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On the 16th of November, 1732, the intended emigrants embarked, accompanied by the Reverend Henry Herbert, D.D., a clergyman of the Church of England, as Chaplain, and Mr. Amatis, from Piedmont, who was engaged to instruct them in raising silk-worms, and the art of winding silk. The, following "account of their setting forth," is taken from a contemporary publication.
Let us glance briefly at the artistic activity of the times when the violin-making craft leaped so swiftly and surely to perfection. If we turn to the days of Gaspard di Salo, Morelli, Magini, and the Amatis, we find that when they were sending forth their fiddles, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, and Tintoretto were busily painting their great canvases.
When the Amatis, Stradivaris, Guarneris and the like were being turned out one after another, there was not so much necessity for preserving all the pieces or splinters of precious pine that had been separated by the fracture of the upper table from any cause, there was a better remedy at hand, the nearest maker would naturally be sought whose reputation was possibly more than local and whose self confidence prompted him to make a fresh table rather than devote time and labour for which adequate compensation could not be hoped for.
Amatis, from Piedmont, who was engaged by the Trustees to introduce the art of silk-winding into the colony, and who for that purpose brought with him several Italians and some adequate machinery. White mulberry trees were planted in a portion of land on the eastern border of the city, called the Trustees' garden; eggs were hatched, and silk spun "as fine as any from France or Italy."
She could have spat at them and their silly ardors over the same old banality: I love him; he loves me beatitude! I love him; he loves her tragedy! The novelists were like stupid children parroting the ancient monotony amo, amas, amat; amamus, amatis, amant; amo, amas, amat away with such primer stuff! She had learned the grammar of love and was graduated from the school-books.
The Amatis, who established the violin-making art at Cremona, successively improved, each member of the class stealing a march on his predecessor, until the peerless masters of the art, Antonius Stradiuarius and Joseph Guarnerius del Jesû, advanced far beyond the rivalry of their contemporaries and successors.
"What have you got there?" his sister asked, lying down by him and pressing her face to the cool pillow. "Oh, nothing. I just thought I ought to know something about Amatis. It's very interesting," he returned solemnly, and then burst out: "Oh, Bick, isn't he simply glorious!" "Yes, Tommy." "There was never anyone like him. Not only the fiddling, but everything. Don't you think so?
"Well, I'm sorry, Abe," he said seriously. "A feller should never look a gift horse in the teeth, Abe; but that fiddle ain't worth a cent more than a hundred at the outside." "Do you mean to say it ain't a genu-ine Amati?" Abe asked angrily. "Why, I don't mean to say anything, Abe," Felix began; "but there are Amatis and Amatis.
He studied Jacob Friedheim's treatise until he knew the characteristics of all the great violin models, from the Amatis, Hieronymus, Antonius, and Nicolas, to those of Stradivarius, Guarnerius, and Steiner. It was in this year, also, that he made a very precious discovery.
Heron-Allen, in his work on violin making, gives a picture of it, obtained through the courtesy of its owner, George Somers, an English gentleman. Its tone is described as mellow and extremely beautiful, but lacking in brilliancy. He originated the "Grand Amatis," and attained a purer, more resonant tone than his predecessors, although not always adapted to modern concert use.
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