d with the best work of Italy in Violin-making
could have made those exquisite Violins known as "Elector Stainers"?
The wood, selected for its rare loveliness, the finished workmanship,
and charming rose-coloured varnish, render these works of art of which
one glimpse is a never-fading memory. These works show the diligent
zeal with which Stainer laboured in his studies of the Italian
masters. He contrived to give these instruments an air of grace quite
foreign to the best efforts of his brother German makers. In the
sound-hole and scroll is observable his seeming desire to leave behind
the German preferences; and although it must be admitted that he was
but partially successful in his endeavours to stamp out early
tendencies, the connoisseur cannot but be impressed with the results
of the artist's manipulations. Had such skill been exercised on a form
nearer akin to the Italian, the result would have been perfect.

Prior to the publication of the interesting facts obtained by Herr S.
Ruf, relative to the personal history of Jacob Stainer, we had no
really reliable account of this famous maker.[3] The industry and
research of Herr Ruf has not only supplied all the ascertainable facts
with regard to Stainer, but also served to trace the history of
Stainer fiction. The last-mentioned portion of Herr Ruf's labours is
singularly instructive as to the manner in which romance is spliced on
to what is intended to be sober history, and which results oftentimes
in the graft being rendered invisible, or even unsuspected. He tells
us that the first mention of Jacob Stainer is that made by Johann
Primisser, about a century after the death of the Violin-maker, and
that he merely states that there lived in Absam in 1673 a celebrated
maker named Stainer.

[Footnote 3: The notice of Jacob Stainer in the "Biographie
Universelle des Musiciens" contains information supplied by J. B.
Cartier, the well-known Violinist, which formed a portion of the
history of the Violin which Cartier proposed publishing, also from
notes made by Paul L. de Boisgelou, who brought together much curious
information relative to music and musicians.]

Early in the present century Counsellor Von Sardagna collected certain
particulars concerning Stainer, which were published in 1822. He
states that Stainer lived at Absam, that it is traditionally reported
that he went to Venice or Cremona, and died a madman. It appears that
this slight material was at once utili