Violins and Violin Makers Part 8

RAUCH, ---- Breslau.

RAUCH, ---- Wurtzburg.

Otto praises the instruments of the two brothers of Breslau and Wurtzburg. He says they are excellent violins but have a shape and model peculiar to themselves and entirely different to the Italian or Steiners, but possess when uninjured a full, round and powerful tone.

If Otto had told us what instruments were like instead of what they were not like, his book would have been more valuable.

RAUT, JEAN, Bretagne. He was at Rennes till 1790. Made good instruments after the Guarnerius school.

RAYMAN, JACOB, London, 1641. The instruments of this maker were very highly valued formerly. He is considered one of our best old English artistes.

REICHEL, JOHANN GOTTFRIED, Absom. An imitator of Steiner.

REICHEL, JOHANN CONRAD, Neukirch, 1779.

REISS, ---- Bamburg. A capital imitator of Steiner, and made excellent instruments.

REMY, ---- Paris.

RENISTO, ---- Cremona, 1740, pupil of Carlo Bergonzi. His instruments are very similar to those of his master, but rather higher modelled, and the workmanship somewhat rougher.

RETANTINO, ---- No particulars of this maker.

RIMBOUTS, PETER, Amsterdam.

ROOK, JOSEPH, London, 1777 to 1852. A good workman, who imitated Forster.

ROSS, JOHN, 1562. An early maker of lutes.

ROTH, CHRISTIAN, Augsburg, 1675.

ROVELIN, ---- 18th Century.

RUDGER, ---- Cremona--not one of the Ruggeri Family. Made some good instruments of the high build, and deep sides, and used fine varnish.

RUGGERI, FRANCISCO, Cremona, 1640 to 1684. This celebrated maker is considered to have been a pupil of Antonius Amati, and made many excellent instruments which bear a high reputation. They rank next to the Amati. Their quality is similar, and the style of work is easily seen to belong to the same cla.s.s. There are a few violins by this maker of the same pattern as the Grand Amatis, which are said to surpa.s.s the latter, having more wood in them, which was detrimental when they were made, but which age has mellowed, and they now possess a strong and free vibration. Many of the Ruggeris have varnish little inferior to that of Stradiuarius and Guarnerius. This artiste ranks highest in the family in the estimation of the connoisseur. His work is extremely clean. The next is Giovanni Baptista, rather higher built and sound holes rather broader. The scrolls are larger than those of Amati but of the same type, There are many splendid violoncellos of these makers and a few tenors. Some of the former are very large. Francisco Ruggeri is mentioned by Spohr in his list of instruments to be sought for in the absence of the three great makers, Nicholas Amati, Antonio Stradiuarius and Joseph Guarnerius.

RUGGERI, GUIDO, Cremona, 1679.

RUGGERI, GIOVANNI BAPTISTA, son of Francisco. Brescia, 1690. Mentioned above.

RUGGERI, PIETRO GIACOMO. Brescia 1700 to 1720. The celebrated violoncellist Piatti plays on an instrument by this maker, and the tone is uncommonly fine and sonorous as all who have heard him know.

RUGGERI, VINCENZIO, Cremona, 1700 to 1730.

RUPPERT, FRANCIS, Erfruth, made some excellent instruments of a very flat model, but generally omitted the linings and corner blocks as well us the purfling. They are nevertheless esteemed in Germany. They have a dark brown amber varnish.

S.

SAINT, PAUL. Paris, about 1650. An excellent French maker.

SALO, GASPAR DI, Brescia, dates from 1560 to 1610. This celebrated artiste was the contemporary of the ancient Amatis, and is thought by some connoisseurs to have been the master of Andrew. However that may be, as there can be no certainty of the fact, the varnish on which the great Cremonese makers established that notable reputation which distinguishes them to the present day, bears a strong a.n.a.logy to that of Gaspar di Salo, however they may have derived it. In this respect, also, Gaspar excels Maggini, his pupil and follower, who was evidently not initiated into the secret of making that excellent varnish which characterises his master.

The pattern of the instruments which the two early and famous chiefs of the Cremonese and Brescian Schools built, is however totally different.

Those of Gaspar are large, ma.s.sive, double purfled, and with large sound holes. Andrew is noted for a small pattern, and if he studied in the Brescian workshop, he discarded the style he found there (varnish excepted) and aimed at altogether a different object in his own productions. Those of Gaspar di Salo are constructed with capacity and strength to produce a considerable volume of tone. The Cremonese Artiste on the other hand, made instruments which, both in their proportions and adjustment, were especially adapted for the production of a sweet but not powerful tone. Gaspar's instruments seem to foreshadow in their tone and power, those of Stradiuarius and Joseph Guarnerius, while the Amatis seem generally to have been contented with producing a tone of surpa.s.sing sweetness. Gaspar also succeeded in giving to his productions that fine tone which seems to have been especially aimed at by the early makers, but as he also from the size and strength of his instruments, produced more tone, he may be considered far the superior of Andrew, the first of the Amatis. It is on this account that in the present day, Gaspar di Salo is esteemed as the greatest maker of his time, and connoisseurs value his instruments accordingly.

There are not many violins by this great master, but of tenors and double ba.s.ses more. These are very fine and rich in tone. He was not however famous for giving so very high a finish to his works as was afterwards attained at Cremona. His violins are described as rather long, and with a gentle elevation from the sides to the centre. The sound holes straight and large, well cut and parallel, and double purfling. The varnish is generally of a rich brown. These are the chief external characteristics, but they have always possessed that "which pa.s.seth show," and commanded the esteem of the dilettanti in that rich quality of tone which is the first essential in a perfect instrument.

Signor Dragonetti, the greatest double ba.s.s player of our day, used one of Gaspar's instruments, which was presented to him on account of their admiration of his wonderful talent, by the order of the Convent of St.

Mark at Venice. Shortly before his death the Duke of Leinster offered him 700 for it, a princely sum, but it was refused, as Dragonetti did not feel justified in parting with it, and he ordered in his will that it should be returned to the convent at Venice, which was accordingly done. Ole Bull has a very celebrated violin of Gaspar's make. In the first place, it was sculptured with Caryatides, by the great Florentine artist, Benvenuto Cellini, at the special command of another eminent person, Cardinal Aldobrandini, who presented it to the museum of Inspruck in the Tyrol. In 1809 that city was a.s.saulted by the French, the museum was plundered, and this violin carried to Vienna, where it became the property of another notable person, the Councillor Rehazek, who was famous for his collection of ancient musical instruments. He left it by will to another still more celebrated person, Ole Bull, the distinguished Norwegian violinist, by whom it was exhibited in London in 1862, and with whom it still remains. To our description of Gaspar's instruments we should add that his tenors and double ba.s.ses are of a rather broader form than his violins.

SALLE, ---- Paris, 1800. This artiste was an excellent workman, and famous also as a judge of old instruments.

SANONI, GIOVANNI BAPTISTA, Verona.

SANTI, GIOVANNI, Naples, 1730.

SANCTUS SERAPHINO, Venezia, about 1730. An excellent workman, whose instruments possess almost the beautiful finish of Stradiuarius. He used handsome wood of small figure, and his varnish is often beautiful in the extreme. The model however approaches that of the Steiner school, and the tone is therefore generally wanting in fullness and roundness. He made also a few violoncellos with similar characteristics.

SAPINO, ---- Cremona. Pupil of Guiseppe Cappa, made instruments after the style of the Amati.

SANZO SANTINO, ---- Milan.

SAUNIER, ---- born in Lorraine 1740. An excellent artiste whose instruments are reckoned among the best of the French school.

SCHEINLEIN, MATTHIAS FREDERICK, Langenfeld, born 1710, died 1771.

SCHEINLEIN, JEAN MICHAEL, Langenfeld, born 1751. Made instruments which are said to be good but not strongly built.

SCHMIDT, ---- Ca.s.sel, mentioned by Otto as living in 1817, and praised by him as an excellent maker. His instruments are of the flat model of Stradiuarius but have the edges larger and the purfling further from the sides.

SCHONGER, FRANCIS, Erfurth, made high modelled instruments, but of poor tone.

SCHONGER, GEORGE, Erfurth, son of the above, modelled his instruments in the Italian style and produced some very superior examples.

SCHORN, JACOB, Salzbourg.

SCHORN, JOHANN, Inspruck, 1688.

SCHOTT, MARTIN, Prague.

SHAW, ---- London, 1656.

SIMPSON, JOHN, London, 1790.

SIMPSON, J. and J., son of the above.

SIMON, ---- Salzbourg, 1722.