From the ARCHIVE

The weights of a Stradivari violin’s plates are revealed for the first time, although modern readers will likely be left none the wiser

During my recent visit to London, I met a gentleman I have known since he was a boy, but who is now one of the greatest authorities on violin matters in this or any other country. After the usual salutations, he remarked:— “I’m glad to see you still keep up your interest in the violin.”

  “Yes?” Interrogatively. “Oh, I see articles of yours in THE STRAD occasionally.” 

“Well, I do a bit at times, but I fear it must seem rather poor stuff to you?” 

“No,” said he, “I find no fault with what you write: you state the truth as far as you know it. But some writers tell such lies: they poison the literature of the violin with their fabrications.”

Wild horses would not drag out of me the particular instances of falsification he adduced. And then for a brief moment he became absorbed in thought, and the all-seeing eyes looked past me. I waited respectfully, in the presence of the great master, feeling instinctively that I might be the fortunate recipient of momentous communication. Shortly he continued:—“You want to know the weight of the plates of a Strad fiddle?” I anxiously assented. 

He continued: “I will give it you.” “Stop!” said I. “I have no right to such a valuable piece of information as that. That is your own private property, to be used for your own benefit, and I have no right to it. I did not come to London to pick anyone’s brains, much less such a brain as yours.”

“No,” said my perhaps too generous friend, “You shall have it; but I tell you there is nothing whatever in it.”

Now here are the particulars, and I am proud to be the humble medium through whom they are passed on, firstly, to the readers of THE STRAD, and secondly to the world at large, for never before have the weights of the separated plates of a Strad violin been published.

The Stradivarius violin is a fine instrument, in fact it is the identical one mentioned on page 294 of the Appendix to the great monograph on Stradivarius (first edition), published by the Messrs. Hill. Date, 1910. Measurements: 14 in., 8 1/4, 6 11/16, 1 1/4 to 1 3/16, a very large instrument of the grand pattern.

Here are the original Troy weights: The belly—with modern bass bar— weighed 2 oz., 4 dwts. The back 2 oz., 11 1/2 dwts. Avoirdupois—belly, 2 oz., 6 dr., 17 grs. Back 2 oz., 13 dr., 5 1/2 grs. The Avoir. drachm. = 27.34375 grains, and there are 16 dwts. in an oz. and 16 oz. in 1lb. The pound is the same in all weights.