'cello,

the Beauty

called

Mr

which might never have reached

—

all of

Goding had

it

not been for the enterprise and indomitable energy of the Italian carpenter

who now

stood before him.

Barring a narrow circle of dealers,

man

remarkable a

strange that so

it

may seem

should not have

been more widely known and esteemed during his time; but

we can

amongst

circle of dealers

whom

he moved, did not

find it to their interest to place their special "

life-

well understand that the restricted

Cremona

pocket " within reach of the wealthy amateurs out of

whom

they themselves were busy making their market.

Tarisio,

had he been dealer

and

first

second, might have done better financially

;

enthusiast

but he did

not do badly, and he wanted httle except the privilege

Cremonas

of handling

in their good

He

end

to the

of his life

company.

Although there was a

did both.

ality about Tarisio, he never seemed

in the

company

too cautious to

whom built

his

only people foreigners

himself

fortune,

who

like

to

of fellow-enthusiasts

give

he was gradually

up

and dying

really

away

securing

;

to

and

knew

Tarisio

the

unbend except and as he was Italians,

from

the spoils which

fame,

Vuillaume,

strain of geni-

immortality,

the

were the few

Chanots

in

France,

John Hart the dealer and Charles Eeade the

novelist

in England.

OLD VIOLINS

180

In his own land he remained to the end nothing but the quiet, unobtrusive repairer and occasional dealer in dilapidated fiddles.

seems he had removed to Milan, where he was

It

quite safely hidden, along with his

fiddles,

up

in

an

Via

attic at the top of a second-class restaurant in the

Legnano Porta Tegnaglia.

No

locked himself

and he locked himself

in,

saw him going up and down the all they saw of him.

One day stairs

in

staircase,

They

out.

and that

is

1854 Tarisio dragged himself up those

Whether he had any prenone may know certainly no one

for the last time.

monition of his end,

—

was with him when he died

—only

it

in,

had he gone down

to the restaurant

necessaries of last the

to

but their

for

any

nor

of

the

life.

neighbours thought

what was taking place seemed

was noticed that

but came out no more;

he locked himself

At

He

one was ever allowed to enter his room.

it

time to ascertain

in that mysterious attic.

have watched his strange movements efforts to find

had been hitherto

out

They closely,

who he was and how he lived he made a point of carry-

fruitless, as

ing on his particular and nomadic business at a distance

from his abode.

any

They were not going

longer, so they knocked, but there

At

last

to be

baulked

was no answer.

they broke open the door, and a strange and

piteous sight burst upon them.

There, on

a

squalid

couch, lay the pedlar, quite dead.

Around him

all

seemed chaos

—

piles of fiddle-boxes,

"

VIOLIN TARISIO and out

fiddles in

and

pieces a

of

cases, tenors, 'cellos, violins

Mr

Bennett's), a Euggieri

about a hundred Italian

T. R. Bradson's);

in

Half a dozen Strads there;

violins whole.

Gasparo (afterwards

181

(Mr by

fiddles,

different makers.

Here,

too,

was found the

These trophies created

"

Messie

little

" or "

Messiah,"

enthusiasm at the time,

but to the joy of the relatives, two nephews,

who had

been hunted up with difficulty by the municipal authoa sealed packet

rities,

securities

was found containing valuable

and a considerable amount

common

of gold.

The

rest is

The

instant his friend and patron Vuillaume heard

matter of

of the magician's

the

nephews

history.

death he hurried to Milan, and visited

at their farmhouse,

Where are the fiddles ? " At Milan but we have six here." On the spot Vuillaume opened the "

;

cases.

The

first

contained a splendid Strad, the second a Joseph del Gesii, the third a Carlo Bergonzi, the fourth

and

fifth

two Guadagninis, and the last the famous Messiah, preserved by Count Cozio 1824,

when

it

was bought by

Vuillaume came six,

and then

lost

attic at Milan,

de Salabue, intact

to terms with the

not a

until

Tarisio.

moment

nephews

for these

in visiting the

famous

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 gohe-mouche of a

Frenchman had been

hi-diddle-diddled by the wily Italians.

nicely

OLD VIOLINS

182

When we remember would

laughs best

now more than the sum Vuillaume we may well remember the proverb, who laughs last."

A

violin-players and

of

its

He

this

collector's

violin-music, excepting

in so far as they acted or reacted in

and

paid "

Vignette of Paganini.

have advisedly steered clear in

volume violin

gems

realise

for the lot,

I

that a couple only of these

any way upon the

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,

sity is

and double bass

;

and virtuo-

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.

nothing more than these pattern of

1684

unaffected

by

to

the

But

trifling

virtuosity can claim details.

has remained

1700

or

vagaries,

feats,

The Strad completely

demands

of

soloists.

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, Eubinstein

and

his followers,

have compelled a

series of

improve-

ments in strength, sonority, delicate mechanism, and sensibihty,

perfected

undreamed by the

and Steinways.

later

of

by the old

firms,

and only

Erards, Broadwoods, Collards,

But not a

single substantial improve-

NICOLO PAGANINI

VIOLIN TARISIO ment has been made

183

in the violin since the last one left

the hand of the great Antonio at Cremona, and not

even a

trifling

any

modification of

sort has

been adopted

or applied to the grand violin of the golden period for at least a century.

name and

the

The excuse then

for

introducing

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.

Now

this

is

and

important

Paganini was the greatest of

interesting,

all

because

players in this cul-

minating 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 violinists of

the phenomenal

all

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 Lupot,

who it

belongs at best to the silver age, I have thought

worth while

grand though eccentric face

who has

work by reproducing the and figure of the one man

to glorify their

invested their chef-d'oeuvres with that romantic

glamour, that almost unearthly prestige which the violin alone amongst instruments can lay claim

to.

Paganini's favourite violin, a Joseph Guarnerius, in its case

under glass

to inspect, in the to

Town

to this hour,

open for

all

lies

eyes

Hall at Genoa, his native town,

which he has bequeathed

it.

His dying directions,

— OLD VIOLINS

184

that no one should ever play upon

it,

Shake-

recall

upon those who should move

speare's curse

his bones.

The great musician's orders have not been quite

so

scrupulously observed as those of the immortal bard

"Homage

my

Musical Life " will be found

^ Paganini," together with a woodcut of fine bust, given

Danton's very

who played first

My

"

In

Avon.

of

in the orchestra

to

me by John

among the

violins

Ella,

when

Paganini visited England.

Nothing

is

so

ephemeral as the fame of an orator, they leave books or music

actor, or musician, unless

to give future generations

some

idea of the

which lived and died with them

fascination

may do

Henceforth the phonograph

behind them.

something

;

but no

phonograph will ever give us even a faint echo Siddons' declamation or Paganini's playing alike buried with the generation

and

electrified.

But

in Leigh

Paganini's performance torial

phonograph,

I

if

of

these are

which they charmed

Hunt's description of

we have something

may

;

like a pic-

hazard the hibernianism, of

the " Pale Musician's " mighty personality and power.

Somewhere between the forties and fifties, I remember, young boy, standing awestruck before a thin,

as a very

gaunt, dislocated

wax

dresscoat, with wild

—

^Just

as Leigh

came down

"

Paganini in an

dreamy eyes and arm

Hunt

describes

like a crash of

let the lively

for himself

effigy of

him

ill-fitting

uplifted high

— before

bow

his

thunder on the strings

;

but

and graphic essayist who heard him, speak

:

Paganini, the

first

time I saw and heard him, and the

— VIOLIN TARISIO

'

185

first

time he struck a note, seemed literally to strike it, to

give

it

among the

The house was

a blow.

so

crammed

that, being

the squeezers in the standing-room at the side of

pit, I

happened

to catch the first glance of his face,

through the arm akimbo of a

made a kind

man who was

perched up

and

there,

on the stage in that frame, as through a perspective

glass,

before me, which

of

frame for

were the face bent and the raised hand

it

;

of the

wonderful

musician, with the instrument at his chin, just going to

commence, and looking exactly as

—

I described

him

His hand, Loading the air with dumb expectancy. Suspending ere it fell a nation's breath. He smote, and clinging to the serious chords, With godlike ravishment drew forth a breath So deep, so strong, so fervid thick with love. Blissful yet laden as with twenty prayers, That Juno yearned with no diviner soul '

To

the first burthen of the lips of Jove. Th' exceeding mystery of the loveliness Sadden 'd delight, and with his mournful look, Dreary and gaunt, hanging his pallid face 'Twixt his dark flowing locks, he almost seem'd Too feeble, or to melancholy eyes One that has parted with his soul for pride,

And

in the sable secret lived forlorn.'

To show the depth and

identicalness of the impression

which he made upon everybody, foreign or native, an

who

Itahan, '

Dio

!

'

stood near me, said to himself after a sigh,

and

this

had not been said long when another

person in the same manner exclaimed,

'

Christ

!

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."

CHAPTEE

XIII

VIOLINS AT MIKECOUET, MITTENWALD,

AND MAKKNEUKIKCHEN MiRECOURT

MiRECOURT

in Lorraine has the glory of being associ-

ated from so early a date as 1566 with the

Cremona

workshops,

Andrew Amati, who made

six

small

for

fiddles

Charles IX. about that time, employed Nicolas

Ren-

auld of Nancy,

who was a

Mirecourt

Tywersus, to assist him in finishing

lutist

pupil

of

the

these important court orders, which did so establish

the supremacy of

the crowd of competing

popular

The

ear, and, as

much

the "petit violon"

viols

we have

celebrated

to

over

which then held the

seen, died

very hard.

great princes of Lorraine occupied a castle of

pleasure called Eavenel, at a

short

distance

from

Mirecourt,

These accomplished noblemen, touched with Florentine

culture, often

and delighted

made

excursions into Lombardy,

in the refinements of the Itahan prince-

doms and duchies. They brought back with them laces,

musical instruments. 186

pictures, ironwork,

AT MIRECOTTRT

VIOLINS

187

Tywersus, their private lute-maker, was deeply in-

by the work and models of the early Amatis, and from the school of Tywersus came Nicolas Renfluenced

Jean

auld,

Amati

Medard, and

left Paris,

luthier to

of

fat

his

Charles IX., he

who

office

behind him

left

slipped into the lucrative post

French Majesty, and we find his

and co-worker Medard installed

friend

When

Medard.

whither he had gone to present his

violins in person to

Nicolas Renauld,

Nicolas

the same

in

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. Meanwhile Mirecourt,

in the heart of

the Vosges

mountains, with easy access to the grand timbers of their ancient forests, within beck

and

and

great

in

close

touch with

the

call of

Lombardy,

Italian

fiddle-

makers, Mirecourt long held supremacy as one

of,

if

not the most important mart of fiddle manufacture. It

shared with Mittenwald

and

Markneukirchen

the honour of supplying that rapidly growing violin

now

market which

was

Cremona made

largely for

springing

up, and

whilst

home consumption and

few foreign courts, Mirecourt undertook

modest but equally useful duty

the

of multiplying

a

more

Cremona

school violins, which circulated far and wide throughout

the French provinces, and frequently reached our shores

;

own

indeed the fiddles often passed for Cremonas.

The popularity

of these

Cremona

replicas

brought

OLD VIOLINS

188

on that inevitable deterioration in quality which always follows over-rapid

production and cheap wares, and

one time Mirecourt, in spite of

at

dustry, was fast becoming a

elaborate

its

byword

for

bad

in-

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.

know what can be known, go to Mirecourt, just as people who study art go to Eome and Florence, or people who study the fashions go to Paris. To Mirecourt we owe Rambaux, who was born there All

in

who wish

to

1802 and died there only in 1870. Francis and George Chanot both came from there.

The Lupot family are claimed

as natives of Mire-

court, although the greatest of them, Nicolas,

whose

vioHns run some of the finest specimens of Cremona

His father was

very hard, was a native of Stuttgard. a Frenchman, and

came from Mirecourt.

tions belong to Mirecourt,

and

All his tradi-

these, as

we

all

know,

he carried with him to Paris, where he died in 1824,

and was succeeded by Gand.

The names vestre,

of

Maucotel, Medard, Menegand,

and Deragay, and above

Vuillaume, must

all

always shed an imperishable lustre upon the in the

town

Mirecourt.

number,

in-

were born

at

of the Vuillaumes, eight in

cluding the immortal Jean Baptiste,

all

little

Vosges mountains.

Every one

but

Sil-

Two

settled at Brussels, three at

Paris,

the others lived and died at Mirecourt.

William Ebsworth Hill was careful

to send his sons

; ;;

VIOLINS this

to

celebrated

AT MIRECOURT

school

violin art,

of

189

and we may

be sure that they did not come away until they had possessed themselves of everything that Mirecourt had

maker M. Thibouville Lamy

or the connoisseur.

to teach the violin

of

who has

Mirecourt,

trade

branches in Paris and London, manufactures a violin at about 3s. lOd. cost price, selling at about 4s. 6d.

but Markneukirchen probably leads in cheapness and quantity,

if

turning out quite playable

not quality,

modest figure

fiddles for the

of

£1

to £2, 10s.

The best Mirecourt fiddles will fetch from £6 to £10. The Gand and Bernardel prices range from £16 to £20. for " trade fiddles " of

The ever-increasing demands all

kinds, as distinguished from the solo violins reserved

for the use of virtuosi, has called forth of fair

makers beyond the limits

wald, and Markneukirchen. In England it is enough Hill

&

Sons

;

Duncan

and Manchester

;

of

to

an abundance

of Mirecourt,

Mitten-

mention such names as

Glasgow

the Chanots, London

;

London

the late Furber,

;

in Paris,

Bernardel, Silvestre, Germain, Audinot, and Chardon in Vienna, Zach, Bittner,

Rampfler

;

in

Maine, Lenk in Lille,

Hel

Guadagnini

;

Munich,

Lembok, Voigt, Guttermann, Sprenger

in Breslau, Liebich

;

;

;

in

;

in Milan, Marchetti

in

Cremona,

Ceruti

general information the reader

Prankfort-on-

in Brussels,

;

may

;

Darche

in Turin,

and

for

Bros.

further

consult the toler-

ably exhaustive catalogue index of makers at the end of this volume, for the bulk of

which I

am

indebted

:

OLD VIOLINS

190

and admirable labours

to the studious

Her

booklet

of

Miss Stainer.

entitled " Violin Makers,"

is

one of the music primers issued by Novello

&

and

it

an educational

of

forms series

Co.

MiTTENWALD. In old

days

towns, with

Mittenwald,

its

frescoed

river-side, for it is

quaintest

houses and

on the banks

of

Bavarian

picturesque

its

of the dear Isar, over-

shadowed by the Wetterstein and Kurwandel mountains,

was a town

of considerable

importance from very early

days as the halting-place for the Eomans on their way

Danube.

to the

It long retained

which resulted or Mittenwald

peculiar caravanserai character,

its

in the establishment of the

handy mart

which in more recent times the

fair, for

place was chiefly famous.

After the removal of the

fair to

Bozen, the importance of Mittenwald began to

decline

;

trade and

commerce suddenly seemed

made unto themselves wings, who in his boyhood is said to no

less

a

have been apprenticed

person than the great Nicolas Amati,

settled at Mittenwald,

and wrote up outside

prime hazel and maple,

up

have

until one Matthias Klotz, to

" Matthias Klotz, Geigen Macher,

hills, is of

to

to be

his

house

im jahr 1684."

The

found in the "Wetterstein

splendid quality, and the woods, then close

to the town,

were

full of old trees.

Thither, before the days of Matthias, was

come a dreamy,

ill-regulated sort of person,

wont

who

to

excited

VIOLINS

AT MITTENWALD

191

the curiosity, and perhaps ridicule, of the villagers

tapping their trees with a his ear close to the

wood

hammer and then

by-

putting

to hear the sound.

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.

His name was Jacob Stainer. 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

fiddles,

were prepared to receive the young

workman with

favour and hospitality, for they hoped

his

he might do something of the kind for Mittenwald.

They were not mistaken. arrived at Mittenwald,

One year

before Klotz

had died incoherent

Stainer

Absam, and now that the greatest of G-erman makers was dead, Mittenwald was soon des-

and insane

at

tined to become noted in its turn for

its fiddles.

It is generally affirmed that Klotz Stainer.

was a pupil

with Nicolas Amati

The

probabilities are that

are not very well defined.

he was a pupil of both with their work.

—

The

in the sense of being familiar

fact that his vioHns are

times mistaken for Stainer, points to the strong

some-

Absam

was upon him — could hardly —whilst the tendency noticeable in the

influence which

otherwise

of

Certainly his relations

it

be

fiddles

of his son Sebastian,

who

certainly did visit Cremona,

to bring

down

the model flatter than was fashionable

at

time,

indicates

this

that

the

firm

at

all

events

192

OLD VIOLINS

reflected the later

Amati model of Nicolas, who died came to Mittenwald,

the very year Klotz

Had

Matthias or Sebastian Klotz attended to the

methods either

Stainer

of

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

Whether from haste or ignorance, the Klotz wood, especially that used by Matthias and

autumn

timber.

Sebastian, is sometimes found to be worm-eaten, Sebastian's fiddles are

much

but

His brothers,

esteemed.

George and Egidius, and his nephew, Joseph, son of Egidius, all

made

of

fiddles

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.

The Mittenwald industry, although now than that of Markneukirchen, preceded time,

and undoubtedly

less prolific

it in

point of

was through Bavarian Mitten-

it

wald that the Cremona influence reached Saxony.

Master Eeiter, whose teacher was Johan Vauchel

Wurzburg,

is

now

the most prominent

of

Mittenwald

maker, and Herr Neuner, who was a pupil of Vuillaume, directs the school

and

about twenty boys, and

Out

of eighteen

factory. is

The school

instructs

under Government.

hundred Mitten walders, three hun-

dred are fiddle-makers.

The place provides from fifteen to twenty thousand instruments per annum, including zithers and guitars. I will not say that

Herr

Eeiter,

who

is

an

in the old secrets and the old enthusiasms,

artist versed is

personally

VIOLINS

AT MARKNEUKIRCHEN

193

responsible for the " trade fiddles " that annually pour

from the Mittenwald

them " I,

Master Reiter, never

to a visitor let

himself

he

but

fiddles,

and remarked

all,

He

workshops.

made comparatively few

the other day,

one go out of

that has not been thoroughly tested,

has

supervises

and

I

my

hands

have sent

out into the world, to Eussia, to America, Athens,

and where

some two hundred

not,

violins

and twenty-

having repaired some four hundred

five 'cellos, besides

others."

Markneukikchen. Quiet resting-places, secluded valleys of the Tyrol,

mountains Mirecourt

of

Saxony

!

—Mittenwald, Markneukirchen, towns —Brescia, Cremona,

sleepy Italian

;

!

once provincial villages like Mirecourt, far from the of

mighty

cities

!

stir

— such retreats seem to have been ever

favourable to the development of violin manufacture.

Something,

simple and almost naive religious

too, of

sentiment has entered into the production of the earlier violins,

most

of

which were, after

all,

chiefly intended

for the sanctuary. Catholic or Protestant.

The

arts

and craftsbook

of Violin-makers of

of

the Worshipful

Markneukirchen, 1677

lately been unearthed

sided and indefatigable

Guild

to 1772, has

and translated by the many-

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."

N

;

OLD VIOLINS

194

Here we read how a mere handful

workmen went out from

of

masters and

kith and kin into a wilderness

—some would say a paradise— the sake ping God own way — that for

in their

is

reformed Lutheran way.

They

of worship-

new number

to say, the

settled, to the

of sixty-six, about the year 1627, at the retired

and

The

old

mountainous village

of

Markneukirchen.

book which records their uneventful annals characteristically

Holy

Trinity,

enough with,

Amen " and ;

"

begins

In the name of the

then follow the names of

twelve families, the principals being Eeicher, George, PoUes, Gaspar, Schonfeldes, and Gaspar

and from Graslitz,

this

modest nucleus, emigrants,

Hans Hopf

chiefly

from

grew the famous Guild, which by-and-by was

responsible for scattering abroad violins innumerable, labelled with every

bad, and indifferent

the

known name, and ;

of quality good,

for it is a notable peculiarity of

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 lings,

down

as low as about four shil-

and a very playable instrument, labelled Stradi-

vari, is actually sold for a

sum not much above

that

astonishing cost price.

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 schoolmaster; Gottfried

Pitz

;

one Andrea

whilst Gasper

was admitted

Gher,

Reichel to

the

1587,

was a Guild

was a barber.

on easy

VIOLINS

AT MARKNEUKIRCHEN

195

terms, because he had served his country as a cavalry soldier.

The master-workers were mostly people of some subThey had to pay a tax of one florin on being

stance.

admitted to mastership

but sons of a master were

;

admitted on a reduced fee of

Most

of the masters

house, with a

room

five florins.

were expected

enough

large

have a decent

to

to entertain the

Guild

with their wives at a banquet on their installation.

As

this cost

some money

—

there were various ways when the candidate happened

lightening the burden

be a desirable addition to the Guild

of to

—he was allowed

was remitted by favour.

to

pay

A

popular means of effecting economy was to propose

to

marry the daughter

off

in instalments, or part

payment.

of a master

The apprentices

that at least staved

;

often got in cheap that

way.

Hans Adam

who "intended"

Narlitzer,

to

marry a

master's daughter, was admitted on reduced terms, on the understanding that,

he was to pay up in

the match did not

if

come

off,

full.

One Kretchman

"intended"

also

marry the

to

youngest daughter of Hans Martin Schonfeldes; also

Johann Christian Envel, to

had "half a mind"

in 1761,

marry the youngest daughter

of

Eeichel, and

was

admitted for ten thalers; but in case he could not

make up

his

mind

master's daughter, he thalers.

In no case

gentlemen

failed to

to

marry the

would have is

it

or

girl,

to

any

other

pay thirty-one any

recorded that

marry as per contract

;

of these

the masters'

OLD VIOLINS

196

daughters probably took very good care of that, or

would have

sufficient influence to suppress the fact of

their rejection.

With first

the spread of the Reformed opinions, there at

demand

arose a certain

for violins

in

new

the

churches; but the rigid Lutherans soon smelled the

odour of abuse and reversion to Eomanism, and discouraged any approach to ornate services, or an over-

A

supply of instrumental accompaniment.

decree that

the violins used in Church should be reduced in bers little

naturally spread

country town

consternation

but the

;

num-

throughout the

growing

demand

for

stringed instruments of good quahty for secular bands

soon counteracted the effect of sectarian bigotry and clerical

and when one

parsimony;

bandmaster

to Prince

founded the modern orchestra with created the

modern

for violins

and basses led

ment

of

Joseph

Haydn,

Esterhazy in Vienna, practically

oratorio

its

symphony, and

and quartet, the demand to

a prodigious develop-

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.

At Mittenwald a similar community flourished, and German instruments made, and still made,

the crop of

by these enterprising

artificers

have flooded

orchestras of the world, providing of every maker,

all

the

them with samples

from Gaspar and Maggini to Stradi-

VIOLINS the

vari,

AT MARKNEUKIRCHEN

Guarneri,

197

Guadagnini.

Bergonzi, and

The

Mittenwald makers owed their inspiration chiefly to

They were

Egidius Klotz, pupil of the great Stainer. as

famous

the

into

kirchen, Prague,

The

increased

more

it

was

through

also

Cremona methods filtered region Markneu-

the Mittenwalders that the readily

Markneu-

for their fine hazel-fir timber as the

kircheners were for their maple;

—

northern

Nuremburg, Wurzburg, and Franken.

demand

necessarily in a tendency

for to

instruments

resulted

which did

deterioration,

not escape the attention of the Guild, and rigid rules

were drawn up, called "Beneficent Mandates

for

the

Suppression of Abuses."

Every master had

to

prove himself equal to produc-

ing 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

The quaint record

of the

finish.

Markneukirchen

arts

and

craftsbook ends with the year 1772, and with the words

"Deo

Since that date the names of Reichel,

Gloria."

Schuster, and Paulus have all been en evidence at vari-

ous European Exhibitions as medallists and exhibitors of distinction

many

but, after a great fire in 1840, a good

families left the town,

became began

;

like a flower that

to

and thus the old centre

had overblown

and

obey the inevitable law by which a mature

centre distributes itself gradually, losing as

own

itself,

it

were

its

central wealth in its circumference, as the seeds of

the dandelion get blown abroad over

all lands.

CHAPTEK XIV VIOLIN TKEATMENT

The

notion that the more a fiddle

the better

it is, is

you knock about a horse the

A good so

knocked about

more

better he goes.

horse will take a great deal of spoiling, and

good

a

will

is

similar to the theory that the

Your well-bred you turn him out

when broken down,

if

even

beast,

fiddle.

to grass

and

attend to his ailments, will recover marvellously, and

you glue him up, readjust system, keep him dry, and coax him a bit. so will a violin, if

The delusion that a maltreated their

into

old,

due

fiddle is all the better for being

to this

battered,

:

—Many people observe

disorganised

the skilful repairer's

kettles, that,

is

his nervous

fiddles,

hands

which went

sounding like

come out with the true Cremona timbre

my

deluded friend,

spite of the

is

that

;

tin

but

not in consequence, but in

knocking about to which your favourites

have been exposed.

The

fiddle-doctor

internal economy,

the wolf or

has

attended

and gently healed

fiddle

to its

your

violin's

bruises, killed

stomach-ache from which

it

was

suffering, glued tight the rattUng back, ribs, belly, fixed

the loose 198

sound-bar, and readjusted your Cremona's

;

!

VIOLIN TREATMExNT very soul (I'dme du

violon),

and

but remember,

so

it

fares well

;

which

and go a mere wreck

both,

am

I

to the

the sound-post

is 'tis

a fiddle in repair and use than allow

199

better to keep

it to

get out of

workshop.

not forgetting, when I say "use," that the in-

cessant and continued playing upon an instrument said to result in its getting

and that

out,"

calls "

what Joachim

is

played

have been great benefactors

collectors

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

how

long

it

will last is still a

wear and tear and attention

is

—and —

vexed question

as work, exercise, and cleanly habits are good for

and

Lay

it

What room

is

to

never good

;

knocking about

is

—

down

that precious

An

the bidding. it

£40

thing it

committed

home from

influential

!

to

your

the auction-

dealer

cheap, having already half sold

much

never good

There was a conspiracy to keep

your Amati.

for twice as

is

young player

your heart,

You have brought

care?

to

man

beast.

Neglect

buy

fair

just as good for a fiddle

as he

at the auction

meant

it

to give;

wanted

to

in advance

he went up

and stopped, but you were the

dark horse and made another bid; he winked at the auctioneer, supposing

with the

and

lost

knocked down

;

for

his

to you.

bogus bid; the

man

looked at the dealer,

who

to be a

hammer paused and

shook his head clever

it

once the dealer had been too

Amati

for

a £5

note.

It

was

—

!

!

OLD VIOLINS

200

You

get

home

it

;

it;

the timbre of the

too

weak

You

—

it

there

A

is

something wrong about

string

has a crack in one

don't expect a

unequal

is

— sweet,

but

rib.

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 intime

tone, not to be surpassed

by

by Strad and never reached

Stainer.

Of course your early Nicolo has got

He

hauled.

has got a crack

to

be over-

—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 Of what attention

about him.

Take him

to a subtle violin

is

he

medicine-man,

not worthy

who

will at

what he has got to deal with, and will sit him and think then take him up, handle him, tap him, pull

a glance see

down

He him

before will

to pieces

with excessive care and

you get him back, you may

still

Your treatment has

but wait.

to

When

reflection.

be not quite

satisfied,

begin where the

fiddle-doctor's ends.

The convalescent home comes your house

is

after the

hospital

the convalescent home.

The glue must dry; the changed sound-post must grow

to the newly-directed strain

vibrating boards

with the

air

;

the refixed flanks

it

must

of

the

learn to deal

column, and the filled-up crack, by con-

stantly thrilling with the rest,

that

and tension

ever was a crack

!

must have time

to forget

!

TREATMENT

VIOLIN Be not

Play upon

impatient.

by-and-by draw out

;

to it

must not

it

pet canary

;

don't let

press

trance, its

human

in

room.

your

of

human." ;

it lies

breathed on by you when you

and musical

of rare inspiration

between your chin and your

left breast,

where

own

vibrating back actually /ee/s the pulses of your

The waves

heart.

of

sound that you generate from

are saturated with the magnetism of your touch

trembling pressure of your fingers comes

shaking of

be

let it

;

caressed by your hand

'tis

;

moments

warm

for a well-cared-for "

fit

'tis

;

your cheek

it,

too near the

or wherever there is an atmos-

phere and temperature

close to

— near, not

get chilled at night

it

own bedroom,

'Tis half

and watch

aside

open, with a soft

you would think

of it in winter as

in your

it

and

first,

get hot, but, like good claret, just the

temperature of a comfortably

Think

gently at

let it lie

;

wrapper on the strings

silken fire

tone; lay

its

harm comes

that no

it

201

your own life-blood as

it

;

it

the

from the

beats

in

the

mysterious valves of the heart, and seems to mingle

with those more than atmospheric, those psychic waves

which travel out upon the conveying your inmost

air in

a flow of magic sound

to

the inmost selves of

self

others

So

this half -human thing

must Uve with you and be

cared for by and fare with you, and be kept in good

humour. See that no clot of dirt be in rosin to vex

Take

it

and

fret the

out lovingly

;

its case,

no speck of

smooth amber-coloured back.

polish

it

with soft handkerchief

;

!

!

!

OLD VIOLINS

202

keep

shining wherever the varnish

it

still

shows up,

and scrupulously clean elsewhere.

The

may

vile notion that a coat of rosin

be

does good, and

with advantage like a festering mass on

left

the belly underneath the strings,

is

a most grievous

delusion

Why

suffer the corrosion of the varnish

with a foreign

substance to remain there more than on any other part of the wood?

Eosin

for the strings, not for the

is

strings are for friction,

and are intended

and the

belly,

to be scraped

through and worn out and replaced, but the belly

and

for vibration

Your

rosin 'tis

striking

dumb

ing.

Only a

and even he I

to the strings, enabling

death to the wood,

Never touch your

is

never intended to wear out.

is life

speak, but it

is

violin with

them

stifling its pores

oil,

to

and

or spirit, or colour-

skilled repairer can venture

to

do that,

will not always be wise.

have seen really good old instruments too much

cleaned or daubed over ruthlessly with varnish, much, as Euskin says, he

and mops

of paint at

muddy brown

saw men with knives

Venice scraping away and splash-

ing over with raw blue the vast old faded skies of

Paul Veronese

A

spick and

span mania seizes at times upon

re-

storers of all schools.

A relative by a

of

mine had a Spagnoletti restored

to

him

cleaner, but so repainted as to be worthless.

Have not

half the cathedrals in the land been dis-

VIOLIN

TREATMENT

203

by whitewash, starched and bleached just

figured

like

much dirty linen, and the old frescoes obliterated many disfiguring stains and even now, in these more enlightened days, how many old carvings have

so

like so

been

;

replaced

by

modern

routine -work

whilst the walls, facade, and floor

sculpture,

grand old St

of

Mark's at Venice have been smeared over with SalThus have I seen a Maggini viati's modern mosaic. botched and browned over so completely with bad

Grerman varnish as to leave only faint traces here and there of the original coating.

Never

in

the matter

what time has

stolen;

of

varnish dare

who have spared the

life

Vandal

is

Above

thou favoured guardian of a Cremona, never

all,

a

years,"

and been unable materially

to injure the fabric of the rare old instrument.

it

replace

varnish

that loss of old

tribute paid not ungrudgingly to " the

to

let

get near damp, or suffer from any other mouldering

or corrosive influence.

A into

friend of mine, finding that the his

violin case,

which

worm had

contained

a

got

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. varnish was completely ruined, and what violin has never to

my

least

sounded

like itself since

;

mind that the varnish affects the that damaged varnish impairs it.

is

The

worse, the

a clear proof tone, or

at

— OLD VIOLINS

204

uncommon

It is not at all an

which has been sulky when

Do

for

some months,

taken out.

not be rash or fidget with the bridge or sound-

Warm

post. all

first

thing to find a violin,

unplayed upon

left

due

care,

the fiddle up gently

and play on

of its temper; go find, to

on

rub

;

it

lightly with

without taking any notice

it

you

will

all its

own

for a couple of hours;

your surprise, that

has recovered

it

sweetness and charm, and will be ready to charm you

with the delightful sensitiveness of

response.

its

All

that was really wanted was for the temporarily disused

channels of vibration to be again the pores

—the

shaken up in the old way. gone to sleep sluggish

—some

—that

is,

of

filled

with sound

hollows to be once more

desiccated

The instrument has its

really

nerve currents have got

the desiccated powder molecules have

stuck in the pores and must be set rolling again.

But,

one just awakened, the fiddle takes a

time

like

to be " all there," as the

idiom runs.

Something similar may be observed

When,

be heard well

;

the whole of

takes a

little

first

begins, the speaker will not

the atmosphere it

in a large hall.

been quiescent for

after the atmosphere has

some time, speaking

is

stiff,

and only when

—and

that

sensitive

and

has been set in vibration

time

little

— does

it

become

sufficiently elastic to be capable

of

transmitting the

slightest inflections of sound.

There

is,

again,

and molecular

an

electric as well as

state of the air

substances, but this

is

and

all

an atmospheric other vibratory

a side of acoustics extremely

TREATMENT

VIOLIN little

205

understood, and can only be dealt with empiri-

by

cally

speakers,

handlers of violins,

and especially

players,

singers,

who

will instinctively

make

use of

some laws which they do not understand, and which do

indeed

not

seem

yet

have

to

been

correctly

formulated.

something ought to be said about the

I feel that

position

would

the sound-post, though frankly I

of

rather not say anything.

Whatever advice one

gives

certain to be wrongly

is

and mischievously applied. Technically, the sound-post should be a little behind

the right foot of the bridge, neck, which

neck aslant

is

of course

you look from head

if

It ought also to be straight — — unless the surface of the ends be cut on a

to head.

Of course

it

it is

to

back and

intended to blend; a

little

the bridge wiU often produce a light hard little

too far will tend

quality; a

little

to

exactly in the

sensibility

capable.

fit

place,

But

will

of

so capricious are

to

have won

tone;

a

brighten the right

and

vice versd.

Get

which your violin

is

the vibrational laws,

peculiarities

of

each violin's

nervous system, that the position which at failed to yield

belly,

too near

and you attain the utmost

and equal sonority

and so subtle are the

is

slope.

a loose, muffled, or tubby

to the right

string at the expense of the left, it

it

if

clings but partially

whose throbs

to

you look from

the left foot if

first

has

good results will ultimately be found

its

way

instrument adjusting

to the heart of itself

to

your

what was

violin, the

at

first

an

OLD VIOLINS

206

uncongenial treatment of

and even

learn to sympathise, tions of pressure

When

post.

this

nerves, until the nerves

its

rejoice, in special direc-

and tension induced by the soundhappens, better

well

let

alone and

don't attend to outside advice of experts.

seldom wise to encourage an amateur, or any

It is

but

sound-post.

why go

with the position of the

a skilful hand, to trifle

all

moved

be

If it timst

then by

or has fallen down,

means take the advice

of

an expert;

to the doctor.

The same

sort of

of the

position

advice

may

be given about the

Granted

bridge.

you have

that

a

bridge which suits your instrument (and the importance of this

I

whether

have elsewhere dwelt upon), then consider

'tis

The two

worth while

little

to

move your

//

side slits in the

mately the position of the bridge;

bridge at

indicate approxilet

a violin-doctor

determine the right height, which, remember, modified according to

its

position,

elevation of the finger-board.

all.

must be

and the slope and

But here again there

is

a vague and subtle margin for readjustment; the im-

portance of the bridge's position

is

of course directly

related to the whereabouts of the sound-post, as

bridge

is

a prime factor in

vibrations transmitted

dealing

first

with

by the sound-post from

the the belly

to back.

There are violins which gain brilliancy by the bridge forward, but this

leaning a

little

as a little

more, and

of course

is

down comes

is of

course dangerous,

the bridge.

The theory

for the feet of the bridge to grip equally at

TREATMENT

VIOLIN all

points the surface of the belly

Now,

with equal pressure.

—

flat

ttie

and

close,

and

the bridge leans forward,

if

the grip of the back part of the feet whilst the pressure of

207

front part

is

is

slightly lifted,

accentuated, and

if it

leans backwards, precisely the reverse takes place.

Yet

so capricious are fiddles, that

some do not seem

have their bridges quite straight, and so they

to like to

have got to be humoured.

Without grave cause

I should advise not

meddling

with bridge or sound-post after they have been re-

by a good

adjusted

quite right

;

he

He may

repairer.

may

not have been

not have had the time or patience

to deal with your nialade imaginaire of a

amongst

fiddles as

imagmaires which

the profession

baffle

doctor will be probably more right irritable, discontented,

you leave

off

fiddle

—

for

amongst people, there are malades

— but your than you —

fussy,

inexperienced amateur, and,

tampering with the works, the

very probably adjust

fiddle-

itself

and get

if

fiddle will

all right.

Then of course you must remember that whenever you touch the bridge you touch the elevation of the Put bridge back, you slacken

strings above finger-board.

the touch for the player by bringing the strings close

down on

the finger-board

you lighten the touch

by

;

;

put

make

lifting the strings higher

And now generally

it

it

forward or

tilt it,

from the finger-board.

a word about your finger-board.

made

of

ebony

;

and

harder for the fingers

This

is

the old masters used various

brownish woods, choosing, of course, the harder ones, which they often inlaid beautifully. Sometimes even

;

OLD VIOLINS

208 they used ivory

;

you may perhaps have noticed that

on some violins you have a or indeed

any chords,

This, unless

mere blunderer, comes from the

You may not have

board.

stopping

difficulty in

in tune.

fifths,

you are a

state of your finger-

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

wood, but

the

in

channels of unequal depths; the consequence the same pressure, forcing two strings

equally raised surfaces,

fails to

down on un-

produce that relatively

equal pressure necessary for producing your true the Btriug also being sunk,

it

fifth

does not get the full

benefit of the finger's pressure, as the shock of will be

that

is

impact

broken by the higher level of the finger-board

on either side

of the

sunken

string.

In this way the tone quality as well as the intonation suffers

from what so constantly eludes observation

—a worn finger-board. Of course a new an old one, affect,

It

is

a very easy matter, and can in no

except for the better, any

may its

finger-board

or,

now

thickness are also responsible for imperfect

The management

of

the

difficulties to the novice.

in use has

for the matter

Strings of very

original neck.

of

ill-assorted fifths.

pegs sometimes presents

Eosewood, ivory, and box-

wood have been

tried,

but ebony seems to be

though

many

incline, as I

favourite,

way

violin.

safely be said that no violin

either its original that,

finger-board, or the restoration of

the

do personally, to

VIOLIN rosewood, which

TREATMENT

and thus, in contact with

dense,

is less

the maple-head (which

is

209

again less dense in fibre than

and violent contrast

the rosewood), offers a less hard

than does the iron ebony to the porous maple.

But the and

fitted,

them

it

them with

or to rub

make them turn more

your peg

the hole,

is

make

a vile practice to rosin the pegs to

it is

stiffer,

ing to If

all-essential thing is for the pegs to be nicely

lead-pencil or whiten-

easily.

because

sticks, it is either

it

does not

not smooth, or because you have

fit

rammed

in too far in order to resist the pull of a string, pro-

bably coiled round and round the pegs in a tangled, twisted mess.

There never should be a need for in of the screw, nor would there be

up your new

string to pitch,

down, drew the stretched part

up

again,

coils,

when you would

it

You

move

at

it

in

and then screwed

instead of ever so

till it

many which

to one or two,

when your

make

stuck and almost

fiddle is at

first

and adjust the pitch

moment but then ;

let it

all.

peghead between the

forefinger,

pulled

the strain from your screw, and

should be able,

to nip the

your

tight,

find,

needless for you to force

refused to

a

lift

over-ramming

when you

you immediately

you had reduced the number

would at once

this

if,

your chin,

and third joint

of

and

in

to a nicety

the resistance of the screw

must

be so nicely balanced with the tension of the string as to allow of its

moving

in its exact place

easily

when

when

gripped, and keeping

left.

It is a very strange thing that, whilst all sorts of

O

;

OLD VIOLINS

210

mechanical contrivances for moving violin screws have been suggested, and even tried and adopted for guitars

and double

basses, the violin retains its simple

primitive screw

;

nor would any one

who

and

lays claim to

a decent position in the trade dream of advising a departure in

custom

this, or

of the

indeed in any other respect from the

Cremona

school and

its successors.

Concerning the stringmg of your

beyond the

violin,

hints I have given with regard to the accumulation of evils

round the peg, there

is

not very

much

to be said.

The quahty, manufacture, preservation, and price strings has already been dealt

with; and here, as in

everything connected with violins, there must be

and sympathetic adaptation

of

of

strings

fine

both to the

performer and to his instrument.

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.

Some

players will prefer a thick

first

or third string,

according to the quality of tone they are able to

some a smooth

or rather thin patent fourth in pre-

ference to the usual Gr string,

playing gauge,

you

;

if

more roughly-coiled and thicker

which, however, but, as a rule,

you

elicit

is

preferable for

buy your

orchestral

strings according to

can't trust your eye, in a good shop,

and

will not be disappointed.

Eemember,

as I have previously intimated, that

great inequality in the relative thickness of

any

your strings

VIOLIK may

be quite as

much

TREATMENT

211

responsible for your imperfect

fifths as

an old channelled finger-board.

of rosin,

and

up

to

let the string

the bridge, but not much,

top of the

The

finger-board.

Use plenty

be seasoned with if

at

rosin

all,

right

it

below the

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.

The tone

of a fine violinist never

In the pure disembodied tone of

cat-gut and rosin. Piatti,

Joachim, or Sarasate

of all beggarly

reminds you of the

elements

into " something rare

;

we

entirely lose the sense

they have suffered a change

and strange."

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 always, reliable.

sure

till

you have put the

get a true length out of as a rule,

if

can never be quite If false,

is false, it is

;

but,

bad

all

especially a soloist, should always

have a length or two of stretched and tested his case, or, better

you may

by trying another part

one length of a string

A player,

through.

it

You

string on.

still,

firsts in

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. Strings have every kind of vice short of downright falseness. dull, or

any

You need sort of

not put up

with wheezy or

impure vibration, and beware

of

OLD VIOLINS

212

when the

laying the blame on the violin

string

is

the

offender.

Of

course,

the violin

if

the sound-bar or the back or belly of

is loose,

account for a good

or the sound-bar askew, that will

By

deal.

tapping

round the

alli

front and the back, just where these join the ribs, you

can easily discover by a certain jar or rattle whether

and where something

loose

is

;

may

it

be one of the

blocks or linings.

Test the fiddle and you test the strings

and you

You may sometimes the

A or D

may due

may

may

acquit

the strings;

acquit the fiddle.

experience a difficulty in playing

E

string without striking the

be due to your to the curve of

own

clumsiness, but

it

your bridge being too

G

or

may

flat,

;

this

also be

or some-

one or more of the strings having eaten too deeply into the bridge. If

your hand perspire much

—your

strings, especially

—and

your

It is dijQficult to say exactly at

process

it

is

E

hands perspire

string, will rag out.

what stage

in the ragging

advisable to change your string.

strange, but true, that the tone of is

all

not materially impaired.

that such thorough

I

have sometimes fancied

tough and seasoned strings are

even improved in spite of age and infirmity. it is

It is

an old ragged string

Certain

that the smoothest string will go without warning,

and the raggedest

mere

will

sometimes hang on down to a

thread.

Paganini perspired frightfully, so

always carried a dry shirt in his violin

much case,

so that he

and a gentle-

;

VIOLIN man

noticed that

TREATMENT

when he opened

his case to take out

his violin for a public solo, his strings I

213

were in

rags.

have sometimes observed that, oddly enough, a

second or third string

than a

first

;

is less

durable after

it

has ragged

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

softer

and gets soaked and cheesy, and

readily cut through

by the

nails.

and falsely-assumed econo-

Lastly, the amateurish

mical habit of slackening

all

the strings each time the

violin is replaced in its case is a delusion it

is

like cheese is

and a snare

only worries your instrument's nervous system.

Slacken your low, not your strings.

The

violin gets

adjusts itself to

accustomed to the normal it,

strain,

and resents being deprived

and

of its

due tension as much as an athlete would resent his dumb-bells being removed.

The

strings are quite as likely to

constantly fidgeted up and

much

break by being

down, and the violin

action and reaction of a varying strain, than it

is

more likely to get demoralised by the wearing

alone with

all its strings at their

if

accustomed

you

let

pitch.

CHAPTEE XV VIOLIN DEALERS, COLLECTORS, AND

AMATEURS I

HAVE come

to the conclusion, " after long years," that

there are three things about which your averagely

honest

man

has no conscience whatever

horse, the second is an umbrella,

— the

and the

first is

last,

a

but not

least, is a fiddle.

He

will

buy from some needy ignoramus a

worth £100 fiddle

which cost

the caveat emptor of the ancient

multitude of

On

Eomans

covers a

sins.

the other hand, the extreme ignorance of

persons

fiddle

£5 note, if he can. He will sell a him £5 for £100, if he can. Truly,

for a

who have

tions to dealers,

many

violins to sell offers singular tempta-

who

are a class of people constitu-

tionally on the make.

In bygone days, people who did not play the violin

used to be criminally careless about the instruments that happened to be in

might

lie for

years in

their

damp

used cupboards on rusty

possession.

attics, or

nails, or

away

was ultimately stolen 214

in dis-

in the dust of

ages on the top of old beds and cabinets. fiddle

Cremonas

hung up

— borrowed

Even

if

the

and not

re-

;

!

AND AMATEURS

VIOLIN DEALERS turned it

"

—

it

was thought hardly worth a

all to pieces " or "

was

indeed, I have before

now

215

serious inquiry

only an old fiddle

"

and,

;

seen such with the belly off

converted into serviceable dustpans. Credulity has succeeded to ignorance, and

now any

one who has any sort of shabby-looking fiddle fancies he has got a rare Cremona

He

will advertise it unblushingly in the

papers, bring

it

make

gravely to supposed judges, and

a favour of even showing

Nothing

halfpenny

it to

a dealer.

shake the confidence of these simple

will

folk in their spurious

wares; they will bring out a

common brown German

dated Maggini, and you point

out that Maggini never dated his instruments; they

Or they show you a Stainer

suppose you to be envious.

rashly dated fifty years after that maker's death (such

an one was lately brought that you

wonder

to me),

with a label so recent

at the brazen fraud.

and tolerably deceptive French copies

name

is legion,

and

versant with fiddles

for a

moment

may

As

to the

good

of Strad,

their

a person fairly con-

be deceived by such a subtle

and withal honest copyist as Lupot, but the experienced dealer the varnish

is

to the eye of

The

quite enough.

varnish that chips off instead of rubbing away, thus leaving the raw

wood more exposed than permeated,

is

not Cremona varnish.

Of course

as to the

nothing to say.

new

No one

labels in

modern type

I

have

but a complete fool in fiddles

could be taken in by them. Still,

when

all

gross cases are put aside, there

is

an

OLD VIOLINS

216

when

excusable margin left for honest error, especially personal interest I

Mr

have very Cox, well

on the side of

is

doubt that

little

known

error.

my

old friend, the late

as an acute picture dealer, really

Eed

believed in a certain violin which he called the

He

Knight,

bought

tiddles as a rare I

it

at the great sale of Gillott's

Joseph G-uarnerius.

would never

the old

tell

man

to his face that his

Joseph was a very plausible red Landolpho copy of Joseph, and I was even weak enough to allow

to lie

it

on the table of the Eoyal Institution side by side with the "Dolphin," Enthoven's Maggini, the Emperor of Eussia's Strad, a genuine Nicolas, a Joseph

Stainer

and a Jacob

Eed Knight lay by favour for one company with some twenty gems of world-

in short, the

;

evening in

wide reputation. In the course of I

my

lecture, to please

my

old friend,

took up the Eed Knight, remarking, "Here

fine violin labelled

Mr

perty of

is

a

Joseph Guarnerius, once the pro-

Gillott,

now owned by Mr

Cox."

I said

no more.

A

few weeks afterwards the Eed Knight was sold for

£300, partly on the strength of it

my

having vouched for

at the Eoyal Institution.

Meanwhile the Jupiter Hill,

of judges,

William Ebsworth

had been consulted by the purchaser, who, on

finding that he had only

wanted

his

money

I think they

got

hold

would have gone

have counted on

of

a Landolpho,

back.

me

to

law

as a witness; but

if

they could

when

I

was

AND AMATEURS

VIOLIN DEALERS

threatened with a subpceiia, tainly go into the

deny that

I

Eed Knight

box, but

or expressed

should have

cer-

utterly to

any opinion whatever about

was a good fiddle '

it

would

replied, " I

for the genuineness of the

had vouched

except that

it

I

217

labelled Guarnerius,'

worth perhaps £60 but not £300."

The upshot was that I was not subpoenaed. Mr Cox refunded the money and the buyer restored the fiddle.

No

one doubts but what

celebrity, did obtain, chiefly "

Never Too Late

fine fiddles,

am

but I

Mend "

Gillott, of

steel-pen

through Charles Reade of fame, a great

afraid that

Mr

C.

many very

Reade was

also

like the

Red

some comparative rubbish

responsible for

Knight.

to

Mr

Certainly I find a very dubious Strad tenor

(one of Gillott's) labelled 140 in the South Kensington collection. if

I

all

As

grant him

to this particular collector's specimen,

his belly

that I can do

— for

and his sound-holes,

it is

about

Strad never threw that scroll

nor touched with plane or chisel that back and

ribs.

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

given time

is

will

you

worth what

?

it

After

all,

a fiddle at

any

will fetch.

The most impudent fraud or the most blatant come under my notice was

delusion which has ever

the so-called Maggini exhibited by

Mr

(110, South Kensington Exhibition, 1872).

J.

W. Joyce

— !

OLD VIOLINS

218 It

was made by Bernhardt Fendt, and

the Pall Mall Gazette of the period the names of

chief owners

its

neither was the

;

but

it

Amati tenor (No.

I gave in

history and

its

was not removed,

147), labelled

hung

as Maggini, ever re-labelled, nor

fiddle

which bore a Stainer label ever corrected.

The only fraud which after lection of

my

up by

Mr

J.

W. Joyce

attack on the South Kensington col-

1872 disappeared.

The poor

thing,

which brazened

made

succeeded in dislodging was a

I

—also sent

spurious Bergonzi

and

was a Klotz

it

a scapegoat

no worse than the Bernhardt Fendt out like a false claimant, was merely of.

These be among the humours of your loan collections

But we must be sure to be made,

but

that the fiddle world fiddle exhibitions

indulgent.

is

all

it

is

Some mistakes

only

fair

are

remember

to

vastly indebted to these grand

the same.

The exhibition

1885 at South Kensington was not one whit

less

of

impor-

tant than the 1872 show.

The 1885 specimens were more than those of 1872. largely controlled

by

discreetly selected

They had the advantage

Mr

of being

Hill.

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.

Duke and Walmsley, and a yellow man quite noticeable for the cut of are always full of character.

fiddle

A

good

by Tobin, a

his scrolls,

which

!

AND AMATEURS

VIOLIN DEALERS

219

There waa an interesting John Lott, richly varnished.

A romantic

interest must always attach itself to this maker on account of his early Bohemian life, recorded by Charles Reade in a memoir called "Jack fine

of All Trades."

Charles Reade,

how

who knew Lott

intimately, tells us

at one time he travelled through

Europe with a

menagerie and became famous as the keeper of a most clever but vicious elephant

many men, had

killing ever so

called Djek, who, after to be demolished herself

with a cannon, and was then cut up for elephant steaks to feed the town. It

was only

came again

after the loss of

London and took up the

to

which he had learned Joseph

Djek that John Lott

Hill,

Lockey

Hill,

and Banks, were

matchless Urquhart, very venerable fire of

1732 Strad (now Ysaye's life,

—Anno

1666

—the

London, which happily spared

The Stradivarius case contained so late in his

also well

There was also a

seen at South Kensington in 1885.

date of the great

fiddle trade,

in boyhood.

violin),

it

Mr Hill's interesting

which, although

was signed by the old man, who

made after

1730, as a rule, had left off signing his instruments.

A

truly serio-comic chapter might be written on the

huge prices given

for frauds.

£200 forty years ago

for a

only a Lupot) at a time for the clever

A

A

friend of

mine gave

supposed Strad (which was

when £40 was a long

price

Frenchman.

know sold a very poor Strad but made a very good thing out of it.

violin professor I

the other day,

a

"

OLD VIOLINS

220

When and

the lady showed

said that

me,

it

took a liberal view,

I

£300 would have been a long

price.

Her countenance fell. " Good gracious I gave £600 "Keep it long enough, and anything by Strad

will

but probably not," I added, " in your

life-

!

!

fetch that

;

time or mine."

On

This was some years ago.

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 Eaphaels, Eubens,

Eembrandts, or Tintorets

and

fiddles are

;

but amateurs of pictures

mostly wrecked on school-pictures and

school-fiddles, often getting fair

money's worth, but not

what thej pay for. Betts purchased one of the finest Stradivari in the

world for 208.

When John Lott opened it in Vuillaume's

presence, he found the original bass-bar.

Charles Eeade

tells

us

—was

The bar

—so

low and short, and quite

incapable of bearing the strain of concert pitch, and

John Lott replaced it with one Strad was sold to George Hart heavy price

Mr John

fifty

Oxford Street

—

for a sovereign or

and

'cello.

The destiny

into his

shop and

round sum.

This was

came

fine Forster 'cello for a

the Oxford Street

two.

his ear as he passed three street-

violin, cornet,

Lindley, the great player,

bought a

The Betts

800 guineas

years ago.

The timbre caught

—

for

Hart, father of George Hart, picked up a

violoncello in

musicians

stronger.

'cello.

of violins has ever been one full of

ups

;

AND AMATEURS

VIOLIN DEALERS and downs, and,

they have been

beings,

kidnapped, as in the case of Spohr's, which

literally

was

human

like

221

lifted

from behind his travelling carriage; ship-

wrecked, like the Peter

and

Paul, vide

page

murdered by those Vandals who patch stray

96

bits

of

slaughtered Cremonas into modern fabrics, and sold for slaves, as in

last century,

be scraped in dim

to

churches or ancient orchestras, until found out to be royalties in disguise

by the Chanots and Vuillaumes

of

the nineteenth century.

One would suppose

that the stealing of a first-class

instrument would be next to impossible.

mark now

fiddle of

exists

which

not

is

Hardly a

known

to

one or

other of the great dealers in Paris, London, or Berlin

and whenever before

some

it

them again

of the

changes hands,

it is

and

for inspection

likely to

verification.

;

come Yet

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.

Many

years ago I left a Vuillaume, labelled Albani,

in a railway carriage

ment.

minutes

I

when

was not gone

my

I got out to take refresh-

five

minutes, but in that

five

Vuillaume had gone.

After the death of a well-known nobleman, a certain so-called Strad in

an elaborate

bows, was submitted

to

Mr

case,

with finely-mounted

Hill for

was nothing but a common German Hill told

me he had no doubt

inspection.

It

but

Mr

fiddle;

that the original occu-

— OLD VIOLINS

222

pant of the noble case had been

many such

Nothing could be

servants.

one

easier than to substitute

another in houses

fiddle for

where people do not know one where

—and they are legion from another, and

fiddle

unused and unvisited in

fiddles lie

cupboards, I might almost say from

No

generation.

who

soloist

and

lofts

generation

to

travels should fail to in-

Sarasate had a heavy insurance on

sure his treasure. his violin

Probably

stolen.

have been committed by dishonest

thefts

when he went

to America.

But worse than theft is mutilation. The chances what is stolen, unless it be stolen deliberately to cut up, will some day reappear intact; but the

are that

chances are small that a mutilated instrument will ever collect its disjecta Still,

too

is

memhra.

as in the case of Tarisio's Spanish bass, that

possible, just as the recovery

Farnese statue, before alluded

A

to,

of

was

Hercules

the

possible.

well-known amateur whose Strad had been taken

to pieces for repair

paper, on missing.

and the pieces wrapped

in bits of

unfolding the fragments found

The

loss

two afterwards an old apple-woman picked the gutter, and happened to take

it

to the

Nothing

is

—

to the old

woman

up

it

Vuillaume two

may

if

That Strad

he chooses to attempt

appear,

fiddles,

one

in

!

easier than the perpetration of a

by a clever copyist credible as

2s.

it

very fiddle-

shop charged with the repair of the Strad.

head was worth just

head

the

seemed irreparable, but a day or

it.

fraud In-

Paganini was shown by of

which was his own and

!

VIOLIN DEALERS

AND AMATEURS

223

the other a counterfeit, and was quite unable at the

moment

to decide

which was which.

Chanot's copy of the CarHno or Kerlino 1454

viol,

No. 14, South Kensingion 1872 Exhibition, completely deceived me until I had the opportunity of handling both instruments at leisure.

The Tourte and Dodd

These frauds extend to bows.

bows

in existence that

know not Dodd

or Tourte are

legion.

recommend

I should

valuable

bow

my

in their case

readers never to leave a

when they send

their violins

for repair.

I lost a good

Dodd myself

Fine bows

in that way.

are not safe even in the orchestra anteroom " changed."

It

;

they get

seems so simple to some people, when

a bow, a crush-hat, or an umbrella happens to be lying about, to mistake

behind, especially

for their

it

own and

if

they chance to catch up by mistake

have

A bow

it, 'tis

leave theirs

it is inferior in quality to the

As luck

!

one will

seldom a worse one that gets caught up

friend of in his case,

mine happened

to leave a

and then he sent his

to a smart dealer

who

the case returned,

it

shall be nameless here.

had a bow

and a very good copy,

fine

in

it,

Tourte

fiddle for repairs

but

it

When

was a copy,

In this instance

of a Tourte.

the dealer restored the original under pressure.

In everything connected with a say,

Beware Beware !

!

Further, let

fiddle

me

and a bow

I

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

!

OLD VIOLINS

224

know what

suits you,

purposes

the essential.

is

—

!

is

and that no doubt

You can

for practical

hardly

know what

genuine.

Over and above culture and wide observation and experience, a certain instinct

that have Hill, " his

Why, my

it.

is

required,

friend,

and few are they

"William Ebsworth

if

from whose judgment there was no appeal, got eye out " when only for a few weeks he

certain days, as to

my

was at once the most

knowledge was the case diffident

I will go further than this, violinists

now

of a genui7ie

and absolute

Why, none

what chance have you ?

left off

own judgment on

looking at fiddles, or distrusted his

—

of

he

for

men

at all

and declare that half the

before the public are no more judges fiddle

than

my

A

cook.

man may be man may

a judge without being able to play, and a

At

play divinely and not be a judge.

the same time

Charles Eeade's opinion would have been even more valuable

than

it

was had he

played

himself.

He

paragraphs

never would have written

those foohsh

about modern-made

sounding as well as old

fiddles

Cremonas had he played ence between a

It is all the

himself.

man who

looks at another

dififer-

man on

horseback and one who has got to ride the horse himself

;

the

first

may

not see

much

horses, but the second soon finds

it

difference in

two

out

Playing the fiddle won't make you a judge, but

you I

will be a better

judge

if

you can play the

remember showing Kemenyi a very

which had deceived many.

He

fine

copy

fiddle.

of Strad

walked up and down

DEALERS AND AMATEURS

VIOLIN

225

my it

room playing upon it with delight, and pronounced a genuine Strad beyond a question. It was a Lup6t

for all that.

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

buttons which fasten the inner

little

maker had

blocks, supposing that each

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

maker never made

that one

made one mark

whilst another never

But there

is

Italian violins

which

I

it

his back in

by any If the

pieces,

occasionally found in old

do not remember to have seen

forged or imitated, or indeed even so to

two

otherwise.

much

as alluded

writer.

amateur happens

to

have an instrument with

a little round hole in the back of his fiddle a few

inches below the nut,

filled

almost imperceptible, he

an old

violin,

may

up

skilfully so as to be

be quite sure he has got

probably one of the oldest, as the prac-

tice 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.

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 P

—

!

OLD VIOLINS

226

without the fear of dropping his

Andrew first

I have

fiddle.

an old

G-uarnerius so plugged, and the violinist

me and

pointed this out to

Oury

explained the reason of

the plugged hole Scores have sent

expected

me

to

me

pronounce on the genuineness of them,

own

or are sure that they

cause

my

descriptions of their fiddles, and

a real Strad or Amati, be-

theirs (in their opinion) exactly

description

Strad or Amati

of

not the faintest inkling of true violin

Holmes

Oliver Wendell

me in 1885. He had himself by

"Music and

in

All this shows that the outside public have

Morals."

violin,

corresponds to

so redoubtable a

admirable book

is

quoted with approval even

critic as

The Violin

Oliver Wendell

to

written very charmingly on the

and the passage "

lore.

when he wrote

felt this

Mr

George Hart in his

" (1887).

Holmes had the acuteness

to

see

that all mere picturesque writing was valueless from a technical point of view, and he thus expresses himself to

me

in a letter dated

December

"I never knew until

I read

5,

1885

:

what you say

of

the

instrument what profanation I had been guilty of to touch one,

much more

kind enough to add: fiddle

to write

about

!

it

"

and he was

"You have given a life to the its own music ever gave it

such as nothing but

before " !

—words which, coming

so spontaneously

from

the author of the "Autocrat of the Breakfast-table," I think I pleasure.

may

be allowed to quote with pardonable

AND AMATEURS

VIOLIN DEALERS There

is

a point

interesting

alike

to

227

collectors,

amateurs, dealers, and players, which I feel somewhat

much

strongly about in view of

recent, and, as

and sensibility are con-

It is whether, as far as tone

modern

hear repeatedly stories of

by

Strads and Josephs being played side

modern

good

fiddles are not quite as

We

as the best old ones.

fiddles,

seems

conducted controversy.

to me, ignorantly

cerned, the best

it

with

side

whilst the best judges have failed to

detect the superiority of the old over the new.

fused as the palate.

you

tell

ear

is

but no one argues from this that there

;

The ear

difference.

not only easily confused

is

about the quality, but even about the

Let one fingers

man

on the

right, left,

and above the

and

No

one

is

when

If,

then,

we can be

easily

plied with such tests about the direction

and the distance, no wonder to confuse us

one shall be utterly

a real judge of the distance

from which a sound comes. puzzled

this

head

other's

a few turns where the fingers are

tell after

being snapped.

directioii of sound.

shut his eyes and another snap his

several times running,

unable to

if

and sherry, you

few sips with your eyes shut, be able to

the difference

no

This

as easily con-

It is currently reported that

taste alternately port wine, cream,

will not, after a

is

The

most unsatisfactory.

test is

if

tests expressly designed

about timbre should be equally successful.

But the question

is

practically settled

by

soloists in-

variably preferring a fine old fiddle to a fine

new

one,

not as connoisseurs, but as players, and there must be a reason for

this.

OLD VIOLINS

228

Therefore, I will hear of no talk, even from the lips of a Charles Eeade, 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

—a

power

—

quality, sensibility, volume, timbre

something personal, as

which points

it

were, to the old fiddles,

to certain real qualities in their

which have not since been

rivalled,

and

makers

this is quite

apart from the item of age.

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 of

its

it

through every semitone

compass, and well-made modern

fiddles

doubtless improve every year, like good wine,

They

a certain point.

But

will

up

to

will then probably deteriorate.

the age at which the old

Cremonas are bound

to

deteriorate has happily not yet been reached.

The root

A

of the

matter

lies here.

listener behind the door

may

not

know

the differ-

ence between a Strad or Joseph or some other, but the player does. difference

A spectator in

the Park

may

see

no great

between the pet horse ridden by the lady

and the even more handsome quadruped upon which her groom follows his horse,

;

but she knows.

So the hunter knows

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. This

is

what your Strad

fiddle does.

I

— VIOLIN DEALERS All violinists will force about a Strad

you that there

tell

you

;

AND AMATEURS

a reserve of

is

can " pull out,"

229

and you

will

never be disappointed. All lovers of

Amati

will tell

you that they

find in

Nicolo a trembling sighing sensitiveness, a tenderness,

and a tone

which

delicate to the point of vanishing,

endears Amati to the women, and

still

leaves his finest

instruments unapproachable for cabinet-playing.

And

all

players will

tell

you that

for

domination

and downright big-battalion power, Joseph Guarnerius del Gesii has not his equal.

And

the reason for this real, not fancied, supremacy

of the great

makers and their best pupils

The reason

when

all

is

complex, no doubt

— so

?

complex

that,

precautions have been taken to imitate wood,

proportions, varnish, workmanship, so as thoroughly to

deceive the eye, the modern chef-d'oeuvre

puzzled auditors,

still

is,

in, spite of

not identical in quality with the

Cremona gems. I was called the other day to judge a set of English bells, cast with the same proportions of tin and copper, old

of exactly the

same

size,

of Belgian bells cast

the sound

weight, and model as a suite

by Severin Van Aerschodt; but

?

Ye gods

!

No

silver

clang and

tin-kettle

parody

could be further apart than were those English and

Belgian

But

bells.

The reasons

to return to our fiddles.

mona supremacy remain

to be tackled.

I hazard the following points

:

of Cre-

OLD VIOLINS

230

Selection of wood.

Is^.

No

doubt the old Lombardian

with their salt-impregnated roots, provided rare

forests,

The vaunted American woods

planks.

fail

technically

Cremona requirements. The knowledge, at first empirical, then

to satisfy the

2nd. tive,

woods this,

intui-

born of a Hfelong study of the relative density of fitted to vibrate

together.

no rule or measurements;

Nothing can teach

for every

plank varies

in porousness, density of fibre, age, and seasoning.

when he expressed a

Charles Eeade was napping

hope that a certain Stradivari back, mated with a new belly,

might some day be united

which he knew but unless

of

;

it

to some Stradivari

happened

back

to be the belly

Strad had selected for that particular back, what reason is

there to suppose that the result would be satisfactory 'ird.

I

am

ful oil-sizing

of opinion that the old

method

and the subsequent application

?

of careof

gum

materially affected the tone.

Think

moment only too much or too

for a

saturation

—

oils, spirit,

gum

of

what

little of

is

implied in the

the

wood

—with

of this or that quality.

Necessarily some vibratory capacities must be affected

—

for better, for

another, of the of

modern

worse

;

;

the

filling in,

one way or

and do not the commonest

admit that the Cremona varnish,

artificers

and the exact mode covered

—by

wood pores

of its application, is as yet undis-

and when they speak otherwise, do they not

laugh in their sleeves

?

Mh. Admit that the proportions are exactly equal, the column of air almost identical in cubic measure.

!

VIOLIN DEALERS about 512 to the second;

AND AMATEURS

remains the vibratory

still

qualities of infinite varieties of grain

loose or serried

—in

wood

231

fibre

—coarse or

close,

acting upon that air

column.

The old makers varied had regard

no doubt,

their models, but,

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 It is

may

at.

be that the secret for the production of these

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 footlights at

We

bth.

less

chisel, his music, his toga

and

your disposal.

have no time for failures

they had.

;

End-

experiment, endless comparison, observation, medi-

tation, unlimited leisure

each part, and

knew

:

man made

one and the same

the interpenetrative qualities and

the mutual adaptation of the sundry parts.

We

now have

subdivision of labour

one of the parts, and some one

How

else

;

each

man makes

puts them together.

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 assort-

ment, and

make sweet harmony

together.

were not fastened together, in view

of

But they

one another,

by one and the same master-mind, who knew what was good

for them,

and what they were good

for

OLD VIOLINS

232

But given the

6th.

ditions

— time,

possibility

favourable con-

of

absorption, infinite experience, and all

the accumulated knowledge of the past

—and

given a

modern Mcolo, Strad, Joseph, or even Bergonzi, and given climate, and given wood galore, and might not

we expect Cremona results ? Why, yes, with Cremona least a

very

saying that

we

Until lately

conditions, certainly, or at

approximation

fair

am

and I

;

are not on the road to

far

from

it.

has not been worth while for makers

it

like the Hills, the

Gauds, or the Chanot firms to do

aught seriously but repair or parody closely for the eye the old fiddles.

But such

with heat and acids, and the

now

being

made

give

indifferent

£10

become rare and

Anyhow, players

to the fore.

up the

fine

£30

to

violins

conscientiously by Messrs Hill, in pro-

portion as old fiddles

come

have not been aged

of Vuillaume's fiddles as

idiotic

folly

old fiddles,

inaccessible, will, it is

must

hoped,

paying large sums for

of

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.

We

write these words in

collectors,

players,

and

would be well worth while get hold of

work.

the

finest

the

interest

artificers

alike

for collectors

attainable

As a mere speculation

it

of

dealers,

—indeed,

it

even now to

specimens of

would be at

new

least as

sound an investment as laying down good vintages of port or sherry.

VIOLIN DEALERS

A

AND AMATEURS

233

good Hill recently made, price £30 or £40,

e.g.

the fine copy of the Tuscan Strad, only requires age to

mellow

it

into a price of three figures.

These new and garit^h-looking instruments, which, after

all,

do not look more gaudy than the Messie

Strad, are exceedingly loud in tone,

and withal very

sensitive.

A certain

tartness of timbre merely calls aloud for

another ten or twenty years to soften and refine

Cremona

into the

it

tone.

Meanwhile, the aspirants to Cremona excellence are entertainingly numerous.

From time

to time I get

accompanied with samples from people who

letters

claim to have discovered the secret of the Cremona varnish.

Here and there some enterprising maker will get a literary friend to extol him as the successor of Stradiuarius. I

came

across a pamphlet the other day assigning

Cremona rank

to a

worthy musician who makes

en amateur, and a certain

whose

German working

fiddles

in America,

violins present all the usual characteristics of

instruments made in Germany.

I actually got half

through this remarkable document, written au grand serieux,

before I discovered that

liver pill, patent syrup,

and soap

belonged to the

it

class.

Eumours may reach you from America derful Californian wood.

me

that, fine as is the

of the

won-

Well, European experts

marking,

it

tell

does not yield the

required timbre, and that the planks

now coming

over

OLD VIOLINS

234

from the old forests of Herzgovina and Bosnia are far superior for fiddle-making purposes.

Then think by those old

of the care

Italian

in selection made who frequented the

and study

artificers

Brescian and Cremonese markets, and haggled over

They knew exactly where

special bits of timber.

came from

— the

impregnated from whence cut as

what conditions to be

came; whether

it

worked

it

!

The

fact

anxious inquirer,

have

subtleties

may

take

it

now ?

fiddles

fiddles

Bernardel, Gand, and, according to

by

my

you,

for granted is

it

to

came

Who

were endless.

modern

about

Take good new

stated.

and

cut,

had been exposed before

The

up.

had been

it

troubles their heads about such things

No

was

it

should be, in autumn, with the sap out of

it

and exactly how long

it,

it

peculiarities of the soil, iron or salt

what

I

Hill, Chanot,

the time and in-

dividual 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

masterpieces be seen and heard It

may

fifty

have to deal with a sliding

Cremona

for.

&

when we

years proves that

scale.

father bought a rather small

at Puttick

Forty years ago

Andrea Guarnerius

Simpson's for £4, which could not

be picked up under £20. to

the

be rash to attempt a scale of prices,

the experience of the last

my

of

—and paid

1760 can be got for

now

No Cremona from 1660 much less, though many

— AND AMATEURS

VIOLIN DEALERS better

fiddles

can be got for half that

course the rise in Stainer,

the

Strads

on the other hand,

by comparison as he was

not valued as highly

century

to the rarity of real Stainers, the

and Albani, more increased, class

all

;

whilst,

demand

attainable,

easily

and generally

Of

price.

quite phenomenal.

is

is

last

235

has

second

the

owing

for Klotz

somewhat and

third

makers are being hunted up and command good

figures

now, just as a

silver

will

man who

can't get Charles II.

put up with William and Mary, Queen

Anne, and even the early Georges. It

quite

is

safe

to

buy Urquhart, Ford, Banks,

Forster, Furber (Henry, David, or John),

philion

;

but the once popular

"

Duke

"

and Pam-

days are pretty

well over.

Lupot should be always secured, and Vuillaumes that have not been cooked with acids and heat

no collector will go Venetian

far

fiddles,

and especially

akin to Cremona, will be sure to rise the Northern

will

fiddles

than the Southerners

;

and

wrong with Pique. violoncellos, near ;

command

and, as a rule, a

better figure

— Rome and Naples.

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.

The following up-to-date (1898)

scale of prices

be a useful but rough guide to the collector with that burns his pocket

:

may

money

— OLD VIOLINS

236

PRICES [1898] Stradivari

....

Joseph Guarnerius Other Guarnerii Nicolo Amati, and the brothers^ y A ., J ^ Anthony, and Gerome J .

.

.

£2000 to £200 1000 „ 100 300 500

Stainer

200 600 500 60 200 60 100 40 100

C. Bergonzi

....

Maggini Vuillaume Lupot Pique

J. B.

Forster

('cellos)

.

.

.

.

Duke Banks

There are two general

have some exceptions

Never buy a

I.

tion

;

judge

it

II.

If

if

30

40 50 20

,,

50 10 20

„ „

20

5

:

you have any,

if

you have none,

you buy at auction, always go a few pounds

better than the highest bid offered

you win, you III.

,,

„ „ „ „ „

simply at the owner's valua-

by your own knowledge

or that of an expert

30 or. t-^r. or £50 80

rules, which, like all rules, may-

— not many

fiddle

,,

,,

c,^n

by a

dealer,

and

if

will be in luck.

Before sending a valuable violin to be "done

up," select your repairer carefully.

A

not necessarily a fiddle restorer, and

fiddle

may

maker

is

be quite

ignorant of the traditions which should regulate this

branch of the

luthier's art.

IV. Get your violin's pedigree as far as you can in detail,

with names and dates.

Had

this

done, exhibitions would have been spared sion

and

collectors

many

a fraud.

been always

many

a delu-

!

POSTLUDE My task

is

ended.

The shades hover around

of the great

me

—as

melodious dead

still

seem

to

their echoes

" Roll from Pole to Pole,"

and from

And grow

may

Violins

" Soul to soul, and for ever."

for ever

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 Eaphael.

The age It

is

resumes in

may

of discovery

itself

up

to the

moment when

the golden heritage of the past.

we cannot reproduce

imitate, but

thrill of perfection

— that

which we experience the

comes but once.

big with the future

emotion

effigies,

— ever

nor will that

eternal

in contemplating

Cremona masterpieces

handle their pale

of

;

it

We

novelty

and sounding

electrify those

who

uninformed by that secret

magic which only appertains

to absorbing things

done

for the first time.

Hail touch

!

to the

is still felt

mighty dead, whose incommunicable by millions upon millions from genera-

tion to generation

!

OLD VIOLINS

238 Hail

!

to

the

mystic

throughout the arteries

which

still

circulates

ten thousand

orchestral

life,

of

organisms Hail

!

to the

undying names

of those

who

first

im-

prisoned (in order to set free) the passionate longings

and divine aspirations

of

humanity

—in the

Soul of a Ceemona!

Amatus Cremonen. Hie-^/; rofjymi Fil^ac Antoni) Ncpos Fecit ^i '^t/5

|.

;^?^'!1

G"

'i^^'

^o daSalo InBrefc/a, ,

Andreas Giiarnertusfecit'Cremonap/ijJrl

C

A mjo

.2-^o* •"Si

1

7

ft*