Part 1

The Salabue Stradivari.

_A History and Critical Description_

OF

THE FAMOUS VIOLIN

COMMONLY CALLED

“LE MESSIE.”

Containing many particulars obtained from authentic sources and now published for the first time.

_Illustrated with Three Coloured Plates by_ MR. SHIRLEY SLOCOMBE.

W. E. HILL & SONS, 38, NEW BOND STREET, LONDON, W.

NOVELLO, EWER & CO., LONDON AND NEW YORK.

1891.

_All Rights Reserved._

PRINTED BY NOVELLO, EWER & CO., LONDON, W.

PREFATORY NOTE.

THIS monograph forms the second number of a series which opened with the pamphlet on the Tuscan Stradivari, published nearly two years ago, when that remarkable violin was in our possession.

Our purpose in these publications is to furnish descriptive notices of some of the masterpieces of violin making, with critical analyses of their characteristic features and authentic particulars of their history. In pursuance of this object we have spared no pains in seeking original sources of information, and in carefully sifting evidence; and, by these means, we hope to succeed in correcting many of the loose ideas current with regard to the works of Stradivari and the other great makers, and in establishing trustworthy data for the guidance of the present and future generations of devotees of the violin.

In the preparation of the materials for the present memoir, we have been greatly indebted to our friend Signor Federico Sacchi, of Cremona, for his indefatigable researches at the fountain-head of information on the subject of Stradivari and his native town; and we desire to take this opportunity of acknowledging the great value of his assistance in throwing light upon many points previously obscure.

Our observations upon the general characteristics of the instrument, and the comparative analysis of its distinctive features, are based upon a professional experience of more than fifty years, engrafted upon family traditions in the craft dating from the middle of the last century. Our own views are supplemented by the published testimony of several authorities whose opinions cannot fail to command respect wherever the name of Stradivari is known.

Finally we would express our obligations to Mr. Robert Harrison for the time and thought which he has devoted to the collation of materials for the memoir, and to his congenial task of editing the whole work.

W. E. HILL & SONS.

NEW BOND STREET,

_March, 1891_.

The block on the cover represents the Arms of the town of Cremona.

_TO A STRADIVARI VIOLIN._

O precious treasury of sounds exquisite, The music of all time within thee sings! Old melodies, and quaint strange whisperings Of bye-gone songs that linger and invite. Earth’s cry of pain, heaven’s anthems of delight. The hopes and fears of love’s imaginings, All found a voice upon thy thrilling strings! Thou singest still, with changes infinite, The heights and depths of this strange human life With all its sorrows or its ecstasies, Its thoughts unuttered, its most voiceless cries; One pure tone rising always through the strife Intense, heart-searching. Sorrow in such setting Is a sweet dream and a more sweet forgetting.

F. S.

_THE SALABUE STRADIVARI._

THE Exhibition of Ancient Musical Instruments, held at the South Kensington Museum in 1872, comprised a Collection of Violins such as had never before been brought together, and afforded to the musical amateur an unprecedented opportunity of studying the beauties of some of the most precious instruments in Europe. Of these, perhaps none excited so much interest among connoisseurs as a Violin by Stradivari, lent by M^{sr}. Vuillaume, the celebrated Parisian maker and dealer, and thus described by him in the official Catalogue of the Exhibition.[1]

91. Violin. By A. Stradivarius, 1716. “_Le Messie._”

“Cet instrument a été à peine joué. Il fut acheté vers 1760 par le Comte Cozio de Salabue, grand seigneur et dilettante, qui l’a toujours respecté et conservé jusqu’à sa mort. Ses héritiers l’ont vendu à Luigi Tarisio, connoisseur et fanatique d’instruments, qui l’a conservé sans le laisser voir à personne jusqu’à 1854. A l’epoque de sa mort il était recommendé à ses héritiers, et caché soigneusement dans la Ferme de la Croix, à côté du Village de Fontaneto, près de Novara (Italie). C’est là que son propriétaire actuel est allé le chercher dans le mois de Janvier, 1855. Le bois dont il est fait est rémarquable par la richesse de ses ondes. La perfection du travail, la beauté du vernis, rien ne lui manque. C’est un violon qui semble sortir de la main du maître. C’est enfin le seul, l’unique instrument de Stradivarius, qui soit parvenu jusqu’à nous, en cet état de parfaite conservation; or, ce monument intact de l’ancienne lutherie, cet instrument que l’archet n’à pas fait resonner dans l’espace de plus d’un siècle et demi, qui s’est ecoulé depuis l’epoque de sa fabrication, cet instrument vient donner un éclatant dementi à cette opinion d’après laquelle le son ne pourrait se produire libre et pur qu’après un long usage, parcequ’ici dans un instrument neuf on trouve toutes les qualités réunies—force, moelleux, rondeur, finesse, vibration facile, ton distingué, noble, incisif.”

Lent by M. VUILLAUME, PARIS.

The title at the head of the enthusiastic description above quoted sufficed in itself to excite the great interest exhibited by the musical public in this celebrated instrument. They saw for the first time a violin, long known to them by repute, which, partly by design and partly by accident, had been surrounded with a certain halo of romantic mystery, ever since its existence had first been asserted, and long before the instrument itself had been actually inspected by any of the recognised experts of England or France. As will be seen later, the title was conferred upon it in connection with its long deferred production to the musical world.

The extraordinary industry of the great master Antonio Stradivari is well known. Notwithstanding the minute care and precision which characterised his work, he may safely be credited with the construction of not less than two thousand instruments during his long and active life. We have evidence that he remained at his bench to the very end of his days, for in a document to which further reference is made below we find mention of a perfect instrument bearing date 1736, with his age, inscribed with his own hand upon the label as ninety-two.[2]

The instruments made by Stradivari were for the most part distributed throughout the Courts and noble houses of Europe. We have records of several concertos of instruments made by him upon the commission of the Courts of Spain, Modena, Tuscany, Poland, and others, from the time when he began to acquire a European reputation. Among these was the great concerto presented by the Cremonese Nobleman, the Marchese Bartolommeo Ariberti, to the Court of Tuscany, and containing that marvellous instrument which, after being long hidden from the world, came to light in recent times and excited so much admiration two years ago, when it was first exhibited in this country. There were, however, undoubtedly many fine specimens of his work remaining in their maker’s hands at the time of his death, and these passed into the possession of his family. Fortunately, from a manuscript which remained in the possession of an enthusiastic Cremonese chronicler, Vincenzo Lancetti, we learn the fate of some of the instruments inherited by the great maker’s sons. Lancetti was an active man of letters, and the author of important biographical works, including “Cremonese Worthies,” “A Dictionary of Pseudonyms,” “A Dictionary of the Poets Laureate of every Nation,” and numerous other books, published between 1796 and 1830, when he was in Milan as Director of the Archives of the War Office. In 1823, having in contemplation a biographical memoir of the violin makers of his native town, he enlisted the assistance of the wealthy amateur and great connoisseur, Count Alessandro Cozio di Salabue, of Casale Monferrato (Piedmont.) The work unhappily was never completed, but Count Salabue’s original sketch for the memoir (in the hand of his amanuensis, here partly reproduced in fac-simile) affords us some valuable information on the subject. From this memorandum, dated “Milan, January, 1823,” we learn that, in addition to the large number of Stradivari’s violins scattered throughout Europe, ninety-one were in his possession at the time of his death. In 1775 ten of these instruments were still in the hands of his son Paolo, the youngest child of his second marriage, who sold them in that year, together with two choice instruments by Francesco Stradivari (the second son), and all the forms, models, and tools left by their father, to the Count Salabue, whose collection has become so famous in the annals of the Cremona School.

The name of this amateur must ever be held in grateful remembrance for his loving care of the Italian masterpieces. It is to such men that we owe the preservation of nearly all the finest existing instruments of the 17th and 18th centuries. Endowed with great wealth and rare judgment, he formed an unrivalled representative collection of the works of the great masters of the craft, and by his careful researches amassed an amount of information which might well have served as an invaluable tradition of an apparently vanishing art. To such a man the acquisition of ten undoubted specimens of the incomparable Stradivari must have been one of the greatest events of his life.

The Count’s memorandum informs us that his purchase included two masterpieces of the great maker; one of large size, with a label bearing date 1716, and another of medium size, dated 1736, and bearing on the label the inscription “d’anni 92,” in Stradivari’s own hand; both quite new and untouched, and rare models for a good maker. The former instrument, with which we are now concerned, is described in the memorandum as of exquisite workmanship, and perfect quality of wood, with a tone of great evenness and power.

This remarkable violin, received at first hand from the very workshop of its great maker, remained carefully preserved in the Count Salabue’s collection at Milan, until after his death. It is a noteworthy instance of the fascination exercised by a perfect violin, that no one of the successive owners of this splendid instrument, from Stradivari himself downwards, would part with it until called away by death. After the death of the Count, his heirs in 1827 sold the Stradivari of 1716 to a man whose career merits a passing notice, on account of the important part he played in rescuing innumerable works of the greatest violin makers from obscurity and, perhaps, destruction.

TRANSLATION.

“So large was the number of (instruments and) especially violins, made by Stradivari that, in addition to those distributed over the whole of Europe, ninety-one were left by him at his death. In 1775 ten of these still remained in the hands of his son, Paolo, and were then bought, together with two masterpieces of his other son, Francesco, by Count Cozio. In the collection of the Count Cozio—so often cited—are two of the greatest masterpieces of the most famous Antonio Stradivari. The one, of larger size—of most beautiful workmanship and wood—of perfect quality—having a very powerful and even tone—bears on the label the date 1716. The other has on the label the date 1736, and, written below by Stradivari himself, the inscription “92 years old.” This violin, though of medium size, nearly equals the earlier instrument in perfection and power of tone. Both are quite new and intact and well suited to serve as choice models for a good instrument maker.”

Luigi Tarisio was a man of humble birth, and followed the calling of a carpenter in the small village of Fontaneto, near Novara, in Piedmont, where also the celebrated Viotti was born. Taking up fiddle playing as an amusement, Tarisio was led by degrees to devote his attention to the subtle beauties of the great instruments of his country, the pursuit of which became the absorbing passion of his life. So strong was its influence that he left his trade and home to wander about the country in search of violins. The experience thus acquired soon taught him to appreciate the merits of the great creations of Brescia, Cremona, and the other homes of violin making in Italy, and the commercial instinct, which formed so marked an element of his character, convinced him that the increasing demand for these instruments might be turned to profitable account.

It must be remembered that in those days the works of the leading Italian makers had in great part remained in their native country, and in their original condition; but they were not, as is popularly supposed, to be found in the hands of peasants in out-of-the-way villages.

Tarisio could hardly fail to become aware of the treasures amassed by Count Cozio di Salabue, whose estate was near to his own native province, and he availed himself of the opportunity afforded by the death of that great enthusiast, and the partial dispersion of his collections, to gain possession of some of the gems, which he had probably long coveted. How much of the Count’s collection came into the hands of Tarisio is not recorded, but evidence is forthcoming that the perfect Stradivari of 1716 became the property of the humble Italian carpenter in 1827. When he had accumulated a stock of instruments which he believed would command a market in any of the European capitals, he determined to try his fortunes in Paris. He reached that city for the first time in 1827, travelling, it is said, on foot, in order to save his purse. Although furnished in the first instance with the less rare specimens of his collection he soon found a ready demand for the goods of which he had then almost a monopoly, and, encouraged by the leading dealers of Paris, he soon established a regular trade with that city, making periodical visits thither, separated by intervals which he devoted to collecting in his own country; and, on each occasion, astounding his foreign friends by some fresh evidence of his judgment and good fortune in securing the masterpieces of Cremona and Brescia. Early in the course of his relations with the Parisian dealers, he began to talk of the wonderful Stradivari which he had obtained from the Salabue collection; but he was careful never to bring it with him to France, relying on reiteration of its wondrous qualities to create a sufficiently acute curiosity among his customers. So long was this mystery maintained that Tarisio and his Salabue became a byeword among the dealers of Paris, and gave rise to the name by which the violin has ever since been known. On one occasion Tarisio was enlarging upon his favourite theme to Vuillaume, when Alard, the violinist, who was present, exclaimed: “Ah ça, votre violon est donc comme le Messie; on l’attend toujours, et il ne parait jamais.” The violin, as Vidal says, “was baptised!” Tarisio, however, could never be persuaded to produce “le Messie,” and at his death, in October, 1854, the world had still only the tradition of its excellence. The celebrated author, Mr. Charles Reade, who was himself a great enthusiast and no mean connoisseur, and in his earlier days an importer of Italian instruments, refers, in some notes on this violin, to Tarisio’s reluctance to produce it.

The man’s death was in keeping with his life. The possessor of priceless specimens of the instruments he loved, he lived in penury, and was found dead in his garret in Milan, surrounded by fiddles, large, small, perfect, and imperfect, piled up on the floor in cases, hung upon the walls, and even from the rafters of the miserable attic that he made his home.[3]

Many characteristic anecdotes are related of this strange man which cannot find a place in our brief notice, and for which the curious reader is referred to the notes of Mr. Charles Reade, given in “Readiana,” and to other works.

Mr. Reade says of him, writing from personal knowledge, “The man’s whole soul was in fiddles. He was a great dealer, but a greater amateur, for he had gems by him no money would buy from him.”

Relatives were soon found to claim the effects of the deceased collector; and three months afterwards the news of his death reached Paris, where it created no small flutter among the dealers and amateurs, who were well aware that the shabby Italian must have left a magnificent collection of instruments. The most eminent of all that Paris community, J. B. Vuillaume, lost no time in placing himself in communication with Tarisio’s heirs, with a view to the acquisition of his treasures, and started for Italy on the 8th January, 1855. There, at the small farm De la Croix, near Fontaneto, which had belonged to Tarisio, he found the relatives assembled with every appearance of the most sordid poverty. His first question was, “Where are the instruments?” “At Milan,” was the answer; “but six violins are here,” and there in a corner of the room were six cases. Vuillaume was not slow to inspect their contents, kneeling upon the floor, on which they were piled in default of furniture, and one after the other he drew forth five splendid instruments—first a magnificent Stradivari, then a beautiful Giuseppe Guarnieri; next a Carlo Bergonzi, in perfect preservation, and two almost untouched Guadagnini, and lastly the gem of the collection, the long talked of “new” Stradivari of 1716—Le Messie. Vuillaume’s experienced eye at once recognised the justification of all Tarisio’s raptures over this instrument, and, determined by what he had already seen, he entered into negotiations which resulted in the purchase of the whole of the collection. The purchase was completed at a price which has been stated at £3,166, an amount which Vuillaume probably more than realised without parting with the most precious treasure of them all. This he kept as the apple of his eye for twenty years, and before pursuing its fortunes farther, we may glance in passing at the life of the man who is entitled to share with Count Cozio di Salabue, and Tarisio, the chief credit of having rescued and preserved one of the greatest masterpieces that have issued from Cremona.

Jean Baptiste Vuillaume was born in 1798 at Mirecourt, where his father and grandfather before him had followed the calling of violin makers, and where he served his apprenticeship to the craft. At nineteen years of age he made his way to Paris, where he obtained an engagement as workman with the elder Chanot (Francis), with whom he remained until 1821, when he entered the service of an organ builder named Lété, who also dealt in violins, and with whom he was taken into partnership in 1825. In 1828, happily married, and fortified with considerable experience, grafted on a strong natural intelligence, he launched himself on a career which made his name famous in the annals of violin making. Sprung from an industrious and thrifty working class, he had lost no opportunity of perfecting his knowledge of the instrument to which he devoted his talents and the application of his whole life. Of all the great Italian masters of violin-making Stradivari was always his ideal, and by constant study, and cultivation of his own rare natural powers of observation, he acquired such an intimate knowledge and judgment of Stradivari’s work in every detail, that he might almost be said to be better acquainted with that maker’s instruments than the master himself. Vuillaume soon found the sale of violins, issued as new works, without any semblance of antiquity, an unprofitable undertaking, and, recognizing the growing demand in all parts of the world for instruments resembling the great works of Cremona, he determined to apply his great skill as a workman, and his extraordinary familiarity with Stradivari’s models, to the construction of faithful copies of that great maker’s works. This was the foundation of his success, for the modern copies found a ready sale, and orders poured in upon Vuillaume from all parts of the world. These instruments, imitations though they were, had high intrinsic merit; and it is to be remembered that they were copies made from unrivalled models, with a fidelity and care such as only a devoted worshipper and a great master of his art could attain. He spared no pains in striving after perfection in the quality of his materials, and he treated the obscure and difficult problem of varnish (the secret of which, as applied by the old Italian masters, seems to have died with them) with a success which has probably not been equalled by any other maker since their time. The number of these instruments bearing his name is enormous, upwards of two thousand five hundred being known to exist; and many of them he made throughout with his own hand. They were almost always numbered inside, in the middle of the back, in pencil, and we have it on the best authority that every instrument was varnished by his own hand. In a letter written by Vuillaume in 1875, a few weeks before his death, to the well-known Parisian violin maker, M. Silvestre, then living in Lyons, he says: “I have completed three thousand instruments, all sold, paid for, and the money spent, and it affords me great satisfaction.”