Antonio Stradivari, his life and work (1644-1737) . chambermusic. In 1699 we meet for the first time with a change of form,the earliest indication we have yet succeeded in tracing ;and of the following year—1700—we have two repre-sentative examples made from the same design ; these are,moreover, the only violoncellos known to us of that 1699 bass has suffered severely; once it was a fineinstrument; those of the year 1700 are both good ex-amples ;—the finer of the two, known as the Cristiani, *formerly belonged to that gifted lady-player to whomMendelssohn dedicated his * Romance sans
Antonio Stradivari, his life and work (1644-1737) . chambermusic. In 1699 we meet for the first time with a change of form,the earliest indication we have yet succeeded in tracing ;and of the following year—1700—we have two repre-sentative examples made from the same design ; these are,moreover, the only violoncellos known to us of that 1699 bass has suffered severely; once it was a fineinstrument; those of the year 1700 are both good ex-amples ;—the finer of the two, known as the Cristiani, *formerly belonged to that gifted lady-player to whomMendelssohn dedicated his * Romance sans paroles (forvioloncello). The other is the property of the SpanishCourt, and is preserved in the Chapel of the Royal Palacein Madrid, where it is played upon by Senor Victor deMirecki, an excellent artiste, who, after repeated solicita-tions, prevailed upon the Court authorities to allow theinstrument to be sent to Paris in 1899 for sorely neededrestoration. We have been unsuccessful in obtaining any* Mdlle. Cristiani, born 1827, died The Duport Stradivari Violoncello, dated 1711. 125 TWO FINE SPECIMENS 127 information concerning the early history of this violoncello ;it does not figure among the Court instruments recordedby Ascensio in his account-book as having been entrustedto him for necessary repairs, as the others were, betweenthe years 1770 and 1790 (approximately).* The dimensionsof these two instruments, which are practically the same(see Appendix), are of special interest, as they enable us totrace Stradivaris steps in developing the smaller-size cello :we see that the whole has been diminished, the length ofstring (the stop) is shortened by about three-quarters of aninch. The consistency of the outline is admirably pre-served, the curves of the middle bouts being shortened inthe same proportion as those of the top and model is flat and in great measure reminds one of thatof the violins of the period. The beauty of the maple woodof both these s
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