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We investigated the material properties of Cremonese soundboards using a wide range of spectroscopic, microscopic, and chemical techniques. We found similar types of spruce in Cremonese soundboards as in modern instruments, but Cremonese spruces exhibit unnatural elemental compositions and oxidation patterns that suggest artificial manipulation. Combining analytical data and historical information, we may deduce the minerals being added and their potential functions—borax and metal sulfates for fungal suppression, table salt for moisture control, alum for molecular crosslinking, and potash or quicklime for alkaline treatment. The overall purpose may have been wood preservation or acoustic tuning. Hemicellulose fragmentation and altered cellulose nanostructures are observed in heavily treated Stradivari specimens, which show diminished second‐harmonic generation signals. Guarneri's practice of crosslinking wood fibers via aluminum coordination may also affect mechanical and acoustic properties. Our data suggest that old masters undertook materials engineering experiments to produce soundboards with unique properties.

Wood has been a crucial natural material for human civilization since prehistoric times. In archaeology, the examination of the wood microstructure is important for the study of architecture, musical instruments, sculptures, and so on. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) examination is sometimes unsuitable for archaeological wood due to the limited amount of precious samples, which may be too small to be cut by microtomes and mounted on holders. Moreover, the conductive coating material cannot be uniformly deposited over uneven wood surfaces. To overcome these issues, a rapid and simple pretreatment method using room-temperature ionic liquids (RTIL) was proposed. Four common RTILs were evaluated for the pretreatment of wood chips for SEM examination. We found that water content, viscosity, density, and hydrophobicity of IL solutions were important factors affecting SEM image quality. A 7.5% solution of 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidium dicyanamide (BMP-DCA) in ethanol (v/v) was found to work very well. The IL pretreatment could be performed in a few minutes without special equipment. It is gentle enough to preserve delicate structures such as the torus/margo of pit membranes, even at elevated temperatures, without causing obvious damage or deformation. We successfully imaged hand-cut wood chips from 18th-century buildings, an 18th-century European violin, and a Chinese zither over 1000 years old. We therefore conclude that highly hydrophilic ionic liquids with low density and viscosity are suitable for use in SEM examinations of both modern and antique wood specimens.

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