Andrew Mentiply

He was born at Burnside, Boarhills, near St. Andrews, Nov. 1, 1859. He is an amateur maker who displays so considerable an amount of ability and originality as to justify more than a passing notice of his work. He has made over fifty violins, a few of which are on the Stradivari and a few on the Guarneri models, but the majority of them are on an original model. The outline and arching of this original model are strongly reminiscent of those of Joseph, but the outline is more rounded, especially in the inner bouts or C's, and the lower or broad end is more extended. The scroll and sound-holes also differ materially from those of the great classics, the former being quaint and pleasing in effect, but the latter overdone and bordering on a caricature. Mr. Mentiply's intellectual orchard is exuberant in growth, but it wants pruning. The classics are not to be depreciated as a means of education, and much less as objects of worship. The workmanship and tone are excellent, but the varnish is very indifiTerent. If this maker exercised a little self-restriction and used better varnishes, he would turn out work that would rank beside the best produced in Scotland to-day.