Making Matters: Wood treatment in ‘golden period’ Stradivari violins

In the May 2009 issue of The Strad, I published an article titled ‘Recipe for Success’ that was devoted to the chemical analysis of varnish found on several of Stradivari’s instruments: three violins dated 1708, 1710 and 1734, as well as the 1730 ‘Pawle’ and 1736 ‘Paganini’ cellos. In 2010 I published a more thorough write-up of that study in my book Stradivari, which was accompanied by a summary of a 40-page inventory of chemical, pharmaceutical and art supplies stocked by the Meschieri family, identified in the document as ‘aromatori’. This inventory was compiled in 1735 after the death of Valeriano Meschieri, who from 1710 until his death was listed as a neighbour of Antonio Stradivari in the census returns of the parish of San Matteo, Cremona…