Discovering the composition of historical varnishes

The following extract is from The Strad’s October 2021 issue  feature on historical varnishes ‘Beneath the Surface’. To read it in full, click here  to subscribe and login. The October 2021 digital magazine   and print edition   are on sale now

Since the 1950s, researchers have applied modern analytical tools to elucidate the composition of ‘classical Italian varnishes’, in particular those of Antonio Stradivari. Despite the advanced technologies used over the past few decades, the investigations conducted by research groups across the globe have provided results that are only partial and often contradictory, at least in their interpretation. In most studies, the varnishes of only a small number of instruments were examined, using complementary analytical techniques. Most of them focused only on Stradivari’s instruments, which allows no contextualisation.