Trained at Mirecourt. Resident at Leicester. Stricken with a paralytic seizure of left arm and side, 1920. Went to California for two years - had another attack which affected the right side and throat. Died 1927. A sad curtailment at the zenith of career. Two models - Strad (1715) and Guarnerius (1737). Magnificent scroll carving. Purfiing of a delicacy and neatness surpassed by no other maker, ancient or modern. Made many experiments with varnish, especially directed to the solving of the problem of how to obtain a suitable tegument which should not spoil or in any way affect the tone already developed in the white violin. Method of procedure: firstly the wood was treated with a clear yellow stain, quite innocuous to the wood, and of a beautiful tint. Upon this yellow ground was laid the first coat of varnish (an oil preparation containing no colouring matter). The colour, a clear oil-pigment of various tints, was then applied. Three or four coats of the clear varnish were then laid on, and the rubbing down was in due course carried out in the customary manner. This all resulting in an appearance of transcendental splendour.
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Ad Modurn Joseph Guarnerius I.H.S. Cremona
Hidalgo Moya ad Gloriam Dei fecit
anno Domini 1918
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(with signature and monogram)
Other labels have Stradivarius on first line.
Author (in collaboration with Towry Piper) of “Violin Tone and Violin Makers” (Chatto & Windus, London) - very sensible remarks, original ideas, appealing to a player’s sensitiveness rather than to the academical knowledge of experts. Towry Piper (born 1859, died 1925), solicitor, amateur violinist, and a particularly expert connoisseur. Contributed very knowledgeable articles to the Strad Journal, 1911-1925.
Trained at Mirecourt. Resident at Leicester. Stricken with a paralytic seizure of left arm and side, 1920. Went to California for two years - had another attack which affected the right side and throat. Died 1927. A sad curtailment at the zenith of career. Two models - Strad (1715) and Guarnerius (1737). Magnificent scroll carving. Purfiing of a delicacy and neatness surpassed by no other maker, ancient or modern. Made many experiments with varnish, ...
Moya,Hidalgo
