Her dark materials

Why do so many violins from German-speaking countries in the later 18th century have such dark varnish? Michel Lorge advances a theory that makes no assumptions about the luthiers’ abilities

This 1777 Lorenz Wachter violin has very dark varnish

In my time as a violin enthusiast, I have frequently come across instruments made in the second half of the 18th century in Austria, Bohemia, Germany and even in France, that have varnish either of an extremely dark hue, or completely black. When looking into the available literature on the matter I found the explanations of luthiers and experts always left me perplexed, and none seemed satisfactory. The explanation most commonly given is that, over a short period in that century, violin makers in the German-speaking countries failed to maintain consistency in their varnish making: in their enthusiasm for experimentation and new effects, they made mistakes in the mixture. Sometimes they added too much resin to the varnish recipe; or sometimes there would be too much silver or iron nitrate, thus making the instruments darken with time, even becoming black due to oxidation. Hence, according to these explanations, the dark varnishes were down to errors in the recipe, more because of the chemical proportions than to the incompetence of the violin maker as such.

But how could what might be called a collective memory lapse be explained? There had to be another reason; hundreds of violin makers, sometimes working more than 1,000 miles apart, could not all start to make similar mistakes in their varnish formulas, all at the same time.

Also, I never heard it argued that the dark varnish might have been a deliberate choice of the violin maker.

Passing through Vienna one day, I stopped at the Belvedere Museum to admire the magnificent paintings of Gustav Klimt. As I was strolling through the lobby, in front of the reception desk I saw an enormous notice of mourning on the wall in front of me. This document, impressive because of its size, was a decree by the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria which fixed the conditions and the rules for mourning to which both she and the Court of the Empire were subject, following the death of her husband Francis Stephen of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor, who had died on 18 August 1765.

Later, I was perusing the biography of violin maker Pietro Mantegazza of Milan in the Universal Dictionary of Violin Makers by René Vannes. In combination with the above notice, I was convinced I was on the right track to explain the reason for the black and dark instruments. Vannes states:

In a time of mourning in the entourage of the Empress of Germany, Maria Theresa (1717–80), Mantegazza had to apply black varnish to the quartet of instruments that she had ordered.

At that time, the duchy of Milan was an integral part of the Austro–Hungarian Empire. For me, this was the first proof that there was a link between the mourning period of Francis Stephen and the colour of the varnish of certain instruments.

Contrastingly, this Wachter violin made c.1785 has a warm, honey-coloured brown varnish

C.1785 WACHTER VIOLIN: MUSEUM DER STADT FÜSSEN, INV. NR 6864. P HOTOS HELMUT KROISS & OLIVER RADKE. 1777 WACHTER PHOTO COURTESY M AISON BERNARD

Maria Theresa’s wishes, indeed her instructions, were precise; everything at court had to be dark. This would even have included the musical instruments. Out of fashion, or for the sake of good ‘etiquette’ and so as not to cause offence, the imperial court – and the princely, ducal and other courts of the Holy Roman Empire – adopted dark colours for the instruments that made up the orchestras, even local ones. To do this, the violin makers had to produce such instruments. This might then have become a ‘fashion’ that did not end with the death of Maria Theresa five years

later, since these very dark instruments can be found up to the beginning of the 19th century. The era saw innumerable instruments made by craftsmen of the schools of Vienna and Prague, including masters such as Franz Geissenhof.

One can also notice this effect of fashion among the less well-known makers, such as the Thir family (especially Mathias, Anton and Andreas), the Leeb family and Sebastian Dallinger. The instrument shown on the far left was made by Lorenz Wachter, a violin maker originally from Füssen, who settled in Mannheim and then Bonn, finishing up in Cologne. This violin, now in a private collection, was built in Bonn in 1777, right in the period of Maria Theresa’s mourning. As can clearly be seen, its varnish is a very dark brown colour.

If we compare this violin with another of Lorenz Wachter, made around 1785 in Cologne and now in the museum of Füssen, we can see the colour of the varnish has changed. From very dark brown, even blackish, the varnish has evolved towards a warm, honey-coloured brown. Five years have passed since the death of Maria Theresa.

Another phenomenon that must have made its mark on the Empire were the portraits of the Empress Maria Theresa that appeared from the time of her husband’s death until her own in 1780. These all showed her as a widow dressed in black. The painting above shows the Empress cla in black, in a calm attitude, as if setting an example for her subjects to follow.

MARIA THERESA’S WISHES WERE PRECISE: EVERY THING AT COURT HAD TO BE DARK, INCLUDING THE INSTRUMENTS

Empress Maria Theresa dressed in black in all her portraits following her husband’s death in 1765, including this 1772 depiction by Anton von Maron

These new depictions must have had an effect on the spirit of the time.

My final observation concerns France. How can the presence of very dark, almost black instruments in Mirecourt during this part of the 18th century be explained? Once again, how can one imagine that the violin makers from Lorraine, with centuries of experience, suddenly got the formula of their varnish wrong? One might have forgotten that Mirecourt is situated in Lorraine and that Maria Theresa’s late husband was the Duke of Lorraine and Bar. His death in 1765 must also have affected his native Lorraine. This could explain the presence of these dark ‘Austrian-style’ instruments in Mirecourt, where the fashion continued until the beginning of the following century.

In conclusion, it is extremely likely that this period of black and dark instruments owes its origin much more to a period of mourning, followed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s subjects, than to the sudden, inexplicable and simultaneous loss of mastery in the production of violin making varnish across the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted several decades.

Thanks to Maison Bernard in Brussels for their help with this article