he type of Gasparo da Salo, particularly in the middle bouts. Lastly,
the quality of wood selected for the bellies is in both makers
similar. In continuing the path trodden by Gasparo, Guarneri proved
himself an artist possessed of no little discernment. His chief desire
was evidently to make instruments capable of producing a quality of
tone hitherto unknown, and that he succeeded is universally
acknowledged. Workmanship, as evidenced by the instruments of his
first and last epoch, was with him a purely secondary consideration.
In the second epoch, his work shows him to have been not unmindful of
it. That he brought much judgment to bear upon his work, the vast
number of instruments that he has left and the great variety of their
construction are sufficient to prove. The extent of his researches is
surprising, and there is no ground for the assertion frequently made
that he worked without plan or reason. The idea that such a maker as
Guarneri groped in the dark savours of the ridiculous; moreover, there
is direct evidence, on the contrary, of his marvellous fertility of
design. At one period his instruments are extremely flat, without any
perceptible rise; at another, the form is raised in a marked manner
and the purfling sunk into a groove; a parallel of this type of
instrument is to be found in the works of Pietro Guarneri and
Montagnana. At one time his sound-holes were cut nearly
perpendicularly (a freak which, by the way, has some show of reason,
for though it sacrifices beauty, it also prevents the breaking up of
the fibres), at another shortened and slanting, and some, again, are
occasionally seen immoderately long. These hastily-marshalled
instances are quite sufficient to show the extent of his experiments,
and the many resources which he adopted in order to produce
exceptional qualities of tone.

In order that the reader may better understand the subject, before
going farther into the peculiar features belonging to the instruments
of Guarneri, we will classify his work. M. Fetis, doubtless under the
guidance of M. Vuillaume, has divided the career of Guarneri into
three periods--an excellent arrangement, and one that cannot be
improved upon. It only remains to point out certain peculiarities
omitted in the description of these three stages which M. Fetis gives
us. In the first epoch we find instruments of various patterns, the
character of the sound-holes being very changeable. At one time there
is a strange