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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78831 ***
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
+
+Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
+
+Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
+
+
+
+
+                     Collector Series
+
+                       OLD VIOLINS
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+      AUTOGRAPHS AND                                 ENGLISH
+      MANUSCRIPTS        The Collector Series     WATER-COLOURS
+
+       STAMPS             TAPESTRY LACE AND         MINIATURES
+                              EMBROIDERY
+
+                                 OLD
+                               VIOLINS
+
+                                  BY
+                          REV. H. R. HAWEIS
+
+                              EDINBURGH
+                              JOHN GRANT
+                                 1910
+
+       FINE PRINTS                                      ENGLISH
+                                                      BOOK PLATES
+
+         COINS                                          PICTURES
+
+       PORCELAIN              OLD BIBLES              ANCIENT GLASS
+]
+
+
+
+
+                             CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAP.                                         PAGE
+
+  PRELUDE                                          7
+
+  I. VIOLIN GENESIS                               15
+
+  II. VIOLIN CONSTITUTION                         22
+
+  III. VIOLINS AT BRESCIA                         30
+
+  IV. VIOLINS AT CREMONA                          42
+
+  V. VIOLINS AT CREMONA (_continued_)             60
+
+  VI. VIOLINS IN GERMANY                          91
+
+  VII. VIOLINS IN FRANCE                         104
+
+  VIII. VIOLINS IN ENGLAND                       118
+
+  IX. VIOLIN VARNISH                             146
+
+  X. VIOLIN STRINGS                              153
+
+  XI. VIOLIN BOWS                                161
+
+  XII. VIOLIN TARISIO                            171
+
+  XIII. VIOLINS AT MIRECOURT, MITTENWALD, AND
+  MARKNEUKIRCHEN                                 186
+
+  XIV. VIOLIN TREATMENT                          198
+
+  XV. VIOLIN DEALERS, COLLECTORS, AND AMATEURS   214
+
+  POSTLUDE                                       237
+
+  DICTIONARY OF VIOLIN MAKERS                    239
+
+  BIBLIOGRAPHY                                   281
+
+  DESCRIPTION OF PLATES                          287
+
+
+
+
+                         OLD VIOLINS
+
+
+
+
+PRELUDE
+
+
+What is the secret of the violin? Why is it that when a great
+violinist appears all the other soloists have to take a back seat?
+
+The answer is: the fascination of the violin is the fascination of
+the soul unveiled.
+
+No instrument--the human voice hardly excepted--provides such a rare
+vehicle for the emotions--is in such close touch with the molecular
+vibrations of thought and with the psychic waves of feeling. But
+whilst the violin equals the voice in sensibility and expression, it
+far transcends it in compass, variety, and durability.
+
+Consider the singular completeness and perfection of this instrument
+as a sort of physical and vibratory counterpart of the soul. The
+four strings no doubt limit and define its compass, and only in
+the quartet and collectively, is it capable of extended effects of
+complex harmony; but as a tone-producing instrument and within its
+limits it is perfect--every gradation of sound between tone and
+semitone is attainable, and for no other instrument can this be
+claimed.
+
+Next I observe that the violin possesses a trinity in unity of power
+which invests it with a quite singular and felicitous completeness of
+its own:--
+
+(1) _Accent_--and in staccato passages almost the accent of
+percussion.
+
+(2) _Sustained sound_--to a degree far beyond the capabilities of the
+human voice.
+
+(3) _Modified tone_--and in such refinement of gradation, that the
+melting lines of the spectrum can alone supply us with a parallel or
+analogy.
+
+Your piano possesses _accent_, but once strike a note, soft or loud,
+and it passes beyond your control.
+
+The piano has little _sustained_ and no _modified tone_.
+
+Your organ has _accent_ and _sustained tone_, but in a very imperfect
+sense _modified_ tone; and a brief survey of all musical instruments
+now in use will convince the student of acoustics that nowhere but
+in the violin do we find to anything like the same degree, that
+trinity in unity of power summed up in _accent_, _sustained_ sound,
+_modified_ tone.
+
+But the half has not yet been revealed. The trinity of power in
+the violin is placed under the immediate control of two hands--of
+ten fingers, each hand functioning differently. The hand on the
+finger-board is engaged in pressing the strings; the other hand
+wields the bow, and not only sets the strings in vibration, but
+drives, tears, plunges, caresses, checks, prolongs, magnetises and
+regulates, in an altogether marvellous fashion, the outpourings
+of sound, which are in reality the outpourings of the musician’s
+soul,--and further:
+
+Has it ever occurred to you, my reader, how differently the same
+piece of music, or, for the matter of that, the same violin, sounds
+in the hands of two different players?
+
+A few of Paganini’s solos were written down, and Sivori, who passed
+as his only pupil, was in the habit of playing some of them; yet no
+one was ever wrought to frenzy or melted into a passion of tears by
+that elegant performer. I have often heard him. The gentlemen in the
+orchestra remained calm, and listened with admiration and approval.
+But when Paganini played, the drummer on one occasion so shook with
+excitement that he was utterly incapable of playing his part at all,
+and Professor Ella, then a violinist at the first desk, went up and
+did it for him, whilst the other violinists were so lost in wonder
+that they could hardly concentrate their attention sufficiently to
+come in at the “tutti.”
+
+When Paganini raised his bow on high, it came down on his four
+strings with a crash. What made it sound like thunder? It was the
+thunder in his soul! When his violin wailed with sweetness long drawn
+out, why did the tears roll down the faces of hardened orchestral
+veterans, and even great virtuosi like Lindley and Dragonetti? Why
+did the people just go off into fits of laughter when a comic vein
+seized the prodigious Maestro in the midst of his variations on the
+Carnival de Venise?
+
+I have heard Wieniawski play his since much hackneyed “Legende”--it
+may have been somewhere in the sixties. I never heard anything so
+weird--spirit voices in the twilight--the wail of lost souls--one
+positively saw ghosts. I have heard the “Legende” a hundred times
+since by Neruda, Nachez, Sarasate, and I know not how many more, but
+I have never again seen ghosts.
+
+What was it? It was the mystery of _touch_. The language of touch is
+but half understood, but the language of touch is the language of
+soul, and the perfection of touch is reached when a sensitive finger
+controls a vibrating string or nerve and sends its own psychic thrill
+along the waves of sound or sensibility.
+
+The same no doubt is true of the pianoforte touch, though in a less
+degree, because a percussive touch can never have the power of a
+sustained and modified pressure.
+
+Recent science has thrown some curious sidelights upon this same
+sense of touch. It affirms that the trained fingers of the blind
+actually acquire from exercise, practice, and adaptation, new
+nerve-cells filled with grey matter exactly similar to the thinking
+and feeling grey nerve matter of the brain--in fact, the fingers
+of the sensitive musician have the power of thought and emotion
+delegated to them; and just as thinking matter is not confined to
+brain cells, but extends all down the medulla oblongata, which
+responds to stimulus, even when the head is cut off--so we now know
+that brain cells may be acquired, I had almost said cerebrated, and
+used even by the fingers.
+
+Now, supposing we bring these thinking, pulsating finger-tips and
+wed their subtle pressure to waves of sound, who shall say that these
+special sound waves may not be so impregnated with brain waves as
+that sound thus charged with soul may convey through the auditory
+nerve to other souls the passion, the emotion, the sorrow, the
+joy, and whatever else is generated in the heart and brain of the
+musician? ’Tis not more inconceivable than thought-reading.
+
+This goes far to account for the personal fascination which players
+exercise through their art. Their soul waves becoming brain waves,
+float out, charged with whatever is in the musician; and if there is
+nothing in the musician, as not unfrequently happens, they float out
+charged with nothing!
+
+The witchery of the violin for collectors is perhaps more difficult
+to explain. Very often these fanciers don’t play, and still more
+often they seem to have an objection to other people stringing up
+their treasures and playing on them. It is the construction, not so
+much the sound of the violin, that deprives the collector of his
+senses; but we ought to be very thankful to these monomaniacs, for
+without them there would be few masterpieces still extant; through
+them the violin goes into a period of Devachan, or enforced rest. At
+all events, it cannot be worn out, or chipped, or rubbed, or trifled
+with by repairers whilst in the collector’s cabinet.
+
+All the finest violins are known and carefully stalked--the health
+of their owners watched; and when the time comes, they either find
+their way to the open market or are picked up briskly by the great
+dealers, sometimes for fabulous sums. Mr Hill of Bond Street thinks
+nothing of a thousand pounds for a really fine specimen of Strad.
+
+Watch the collector exhibiting his treasures to a select company
+after lunch. You will soon see he is not the daft creature whom the
+uninitiated who only want to _hear_ the fiddle are apt to suppose.
+He knows the influence which that old Gasparo or Maggini had upon
+the Cremona school. He marks with admiration the emergence of the
+Amati and Guarnerii from the Brescian models; for him even the quaint
+long ∫ ∫’s of the old makers stand in lovely contrast with the more
+graceful but still pointed sound-holes of Joseph or more rounded ones
+of the great Antonius. To him that ancient viola cut down from a
+larger-sized model of viol now extinct, and placed side by side with
+an Amati tenor, is as interesting as the study of comparative anatomy
+to a scientist.
+
+Then your collector is never tired of dwelling on the perfection of
+those forms which slowly emerged as the survival of the fittest in
+that exciting quest for the sensitiveness, sweetness, and sonority
+of tone which occupied the lifelong meditations of Nicolo Amati
+and Stradivari. Anon he will call your attention excitedly and
+sympathetically to the grace of the curves, the surface never flat
+or board-like, but full of a variety of levels like the satiny
+surface of a fine human body. You might almost believe that a whole
+system of muscle--a very living organism--lay beneath the “back”
+and belly, which to his eyes are alive with swelling and undulating
+grace;--and then think of the varnish like a sheet of thin jasper,
+at once shielding from decay, whilst revealing as years roll on the
+transparent filaments of the mottled maple or sycamore and the pine,
+and crossed between the fibres with millions of tiny rays which
+betray the desiccated cells--now fit for resonance--through which the
+sap once flowed!
+
+But I must not anticipate matter which more properly belongs to
+violin manufacture. I only wish to affirm, in justification of the
+existence of players, hearers, and collectors alike, that the violin
+charm has its own rationale.
+
+I may perhaps be pardoned if I close this prelude with some words
+which I used before the Royal Institution in 1872.
+
+“The violin is perennial. It grows old with its perpetual youth.
+There is no reason why it should ever wear out. It sings over the
+graves of many generations. Time, that sometimes robs it of a little
+varnish, has no power over its anointed fabric.
+
+“The hard durable substance steeped in silicate-like varnish has
+well-nigh turned to stone, but without sacrificing a single quality
+of sweetness or resonance.
+
+“The violin is the only fossil which still lives, and lives with a
+fulness of life and a freshness that contrasts quaintly enough with
+the fleeting, sickly, and withering generations of man. Even should
+mishap bruise or break its beauty it can be endlessly restored. It
+is never fit for death; it survives a thousand calamities; nay,
+even when cut up and dismembered, its several parts, scattered
+through a dozen workshops and three hundred years, live on with a
+kind of metempsychosis in new forms, and still cling strangely to
+their individuality, so that men taking up a patchwork violin say,
+‘It is fine--the front is poor, the head is tame, but see here is a
+Stradivarius back!’
+
+“Thus human in its power and pathos, superhuman in its immortal
+fabric, the violin reigns supreme, the king and queen of all
+instruments--and, in the hands of a Paganini, a Joachim, an Ernst, or
+a Sarasate, the joy and wonder of the civilised world.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+VIOLIN GENESIS
+
+
+To me it has always appeared unimportant and not very interesting
+to answer the question, “Were or were not the ancients--by which we
+usually mean Babylonians, Egyptians, or Greeks and Romans--acquainted
+with the fact that stretched strings could be set in tonal vibration
+by means of horse-hair, reed, or some other fibre?” They knew most
+things, and how much they knew we are only now beginning to discover.
+
+At one time we thought that even the Romans did not know that water
+rose to its level, but they were well acquainted with the fact.
+
+We pride ourselves upon the triumphs of modern surgery, but we
+now find that the Egyptians were also great surgeons and operated
+successfully for calculus.
+
+The wonders of electric telegraphy are doubtless of modern origin,
+but the Greeks were at least aware of the attractive properties of
+amber, which they called “Electron,” though they made no use of
+electricity, and they may very likely have been acquainted with the
+principle of rubbing, as they certainly were of plucking, a string in
+tension to produce a sound--without ever elaborating the idea in an
+instrument for musical purposes.
+
+Both Fêtis and Vidal deny that any instrument of the viol tribe
+existed in antiquity, apparently on the slender grounds that the
+few fragments of pottery, papyrus, or mural decoration known to
+us have not yet revealed the fact. I think it probable that these
+savants are wrong. Like the use of the wheel, bow and arrows, bow and
+string for drilling holes, the bow or something like it employed for
+musical purposes is likely, on _a priori_ grounds alone, to be of
+immense antiquity, and at least as old as the knowledge of percussion
+instruments such as the drum, or of wind instruments such as the
+pan-pipes.
+
+I don’t lay any great stress upon pictures of stringed instruments
+with something like a bridge taken to prove the existence of a bow,
+especially if the bow happens to be absent--a guitar has a bridge
+but no bow, so has the zither and the bandoline, which are plucked
+with the fingers or a plectrum. The much-talked-of Canino Vase (fig.
+103, vol. iii. of Micali’s _Storia Degli Antichi Popoli Italiani_),
+showing apparently a sort of instrument with apparently a sort of
+bow, has been held by some to be conclusive that something like the
+violin tribe was known to the Etruscans. Possibly! Personally I am
+not satisfied that it is a musical instrument at all which is figured
+on that same vase--it might be anything, from a rattle or a torch to
+a broom or a dust-pan. The strongest point in its favour as a musical
+instrument is not the rough image on the vase, but the fact that a
+musician, astronomer, and doctor, by name Chiron, is seated beside it.
+
+We probably see the descendants of any such instruments as may have
+existed in those times in the Ravanastron, which has been recognised
+by some as the oriental precursor of the occidental fiddle.
+
+Altogether, I think that, from the musical point of view, too much
+time, and a surplus of barren antiquarian lore, have been bestowed on
+the origin of the viol tribe.
+
+Our business begins not even with the building up of the viol out of
+the Rebek, Crouth, and Rotta (see “Music and Morals,” p. 382), but
+with the emergence of the violin tenor, violoncello, and double-bass
+out of that confused, tentative, and often grotesque crowd of viols
+and viol da Gambas, specimens of which are still exhibited behind
+glass in our Art Museums and Loan Collections. We have little to
+do with them. They are of no more living account than the Egyptian
+mummies in the British Museum. A few retain a gleam of practical
+importance for the violin collector, because they have been cut down
+for tenors or otherwise used up during the last three hundred years
+by violin makers: the others remain of interest to musicians only;
+like the bones of fossil crocodiles, they are curious studies in the
+comparative anatomy, not of reptiles, but of musical instruments,
+that is all.
+
+No, it is with the distinct evolution of the violin, by which I
+mean the violin tenor, violoncello, and double-bass types, from the
+nondescript, dusky, tubby, ungainly machines, muffled in sound and
+dubious in form, that for me at least begins the history and the
+interest of the violin tribe.
+
+The genius of these elect types is inseparably connected with
+song--sacred song.
+
+Viols were used in churches to play chants in unison with the monks’
+voices (probably also to assist their defective musical ear). When
+the singing-schools of Italy arose and divided the voice into treble,
+alto, tenor, and bass, a suitable viol was told off as the companion
+of each voice. Soon after this the modern divisions, the octave and
+the discovery of the perfect cadence, laid the foundation of the art
+of modern music (Monteverde, 1570). The violin emerged.
+
+The endless discussions as to exactly when the violin proper made
+its appearance, or the tenor proper, or when the viol da Gamba got
+modified into the current violoncello size and shape, will probably
+continue to agitate those whose minds have a special aptitude for
+such researches. A very general statement will probably satisfy
+general readers, and even special lovers of the violin.
+
+The name of Duiffoprugcar haunts this dim transition period,
+and although the violins extant under his name have all been
+discredited, and not always distinguished from Vuillaume’s clever
+forgeries, I remember one of the first judges in Europe, who was
+certainly quite alive to the tricks of the trade, showing me a
+reputed Duiffoprugcar (hung and labelled in the South Kensington
+Museum), which he then believed to be genuine. It had lost the
+tubby characteristics of the viol tribe; it was, in fact, an early
+Brescian violin, linen-lined, but its claim to be a Duiffoprugcar was
+withdrawn.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Duiffoprugcar was born in 1514 at Fussen, in the Bavarian Tyrol. He
+was an inlayer and mosaic worker. He is now known to have visited
+Paris, and to have worked at Lyons. There is a fine portrait of
+him etched by the engraver Wariot in 1562, and a curious viol is
+extant by him, with a map of Paris inlaid at the back, once owned
+by Vuillaume, and within recent years secured for the Brussels
+Conservatoire Museum by its intelligent curator, Mr Victor Mahillon.
+Mr Donaldson’s beautiful viol da Gamba is the only other known
+specimen of his work. There is no evidence that Duiffoprugcar ever
+made what we should call a violin, and very good negative evidence
+to the contrary. In a curious old print exhibiting his portrait, a
+copy of which is owned by Messrs Hill, amongst the various viols
+represented no such instrument as the violin appears.
+
+It is easy to see how inevitable was the differentiation of the
+violin tribe from the first moment that a vocal quartet came to be
+conceived of. First the viol is selected to double a part, next a
+viol is made in a modified way to suit the part, and very soon the
+modification assumes the forms and proportions known as violin,
+viola, and violoncello.
+
+But in the early days of violin genesis the instrument was
+quite subordinate to the voice; it only gradually conquered its
+independence with the emergence of the string trio and string
+quartet. It would happen thus:--
+
+Two people would meet to sing, and the missing tenor or bass voice
+would be supplied by a viola; or three would meet who could not sing
+at all, when it would occur to them that the vocal parts might be
+played instead, and with even more accuracy perhaps than the very
+average voices would attain to.
+
+The instrumental trio and quartet thus at once came into being.
+
+Next, music would be written independently for such combinations, and
+the voices would be egged out altogether, and presently the treble
+or violin would show a tendency to throw the others into the shade,
+and at last be thought worthy of a solo _all to itself_, and thus the
+independent position of the instrument would quickly be established.
+
+All attempts to date exactly the stages of this differentiation of
+the violin tribe are likely to be misleading.
+
+You cannot say exactly when perspective was discovered or
+rediscovered by the Italian painters, it developed gradually; and so
+the violin developed gradually, born of new musical needs and new
+musical knowledge.
+
+In the midst of the old chaotic world of viol noises that preceded
+it, the struggle to displace the old viol players and the slow
+disappearance of the whole clumsy craft is aptly summed up in the
+words of one who lived at the moment of transition. He writes--
+
+      “In former days we had the viol in
+        Ere the true instrument had come about;
+      But now we say, since this all ears doth win,
+        The violin hath put the viol out.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+VIOLIN CONSTITUTION
+
+
+One of the subtle charms of the violin is that it may be called
+bisexual.
+
+It unites in itself and welds together the masculine and feminine
+qualities.
+
+Its very fabric is bisexual. The soft, easily moved vibrations of
+the swelling front are controlled, checked, and yet excited by the
+slower and harder pulsations of the maple back. The porous deal and
+the close-grained maple or sycamore thus thrill together, and each
+supplies the deficiency of the other, both blending in harmonious and
+sympathetic union, the ribs welding the back and the belly into an
+organic whole, whilst the sound-post, poetically called by the French
+the soul of the violin (_l’âme du violon_), collects the quick and
+slow vibrations, and fusing them, produces the subtle resultant of
+violin tone.
+
+That tone is the offspring of neither back nor front, nor ribs alone,
+but of all these differently vibrating surfaces, collected and made
+musical in the “soul,” and poured forth as the breath of life from
+the ∫ ∫ holes as out of the very mouth and nostrils of the violin.
+Surely the children of the violin are nothing but the sweet and
+subtly compounded sounds that it utters.
+
+The bisexual figure holds good even to the bow and strings. The bow
+is the male and the strings are the female elements. They can only
+vibrate when touched--swept into a tempest of emotion or caressed
+into tender whispers.
+
+They wait and pine for this magic touch, and long for their own
+fulfilment. They are so sensitive that they respond to the lightest
+feathery kiss of the powdered and anointed horse-hair--they murmur,
+they sigh, they scream, they weep, they laugh, but only when
+smitten, coaxed or agonised, sometimes almost torn, at others calmly
+and masterfully swept; whilst the finger-tips, pressing out the
+vibrations and generating those magnetic thrills which go forth
+charged with the musician’s very thought and feeling, aid and abet
+the masculine power of the bow. They are its ministers; without
+them the might of the bow itself would be impotent; without them
+the very strings would be unable to yield their infinite variety of
+tone and inflection of meaning. Yes, certainly the violin is of all
+instruments the most human, personal, and sympathetic, for the violin
+is truly bisexual.
+
+It is also a miracle of art, strength, and simplicity--we may say at
+once, as light as a feather and as strong as a horse. It is composed
+of thin sheets or slips of wood, only about a fragment of an inch
+thick; but, by the simplest and soundest mechanical construction,
+these are so put together as to resist a strain of about a
+hundredweight upon the belly, neck, and tailpiece, from the tension
+of the four strings.
+
+Six sycamore ribs and twelve internal blocks and linings suffice to
+hold the back and belly together.
+
+The neck carries the ebony finger-board and lifts its characteristic
+scroll or head--so expressive that makers can almost be recognised by
+its physiognomy.
+
+The neck is let solidly into the ribs and fastened against the lower
+part of the belly. When firmly glued it is extremely difficult to
+detach it, and once only in my experience has the neck of a violin
+proved unequal to support the enormous pull made upon it by the
+strings.
+
+It was in Ceylon. The heat was intense and moist. I had borrowed a
+violin for experimental purposes in one of my lectures at Colombo.
+In the middle of an attempted passage the neck quietly doubled up;
+the strings fell in a loose cluster. The glue had liquefied, and
+the whole fiddle came to pieces in my hands. What no time nor wear
+and tear had been able to effect had been suddenly achieved by the
+peculiar hothouse, vapour-bath treatment of the tropics.
+
+The early viol-makers no doubt at first selected their wood
+empirically; but it soon became an established rule to take a soft
+wood for the belly and a hard wood for the back. If all were soft,
+the sound would be muffled and tubby; if all were hard, the sound
+would be metallic and light; neither must the thickness of back and
+front be uniform--each must be thicker towards the middle, but how
+thick or how thin must depend upon the relative densities of the
+wood. The problem was to find the relative densities which would
+best vibrate together--a cunning connoisseur in timber can judge of
+these densities even by the feel of the wood. Of course the densities
+will affect the tone yielded by the wood when set in vibration, and
+it is difficult to believe that Stradiuarius and his school were
+unacquainted with some exact technical method of testing the acoustic
+properties of these woods.
+
+Monsieur Savart’s experiments with specimen strips of Stradiuarius
+backs and bellies showed that in most cases tested there was the
+difference of one tone between the belly and the back. A 1717
+and a 1708 Strad back both yielded a F♯, a 1724 and a 1690 Strad
+bellies gave the interval, so that Stradiuarius worked his backs
+and bellies on some regular principle. On examining specimens of
+Joseph Guarnerius, it was found that his best were made with only a
+full tone between back and belly; but occasionally the interval was
+greater.
+
+The sound-bar is a subtly proportioned strip of pinewood running
+nearly all the way down the middle of the belly inside. The
+increasing tension of the modern pitch has made it necessary to
+strengthen all the old violin sound-bars, as the increasing demands
+for execution have compelled the lengthening of all their necks.
+
+It is needless to say that the sound-bar readjustment is a delicate
+surgical operation, more difficult than the substitution of a long
+violin neck for a short one, for the neck no more affects the tone
+than the screws in the head. But any blundering with a sound-bar is
+fatal to the nervous system of the violin; the _wolf_ may suddenly
+be evolved--that horrid dull growl which sets the teeth on edge, and
+which, once generated within the violin, is so difficult to diagnose
+or to cure. The best old masters finished everything inside their
+violins as carefully as the purfling and the joinings which would
+meet the eye, and this although a century might elapse before those
+tiny smooth blocks in the angles, or that carefully-cut close lining
+of wooden strips fitting neatly to the bellies as a glove to the
+hand, might chance to be seen at all.
+
+Many forgeries have thus been rudely unmasked, the forger only having
+troubled to make clean the outside of the cup and platter, whilst
+within you find the dead men’s bones of his slovenly dishonesty. He
+worked only to sell, and to sell by deception (not because he cared
+for his craft or respected his instrument), and his works do follow
+him! But as Mr Lowell says--
+
+      “Men as worked thorough is the ones that thrive,
+      But bad work follers you as long as yer live;
+      Yer can’t get rid on it, just as sure as sin,
+      ’Tis allers askin’ to be done agin.”
+
+The finger-board is of black ebony; in the old fiddles it was often
+inlaid. There need be little said about it except that the old
+masters would be puzzled to know what a player could want with our
+long finger-boards, and still more would they have been puzzled could
+they have heard the extraordinary and complex effects we manage to
+produce with our extended compass and phenomenal shifts, in spite of
+the absence of frets to measure intervals.
+
+The FINGER-BOARD must be kept smooth and even, or it will not be
+possible to “stop” fifths or any other chord in tune. You will
+notice in old finger-boards the strings have worn deep channels,
+which of course mar the vibration. The height of the strings above
+the finger-board is to some extent a matter of fancy, and of course
+depends on the height of the bridge. A child or young girl would soon
+be discouraged with attempting to press strings raised too high above
+the finger-board, and of course the higher you ascend the harder must
+be the pressure. On the other hand, if the strings are too close
+down, the touch is no doubt light to your heart’s content; but you
+cannot get a sufficiently full vibration, and your tone will suffer.
+
+The BRIDGE! I had almost said the asses’ bridge, for indeed thereby
+hangs a tale. The hard-wood bridge, with its whimsical perforated
+visage, and its two slender feet clinging closely to the smooth
+belly of the violin, has been sometimes treated with scant courtesy
+by writers, and even makers do not all seem fully alive to its
+importance. I notice repairers will send you back your violin with a
+bran-new bridge, and no apology, if they happen to have mislaid or
+broken yours. But the bridge not only exercises the most important
+and indispensable functions of carrying the four strings under
+a combined pressure of seventy pounds, but it is in closer and
+more intimate contact with the instrument than any other of its
+appendages. It is so squeezed upon the wood as to be almost pressed
+into it, far more so than the finger-board or the tailpiece, or even
+the blocks and linings. It is charged with the primary vibrations
+from the strings and the secondary vibrations of the belly, ribs,
+and back; nothing goes on in that wondrous air column enclosed in
+the violin walls without the bridge taking cognisance of it, and
+possibly hindering or aiding and abetting its successful exit from
+the sound-holes.
+
+I am aware that I have been thought fanciful in this matter, but an
+experience of many years has convinced me that it is not easy to get
+a bridge that suits a violin perfectly, and most dangerous to trifle
+with the close and _quasi_ marital relations which exist between the
+violin and its bridge. I dislike new bridges. I love old ones; and
+why, when all the rest happens to be old, is the bridge alone to
+bring the raw sap of youth to vex the mellow and desiccated repose of
+melodious age?
+
+The position of your bridge, like that of your soundpost, the
+adjusting of your screws, the thickness of your strings, belongs
+rather to the management than to the constitution of the violin.
+
+The only further details fit to be noted here seem to be the button
+supporting the tailpiece, which has a character of its own, in its
+size, material, and fixture; and the far less important tailpiece, to
+which we may add the purfling and other occasional inlaying.
+
+The TAILPIECE, of course, is strictly indispensable, but it does not
+much matter what it is made of, or how it is decorated.
+
+The PURFLING, although occasionally resisting damage to the outlying
+edge, is chiefly ornamental, and consists of three thin strips of
+wood--two ebony or whalebone, and one of white wood--glued together
+and inlaid.
+
+In the purfling we have the last survival of the inlaying as applied
+to musical instruments. You will notice that the further you go
+back the more elaborately inlaid are the viols and violins. It was
+thought that the instrument, which was little more in those days of
+rudimentary music than a toy, might fitly be exploited to show off
+the conceit of artists and the skill of cabinet-makers; but as music
+developed and tone was reckoned all-important, every detail likely
+to interfere with this new development gradually disappeared, till
+in the hands of the Cremonese makers the faint memory of all the
+gorgeous mother-of-pearl, ebony, ivory, gold and silver embossing,
+survives only in the narrow three thin lines of the purfling which
+strike the contour of the instrument and give piquancy to its form.
+
+And thus the perfect sounding violin, though denuded of all
+superfluous decoration and meretricious adornment, yet remains a
+miracle of art--“a thing of beauty and a joy for ever.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+VIOLINS AT BRESCIA
+
+
+The violin proper is an Italian creation. It comes from the north of
+Italy. Stainer, it is true, is an early maker, and he bore a German
+name, but his date is after all 1621-83, whilst that of Maggini is
+1590-1632; and if you visit the frontier village of Absam, near the
+town of Hall, where he lived, you will observe that he dwelt on the
+high-road between the Tyrol and Italy, and that his training, his
+talent, and his market were Italian.
+
+But Brescia was really the home of the violin, and there is possibly
+something in the heavy salt seasoning of the Tyrolean pines which
+specially favours that peculiar resonance, sensitiveness, and
+durability for which the Brescian and Cremonese schools are famous.
+
+The name of Gasparo di Salò (Bertolotti was his real name), now
+chiefly famous for his double-basses and violas, must ever be revered
+by students as the master of the great Maggini, who was in reality
+the father of the violin, in the sense of having clearly, at once and
+for ever, differentiated the instrument as a distinct type.
+
+Salò is a lovely spot on the shores of the lake of Garda, in the
+province of Brescia, and about twenty miles from the big town. It
+was early famed for its culture. Foreigners went there for the sake
+of its schools, and the Corporation records show that sacred music
+especially flourished there. It is now certain that Gasparo migrated
+thence to Brescia and worked in that town. Maggini was as certainly
+his pupil. This is proved by a legal document, dated 1602, which has
+lately been discovered, bearing the joint signatures of Gasparo and
+Maggini, who is termed his “garzone,” or apprentice.
+
+Gasparo’s share in violin-making proper could not have been very
+great, as the earliest violin orchestral music appeared in Italy in
+1608, and Gasparo died in 1610 or thereabouts--a fact which, taken in
+connection with the extreme rareness of any Gaspardian instruments
+which can be called violins, seems to argue that the piccolo violino
+which was presently going to be master of the situation was only just
+creeping up.
+
+I have seen and played on one very fine Gasparo violin, the property
+of Lord Amherst--D and A strings rich and pure, 1st and 4th rather
+muffled, but on the whole the tone is mellow and powerful.
+
+This almost unique Gasparo violin is still bulgy, but a great
+improvement on the old viol build; the head is long and
+quaint-looking, but lacks that finish and character which later
+masters put into their scrolls. Gasparo’s basses are still much
+sought after, and Dragonetti possessed more than one.
+
+A giant specimen, known as the Duke of Leinster’s bass, may still be
+seen at the South Kensington Museum, and I exhibited it at the Royal
+Institution in 1872. His work is heavy and lacks refinement, but his
+tone is grand and full-bodied.
+
+GIO. PAOLO MAGGINI was the child of his father’s old age, and born
+at Botlicino, near the town of Brescia, which afterwards became the
+family headquarters.
+
+Brescia was at this time a strongly fortified place, and a print as
+late as 1764 probably gives us a fair notion of what it looked like
+between 1560 and 1632.
+
+Swift brooklets ran down the streets, and outside the walls were
+spreading woodlands and ploughed fields. It boasted of a splendid
+brick palace, the Broletta, and a massive belfry of rough stone
+(Torre del Popolo), a Castello, and an old Duomo; the streets were
+adorned with frescoes. The Cathedral of San Pietro de Dom was famous
+for its music, and had an organ and full orchestra. The viol-makers
+and the monks were then, as they have since been, in intimate
+relations, and it was a couple of monks who befriended Gasparo when
+he was down in the world in health and fortune, and sadly needed it.
+
+The princes of Italy at this time (1512-1630) were great patrons
+of art, letters, and especially music. Brescia in 1600 was under
+Venetian rule. The town or fortress was from its very position
+constantly in the midst of wars and rumours of wars, and was
+appropriately famed amongst other things for its manufactory of
+swords and armour.
+
+It is surprising how little military commotions seem to have
+affected, either at Brescia or at Cremona, the manufacture of musical
+instruments. There seems to have been an uninterrupted line of viol
+and cither and lute makers at Brescia from 1300 and onwards.
+
+But when it is remembered that war does not interrupt the functions
+of religion or diminish the importance of the clergy (nay, often
+enhances both), we can understand that the musical instrument makers
+might have been as much in demand, in the stormiest times of the
+Visconti and Medici, as druggists, soothsayers, or mountebanks; and
+they probably made impartially for friend or foe--for any one, in
+fact, who could afford to pay.
+
+Up to within the last few years very little was known of this man
+Gio. Paolo Maggini--Magino or Magicino. As he put only the name
+and place, but not the date, on his labels (all dated Magginis are
+therefore frauds), it is not easy to assign fixed dates to any of
+his instruments, and the personal information to be squeezed out of
+them is of the meagrest description. He worked in Brescia; few of his
+instruments survive. His violas are as rare as Gasparo’s violins, but
+he distances all other makers in the attention that he gave to that
+newfangled and suspiciously regarded instrument, the true violin.
+
+His handwriting, some of which survives, would lead one to suppose
+that his education was very moderate, but the signatures of
+illustrious princes of this period are no better. Recently, however,
+the State Archives of Brescia have revealed some interesting gleams
+of information which enable us to show him in his workshop with one
+apprentice, Franchino, and a young wife, aged nineteen, Maddalena
+Anna, who brought him a dowry, and afterwards children.
+
+A picture of his house in the Contrada del Palazzo, Vechio del
+Podesta, lies before me. It has but two storeys, and the family lived
+upstairs, surrendering the ground floor to the violin business.
+
+In a woodcut by Jost Anian, Zurich (1539-91), we have an authentic
+picture of such easy, leisurely, calm workers as Maggini.
+
+There is the rude substantial bench, the tools, the glue-pot, the
+planks and the wood in blocks, bits of fiddles and strips of timber
+hung up on the walls; the aproned artificer is carefully trying a
+lute as he sits on his three-legged stool.
+
+What simplicities! Were we to enter in imagination the studios in
+which the greatest pictures in the world were being painted about
+this time, the same meagre appliances and absence of superfluous
+luxury would doubtless have greeted our eyes.
+
+But our gorgeous modern studios hung with the spoils of the East, and
+iridescent with precious pottery and curiously worked metals, our
+modern workshops with their exquisite mechanical appliances and all
+sorts of labour-saving machines, somehow fail to rival in quality of
+production those old masters who sat on three-legged stools, ground
+their own pigments, made their own glue and varnish, and chopped and
+chiselled their own wood.
+
+If you consider Maggini’s period (1560-1632) you will see how exactly
+the direction of his genius was conditioned by the demands of his age.
+
+The singing-schools of Naples had resulted in a call for stringed
+instruments in increased numbers, but the old viols were seen to
+correspond ill to the altered times, and the need for an instrument
+which would render leading melodies effectively was felt just in
+proportion as such melodies became multiplied with the rise of vocal
+music, sacred and profane.
+
+Most writers on the violin seem to have a passion for cutting up a
+maker’s life into periods, as though a man could rise one morning and
+say, “Go to now, let us enter upon period number three, in which the
+back shall be sloped so, and the belly brought down thus, and the
+curve of the bouts tilted, contracted, or elongated thus.” All that
+can be safely said is, after such and such a time Maggini or Amati
+dropped or adopted this or that feature as a rule, and we may infer
+that a maker came under such and such influences, and so forth.
+
+Now I come to speak of Maggini, I will trace roughly but clearly what
+may be called his continuous development, rather than any so-called
+three periods.
+
+Naturally at first the pupil made like his master Gasparo. His
+violins suggested big viols on a small scale. They had a heavy look;
+they were of large size, which makes the sides seem lower than they
+are, for in reality the ribs are not higher than those of the Amati.
+
+The heads look rough, because, with the reduced size, no increase
+of refinement or delicacy has yet been reached; now, they are cut
+without symmetry; now, the fluting of the scroll is not smoothed,
+even the grooves for the purfling are not neat, nor is the purfling
+itself sharp.
+
+Maggini’s early backs, sides, and bellies are cut on the slab--that
+is, across the grain.
+
+Then Gasparo’s sound-holes have got narrower in the hands of
+his pupil, and Gasparo has probably got credit for some of the
+improvements of Maggini, as there can be little doubt that some
+violins labelled Gasparo are the work of his pupil, just as early
+Stradivari violins are in existence signed Nicolo Amati.
+
+If I may hazard the remark, in my opinion Maggini did not copy so
+long or so seriously the work of Gasparo as did Stradivari copy
+Nicolo. The reason is obvious. The stride between Gasparo and Maggini
+is far greater than that between the late Nicolo and the Strad. By
+the time Nicolo died the violin had already risen to that supreme and
+independent individuality and dignity which it has never since lost.
+
+Stradivari got the violin all ready made; it was Maggini’s glory to
+have assisted at the individualisation of the “King” type.
+
+Presently we become aware that Gasparo is dead and buried. The
+Maggini bellies now cease to be cut on the slab, but show the long
+parallel grain lines of the wood as in the Amatis; the art of wood
+selection for sonority and sensitiveness seems already to have
+reached the 1650 Cremona level. The sound-holes are more delicate,
+but still a little quaint; they are invariably bevelled inwards, a
+practice entirely discarded by the Cremona masters.
+
+Sir Joseph Chitty’s, and Mr Sternberg’s, and the Dumas’ tenors are
+good specimens of Maggini’s first independent work illustrating the
+above characteristics. The Dumas family were friends of Beethoven,
+and enthusiastic admirers of Maggini’s work. They possessed at least
+one valuable “chest” of his instruments. A chest is described by an
+old writer as “a large hutch with several compartments and partitions
+in it, each lined with green baize” (we have since gone heavily into
+velvet and plush).
+
+There are only about eight violas or tenors of Maggini’s known; they
+do not vary in their proportions.
+
+The model of the Dumas viola is of the master’s most arched type--a
+feature much exaggerated by Stainer and his followers. It is, like
+almost all this master’s specimens, adorned with double purfling,
+set close to the edge, with the usual Maggini bevel at the corner
+joints. These corners give it a special physiognomy; they are short,
+and make no appeal to the eye like the later Cremonas. The tenor’s ∫ ∫
+holes are upright, short, and broad; they are higher than in the same
+maker’s violins, the top curves as usual larger than the bottom ones,
+the back and belly both in two pieces; the bass bar and blocks inside
+have been strengthened; the rough tooth of the well-known Brescian
+plane has left its mark on the wood inside. The Dumas tenor is in
+exquisite condition; the varnish is unlike the old Gasparo brown, it
+glows with rich golden tints. Its type is admirably defined; no one
+in looking at this tenor can say, “This is a little violoncello,” or
+“This is a big violin.” It is a distinct viola type, and it set the
+type for all succeeding violas. The Cremona makers worked on it, but
+they did not re-create the tenor; they could not.
+
+The Dumas-Maggini violin is in equally fine condition; it looks
+so new that some have supposed that, although eighty years before
+Stradivari, it must be a copy made by Strad of the older master, but
+it is absolutely authentic and genuine.
+
+Before Maggini died, we notice that a very high standard of finish
+has been reached, unknown to him in his earlier days, or, as for the
+matter of that, to any of his predecessors. Observe the improved
+purfling, the bouts and mitres cut with clear intention, but never so
+marked in physiognomy as the Amatis, the sound-holes quite as sharp
+as theirs; but, above all, the arching has at last come down--this
+true hint, so early given, was not at once adopted by Maggini’s
+Cremonese successors. Stradivarius at last fixed it and regulated
+it in a model from which no later maker has found it safe to depart
+with the exception of Duke and Klotz, who obstinately adhered to the
+Stainer high bellies with deep side grooves.
+
+Maggini’s later varnish runs out of the old Gasparo brown into
+orange and golden yellow, as luscious as anything to be found in a
+Joseph or a Strad.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Although Maggini adhered to his double purfling, there are specimens
+of his work in exhibitions without it; and at least one curiously
+but not carelessly made instrument is known where the purfling at
+the back is neither double nor even inlaid, but merely drawn sharply
+in black lines. A very fine single-purfled violin, formerly in the
+collection of Prince Caraman Chimay, now in the possession of Mr
+Antonietti, possesses an unrivalled tone of the Maggini timbre. Many
+of his violins retain the old taste for other inlaid ornamentation.
+He does not run into maps and portraits, but a graceful clover-leaf
+pattern is often found at top and bottom of his backs, twisted, as it
+were, out of the purfling, and a sixfold trefoil sometimes occupies
+the centre of the back; but an acute observer has noted that there
+is no instance of the central trefoil combined with the clover-leaf
+pattern.
+
+Not less remarkable than this great maker’s definition of the
+violin and viola types was his conception of the violoncello. The
+Maggini ’cello is not the son of the double-bass, but the father
+of the tenor. It is much more like a large tenor than like a small
+double-bass; the proportions are, as it were, enlarged from the
+tenor, not reduced from the flat-backed bass. Maggini’s bent was
+entirely in the direction of the smaller violoncello pattern.
+
+The early and even the later Cremona ’cellos were too large, and
+there is very little doubt that the powerful influence of Maggini
+can be traced in the evolution of those perfect but moderately sized
+Strad ’cellos which date mostly after 1700.
+
+The tone of Maggini is full, mellow, and plaintive, rather than
+biting like Stainer, bell-resonant like Strad, or soft and sensitive
+like Nicolo Amati; but great players like Vieuxtemps, Ole Bull,
+Leonard, and De Beriot have found him sufficient, and if more have
+not extolled Maggini, it may be on account of the rareness and
+inaccessibility of his instruments.
+
+It has been said by a competent authority that not more than fifty
+extant Magginis are known, and in England at present (1897) about
+thirty violins, ten violas, and but two violoncellos and one
+double-bass.
+
+Maggini died at the comparatively early age of fifty-one. All
+researches made in the archives of S. Lorenzo, his parish church,
+have failed to reveal the date of his death, and the worst of it is
+that the registers of that church prior to 1700 have disappeared.
+
+We hear plenty about his wife, Anna Foresti, who died 1651, aged
+fifty-eight, and was buried in a neighbouring parish.
+
+It is more than probable that Maggini himself was a victim to the
+plague which raged at Brescia in 1632, and that he was hastily
+interred, or, dying at the Pest House, no official note of his death
+may have been taken. At any rate, in 1632, the year of the plague,
+his son describes himself as “filius quondam Johannis Pauli”--the son
+of the late Gio. Paolo.
+
+His last income-tax return is dated 1626, and he was dead in 1632,
+so he must have died at latest in 1632, and therefore could not have
+been more than fifty-one. Maggini was doubtless well off, owned
+considerable property in and out of town, was the father of six
+children, and, what was of far more importance, the father of the
+modern violin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+VIOLINS AT CREMONA
+
+
+Cremona! Amati! two words making melody with their very syllables,
+and a deeper harmony still for the lover of music, from the
+association of ideas which they excite.
+
+With the assumed immigration of makers from Brescia--the emergence
+of the Amati family (the name of Amati is not found in the Brescian
+archives), and their final residence at Cremona--begins the classic
+period of the violin.
+
+Cremona, ancient city of strife, which, owing to its very situation
+(κρι μόνος, “high rock” and “alone”), was the battle-point of the
+middle ages from the days of the old Goths and Lombards down to quite
+modern times; Cremona, with its stately cathedral so little known
+or visited, yet possessing two of the finest red lions couchant,
+supporting portico columns of one of the noblest cathedral façades in
+Italy; Cremona, with its antiquated back streets, its drowsy quiet
+life gliding on apart from the beaten thoroughfares of travel--truly,
+Cremona town is a place to set one dreaming!
+
+I have narrated elsewhere my pilgrimage to the place which so
+ungratefully forgets almost the very tradition of the Amati,
+Stradivari, and Guarnerii, whose fabrics alone have given it a
+musical immortality, and whose names are hung up high like the stars,
+which no discords of the middle ages, sieges, or brawls can ever
+reach.
+
+Let us now try and come face to face with these immortal makers.
+
+Andrea Amati (_père_) settled at Cremona, and made violins from
+1520-46. He brought with him his brother Nicolo (not the great
+Nicolo, afterwards master of Stradivari, _Italian_, or Stradiuarius,
+_Latin_).
+
+Andrea Amati had two sons, Antonio and Geronimo, who made violins
+jointly as well as separately. When Antonio married, the fiddles of
+neither seemed to improve. The brothers ceased for a time at least
+to work together (there being, it is said, a period in which there
+are no joint reductions); but as there are much later violins bearing
+their joint names, it has been assumed that they again collaborated.
+If we trust some of these late labels--the brothers being born about
+1555-56, and one of the joint violins being dated 1687--it would
+follow that the venerable artificers were still making violins at the
+age of 136 years, which beats Stradivari himself, who only worked
+till he was ninety-three.
+
+Geronimo, according to one writer’s account of his labels, went even
+one better, for there is a Geronimo violin dated 1698; so if this
+Geronimo, brother of Antonio, was born about 1556, which is tolerably
+certain, he went on working even longer than Moses, with his eye
+undimmed and his natural strength unabated, down to the age of 148!
+
+The confusion has arisen from confounding Geronimo, brother of
+Antonio, with Geronimo, son of the great Nicolo (born 1649, died
+1740). But if there exists a signed Geronimo and Antonio dated 1698,
+which seems very doubtful, it would be certainly easier to believe
+that, as the demand for Italian instruments by makers of repute had
+well set in before 1700, the late Antonio and Geronimo label was
+stolen from the old workshops--the last two figures of 16--being
+filled in, and the label clapped on to cover the fraud; whilst any
+Geronimo violin dated 1698 would be by Geronimo, son of Nicolo; or
+at most, one made up by some enterprising pupil out of the débris of
+the elder Geronimo’s workshop--perhaps about the time that Nicolo
+the Great, son of Geronimo and grandson of Andrea, was working with
+his pupils, Stradivari and Andrea, Guarnerii, and his own son, the
+younger Geronimo or Girolamo Amati.
+
+But with this Geronimo Amati, son of Nicolo (born 1649), and a
+certain Don Nicolo Amati, an Italian priest, we need not trouble
+ourselves beyond recording their names.
+
+A good deal has been said about Andrea Amati and his violins. He was
+certainly the founder of the family, but not much is known about him
+except that he probably, almost certainly, acquired from Brescia the
+Maggini type, and that his violins are somewhat smaller, arched in
+the belly, with a varnish that runs out of the Brescian brown into
+the mellow and brilliant gold and ruddy tints common to the Cremona
+varnish; the later Amatis have a tendency to revert to the browner
+hue.
+
+That Andrea made some choice violins for Charles IX. of
+France--twenty-four violins, twelve large, twelve small pattern,
+known as “les petits violons du roi”--there can be no doubt, but they
+disappeared from Versailles in the political disturbances about 1790.
+The arms of France, we are told, were painted on the backs, and they
+are said to have been of beautiful workmanship.
+
+A ’cello, “Andrea Amati Cremonentis faciebat, 1572,” was sold amongst
+some others belonging to Sir William Curtis, May 1827. This is known
+as the “Bridge’s viollo.” Its history is romantic, it having been
+presented by Pope Pius V. to Charles IX. of France, and surnamed the
+“King.”
+
+The Amati characteristic, which culminates, along with other
+qualities of sonority, in the great Nicolo, 1596-1684, is sweetness
+of tone; but a certain want of power is noticeable, especially on the
+fourth string. The “A” is beautiful, the “E” soft and delicate, and
+the third very full and round--qualities which are also conspicuous
+in the brothers Geronimo.
+
+But if Amati tone is of cabinet, not concert quality, its quality is
+of a kind unequalled for charm and sensitiveness, and although not
+loud, some violins made by the brothers have a considerable carrying
+power.
+
+The Amati heads or scrolls retained a certain simplicity and antique
+Brescian look even after the finish and form of the body of the
+violin had left the Brescian school far behind. The double purfling
+of Brescia is also gone, but the brothers purfled very beautifully,
+with a bend of perfect regularity and smoothness.
+
+The violins of Antonio are better than his brother’s, but the joint
+violins are the best, and have been oftenest forged.
+
+The brothers indeed made excellent violas, but, as the fashion then
+was, too large. They have been sometimes cut down. Sir Frederick Gore
+Ousely once had a fine specimen, which I remember playing upon many
+years ago at Tenby--tone very full and mellow.
+
+Richard Blagrove, a brother of Henry Blagrove, the admirable early
+Monday Popular violinist, was a viola player, and used a reputed
+Amati, but it was really a Gagliano. Many of us (1897) can remember
+how richly it contributed to the triumph of a quartet, of which
+Joachim, Riess, and Piatti were often the other members.
+
+Her late Majesty the Queen had a fine painted Amati, unfortunately
+cut down; and Miss Seton’s Geronimo Amati is a rare specimen, and
+from the MS. of Ascenzio, a priest at Madrid, we learn that it was a
+favourite violin of Charles IV. of Spain.
+
+Geronimo, after separating from Antonio, reduced the arching of his
+bellies, but, singularly enough, without improving his tone-power.
+The over-arching of the early makers and scooped side-curves are
+generally supposed to be a vice in acoustics finally overcome by
+the gentle natural curve and flatter models of Nicolo, but it is
+perhaps possible to ride a theory too hard. I have certainly played
+on instruments deeply grooved, with rounded bellies, powerful Dukes
+and piercing Stainers, which, according to the orthodox theory, had
+no business to sound as loud as they did. It is well known that in
+both these Amati makers the late Cremona flat curve is conspicuous by
+its absence; and whilst I do not for a moment deny that the flatness
+of the Stradivari model is preferable, I think the superiority of
+the late Cremona tone may be due to a good many other things beside
+that. It will always be a question whether the man who makes possible
+the last perfection of an art or the man who actually achieves it is
+really the greater genius. Pietro Perugino or Raffaello in painting;
+Chaucer or Shakespeare in literature; Handel or Beethoven in music;
+Gasparo and Maggini or Stradivari in violin-making; but popular
+opinion generally plucks the blossom without troubling itself much
+about the roots, and the prices fetched by the finest Strad and the
+finest Gasparo, or even Nicolo Amati, practically settle the question
+as regards the violin-makers. £400 is an unusual price for a fine
+Nicolo (£250 is nearer the mark, 1898); £1000 is not an uncommon
+figure for a good Strad, and his finest specimens command £2000
+(1898).
+
+Nicolo, the great son of Geronimo, was born in 1596, and died close
+upon the seventeen hundreds, in 1684. Nicolo was quite aware that he
+resumed in himself the fine qualities of his distinguished family
+and improved upon them. It is true he did not trouble himself much
+with his grandfather Andrea, whom he probably regarded as a worthy
+old gentleman quite out of date. There could have been little in
+those small, almost three-quarter size, brown varnished, and sweet
+but feeble-sounding violins to attract the aspiring grandson; but
+there were qualities in the somewhat larger models of the famous
+brothers, Geronimo and Antonio, which set his hand and head agoing,
+when as a boy he fell to copying and carving backs and bellies, and
+twisting ribs and throwing scrolls, in his father’s little workshop
+at Cremona, opposite the west front of the Saint Dominic Church.
+
+Nicolo the Great doubtless followed and imitated his father Geronimo,
+but wishing to miss nothing, and perhaps labouring under a sense of
+obligation or merely out of genuine affection, his labels embody an
+immortal acknowledgment of indebtedness to both masters. They run
+thus:--“Nicolaus Amatus Cremonem Hieronymi Fil, _ac Antonij Nepos_
+fecit, 1677.” (The italics are mine.)
+
+Nicolo the Great’s smaller patterns made in his father’s workshop are
+not unfrequently to be met with, and can be picked up for between £80
+and £100, or even less.
+
+But as we watch his dates, the touch of Nicolo very soon becomes
+distinctive. On the death of his father and uncle he found himself
+in possession of a workshop which inherited a great name, but which
+was destined to transmit to future generations the greatest violin
+names in the world. Among the pupils of Nicolo in 1653 sat the
+brothers Guarneri, Andrea Guarnerius having witnessed the marriage
+of his master Nicolo and signed the register; and by the side of
+Andrea Guarnerius sat a young man named Antonio Stradivari, or, as we
+usually call him, Stradiuarius.
+
+Most of the Nicolo violins before 1645 are of the smaller pattern,
+but after this date down to 1684, the year of his death, the eye of a
+connoisseur will notice an increase in size, a finish in workmanship,
+and a more delicate purfle (never double). The model is still
+somewhat high in back and belly, but with an increasing tendency
+to get flatter; the side-grooving is less pronounced, whilst the
+corners are noticeably drawn out into finer points full of character,
+arresting the eye, lightening as it were the model, and giving the
+whole physiognomy of the instrument a grace and piquancy hitherto
+unattempted.
+
+The sound-holes of Nicolo are pointed and somewhat narrow; the scroll
+is cut a little too flat for the later taste, but passes as the
+century wanes into a somewhat larger and bolder style. The wood seems
+to be chosen almost as much for its mottled or fine-grained beauty as
+for its acoustical properties.
+
+The early Nicolo varnish is of brownish Brescian type, but later on
+it glows with the rich amber tints of Cremona, and those dragon-blood
+stains which give to some Strads and Josephs such warm and generous
+tints like the sunlit dashes of mellow red on a ripe nectarine.
+
+Mr Somers Cocks (1898) has a most glorious Amati violoncello, “one
+of the finest ever seen or heard,” so said to me a distinguished
+connoisseur. Mr Marshall Bulley’s violoncello, a Jerome (the
+younger) Amati, is also a rare gem of tone and workmanship.[1]
+
+The grand Amati violin pattern runs some of the Stradivari violins
+very hard, and is evidently the model on which the 1700-35 Strads are
+“calqué,” as the French say. The side-grooving, generally held to
+interfere with the volume of tone, whilst supposed by some to add to
+its sweetness, has not disappeared as in the Strad grand model, but
+it has become less pronounced. The tone is lovely and sensitive, and
+the Nicolo is truly delightful to handle. It is _par excellence_ the
+lady’s violin.
+
+The one before me, where the varnish still remains, melts into light
+orange with clear golden gleams in it. If Joseph is the strong
+male, Nicholas or Nicolo certainly belongs to the softer and more
+yielding sex. The tone is most delicate, and of ravishing sweetness.
+It seems to leap out almost before the horse-hair has feathered the
+strings. It continues to sing on like a vibrating silver bell, as if
+intoxicated with itself, long after the bow has ceased its contact.
+In the sweet Nicolo the lover finds no bars, no obstacles; it is won
+almost before ’tis wooed (Plate V.).
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We are interested to know that in his own time Nicolo’s work was
+carefully imitated, if not forged; whilst his supremacy over one
+of his best pupils, Francesco Rugereo, Rugieri, or Rugerius, was
+clearly acknowledged; for we find that a certain Tomaso Antonio
+Vitali, who seems to have bought a violin with a Nicolo label inside,
+and paid twelve doubloons (or about £12, 10s.) for it, complained
+bitterly that on removing the false label he had discovered the name
+of Ruggeri underneath it. The aggrieved Tomaso thereupon applied to
+his liege sovereign, the Grand Duke of Modena, for summary redress,
+avowing that he had given a higher price because the violin had a
+label of Nicolo, “who,” he adds, “was a maker of great repute in his
+profession, but now it was proved to be only a violin by Rugerius the
+pupil, a maker of less credit.” The violin, he said, was scarce worth
+to him more than three doubloons; the petitioner therefore prayed
+the Duke for redress. Whether he got it or not was no doubt very
+important to him, but of very little consequence to us. The fact that
+he made the application is the point.
+
+The GUARNERII family must have made violas or violins as the sand
+of the sea in number, if the frequency of their labels may be taken
+as any guide; and in truth they were a long-lived and industrious
+family, and doubtless made a good many instruments, chiefly violins.
+But the reputation of Andrew and Peter, and above all the great
+Giuseppe (Joseph) del Gesù, led to the early fabrication of pseudo
+Josephs, and labels in numbers far beyond what all the great makers
+of Cremona together could have produced.
+
+Andrea Guarneri (Andrew Guarnerius) the apprentice, as we have seen,
+was one of the witnesses to the great Nicolo Amati’s marriage in
+1641, and Nicolo enters his pupil’s name in the church register as
+aged fifteen, which gives us the year of his birth, 1626. He worked
+on till 1698; in 1652 he married, and two of his sons, Giuseppe (not
+the great Giuseppe, his nephew) and Pietro, worthily sustained and
+improved upon their father’s reputation.
+
+Many of the violins of Andrea Guarneri are of the smaller Nicolo
+pattern, but somewhat inferior, and not always well finished. The
+wood of his rare ’cellos, however, although plain in appearance, can
+boast of singularly fine acoustic qualities.
+
+There is a well-known ’cello now (1897) belonging to Miss Theobald,
+of his finest workmanship.
+
+Giuseppe, second son of Andrea Gianbattista Giuseppe, born 1666
+to 1739, as distinguished from Del Gesù or “Jesus” Giuseppe,
+struck out a freer line of work. His narrow-waisted boldly-curved
+instruments, with their Brescian-looking sound-holes set low down,
+his rich, almost too profusely rich, varnish and fine wood, but not
+over-finished workmanship, give his violins quite a characteristic
+appearance, and in power of tone they are superior to his father’s.
+But next to the great Giuseppe del Gesù, Pietro Guarneri is the
+flower of the family, and most sought after by amateurs.
+
+The grain of his bellies is often wide, the distance between the
+sound-holes is conspicuous, the sound-holes themselves are rounder
+and less Brescian, the scrolls are beautifully cut, and the varnish
+is superb, from golden tints to pale red, which has thrown some
+writers into rhapsodies about setting suns and the colours of the
+rainbow.
+
+Passing over a lesser Pietro, son of the lesser Giuseppe, son of
+Andrea, who worked at Mantua, we come to the one man who, with the
+exception of the great Nicolo, is worthy to measure swords (or bows)
+with Stradivari. He came, singularly enough, from a side branch, and
+not in direct descent from Andrea or any violin-maker, being the son
+of one John Baptist Guarnerius, and was born at Cremona in 1683.
+
+The father of the great Giuseppe was the son of one Bernardo
+Guarnerius, who was a cousin of Andrea, and therefore the great
+Joseph was nephew of Andrea Guarnerius, just as the great Nicolo was
+the nephew of Andrea Amati; but a distinguished fact separates our
+Giuseppe from all his illustrious kinsfolk, and it is this, that his
+father, Bernardo, does not seem to have been a violin-maker at all,
+so the young Giuseppe owed his teaching most probably to his uncle
+and cousins.
+
+Most writers have speculated blindly enough upon his distinctive
+appendage “del Gesù” some talking about the Jesuits or a supposed
+religious bent. This is one of the many cases where sapient
+antiquaries, in seeking for recondite origins, neglect the simplest
+facts and ignore the easiest explanations. What can be more
+simple than for the great Giuseppe, conscious of his superiority
+to Gianbattista, son of Andrea Guarneri, as well as anxious to
+distinguish himself from Gianbattista, his father, and coming _after_
+both, though _preferred_ before them, should call himself the “del
+Gesù” or Jesus, who followed after the John Baptist of the family?
+So far from indicating any particular reverence for religion, the
+assumption of this bold title seems to me to partake more of a
+certain irreverent levity; and if, as tradition says, the great
+Giuseppe or Joseph was somewhat of a free liver, and perhaps even a
+sceptic, he may have had small scruples in so lightly treating sacred
+names and subjects.
+
+The question as to who may have been his master, and the influence
+(or otherwise) of Stradivari upon him, has also been involved, as I
+think, in needless mystery.
+
+Since Del Gesù worked at Cremona and must have been, as a cousin and
+nephew, a good deal with his uncle and cousins, Andrea, Giovanni,
+and Pietro, who lived there, it is no great stretch of fancy to
+suppose that when he showed the family bent for violin-making,
+he should have been apprenticed to study the art with his cousin
+Giuseppe, son of Andrea, in which case he must have lived next door
+to where Stradivari was working all through his finest period; and
+though Giuseppe’s violins are rightly said to be in the style of his
+cousin’s Gianbattista, and he may have drawn his early inspirations
+from his cousin, it is impossible to suppose that so able a man
+could be in daily contact with and yet wholly insensible to the
+influence of the greatest maker who ever lived. Why, he not only
+worked next door to Strad, but probably met him every afternoon at
+the neighbouring café, and was doubtless often about his shop, year
+in year out.
+
+Of course the differences in the work of the two great masters are
+obvious. The massive, bold, and original lines and less scrupulous
+finish of Joseph the Great, the powerful (almost brutally powerful)
+scroll, the loud trumpet-like imperious tone, all mark the masculine
+as contrasted with the sweeter and more feminine qualities of the
+gentler, bell-like Strad. The fact also before alluded to, that
+between the back and the belly of the Strad there is usually but
+one note, whilst between the back and belly of the Giuseppe del
+Gesù there are sometimes more, all prove sterling and distinct
+originality, as Rafael was distinct from Perugino or Michael Angelo
+from Leonardo da Vinci. But enough; for to draw these comparisons
+before describing the master may seem like putting the cart before
+the horse.
+
+So let us now, without further ado, locate the great violin shops at
+Cremona and peep into workshop No. 6, in the Piazza S. Domenico, now
+Piazza Roma.
+
+In about 1540, Andrea Amati had set up his modest establishment,
+trained his sons, and taken apprentices, bequeathing to Nicolo his
+plant and pupils.
+
+Stradivari and the early Guarnerii then worked together, cheek by
+jowl; by-and-by Stradivari migrated to No. 5, next door, and the
+Guarnerii with Giuseppe del Gesù, who died in 1745, the latest and
+greatest of that family (surviving Stradiuarius, who died in 1737,
+eight years), then set up at No. 6.
+
+As I have had occasion to remark elsewhere, these three names, Amati,
+the Guarnerii, Stradivari, there be none like them; these three shops
+opposite the big Church of S. Domenico, now demolished, there never
+were nor will be three such violin shops.
+
+Here were made, in long, quiet years of peaceful labour, between 1560
+and 1760, in steady and friendly rivalry, all the greatest violins in
+the world.
+
+The Giuseppe del Gesù on which Paganini played, now in the Town Hall
+in Genoa, the Stradiuarius on which Ernst, now Lady Hallé (1898),
+plays, Canon Percy Hudson’s violoncello, Joachim and Wilhelmj’s
+“Strads,” the Alard, the Betts, the Dolphin, the Messie, the Pucelle,
+the Tuscan, the Fountaine, the Rode, and the Viotti--these be the
+wonders of the violin world.
+
+But in following the development of the Guarnerii family into the
+seventeen hundreds, the position of Giuseppe del Gesù, the king of
+the Guarneri, must be clearly defined before we describe the rise
+and progress of Stradivari, who ran parallel with, and who, in the
+estimation of most violinists, seems to combine in himself, the _ne
+plus ultra_ of all violin perfection.
+
+Nothing about Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù is more remarkable than
+the determined way in which, after examining the Amati types, he
+deliberately went back to the Brescian Gasparo and Maggini models
+for inspiration. The time had come when powerful tone was wanted.
+The Amatis were sensitive, sweet, and weak; in the larger and more
+massive Brescians Giuseppe found the suggestion of what he was
+destined to make perfect. If only he could add their volume to the
+Amati sensitiveness--an hour more or less spent on the cutting of
+corners or neater purfling--what did it matter? Strength, power,
+was what he wanted, and the sentiment is thrown off in the bulldog
+type of his head or scroll, in the thickness of his boards so much
+criticised, in the boldness rather than the grace and delicacy of his
+curves.
+
+He tried many experiments: flat make, full make, sound-holes
+cut almost perpendicularly, shortened, slanting, and sometimes
+disproportionately long. He was watching the effect on the volume and
+quality of tone, and when he had in his own way conquered that secret
+of grand sonority, whether empirically or by calculation, then, and
+not till then, his workmanship improves.
+
+He was like a man who had no time to think of the delicate cooking
+till he had stayed his main appetite. His frequent habit of cutting
+the wood upon the cross, _à contre sens_, as in the case of Mr Alfred
+Gibson’s instrument (1897), a superb specimen of Del Gesù, shows up
+the coruscations of the grain, and brings out each pore and vein by
+the agate-like varnish--not agate-like in the sense of the French
+chippy varnish, but in its clear crystalline depth and transparency.
+Del Gesù’s varnish is never clotted, but is laid on thoroughly, yet
+with a light hand. Mr Ruskin used to say that Sir Joshua Reynolds’
+touch was so light that he could paint on a gossamer veil; Del
+Gesù’s brush is also as light as a feather. Some of Del Gesù’s later
+violins, dating from about 1740, after the death of Stradivarius, are
+amongst his finest. The one used by Professor Sauret, and the other
+lent to Mr Ludwig by Mr Frazer, are particularly fine, and belong
+to this period. Paganini’s Joseph, now in the Town Hall at Genoa,
+Alard’s, in the Museum of the Conservatoire of Music, Turin, and
+Vieuxtemps’, now in the possession of Maurice Sons, also belong to
+this great period.
+
+The life of Joseph Guarnerius is more or less enveloped in mystery.
+It seems, for instance, utterly impossible to get at the truth about
+the so-called prison fiddles. Whenever a Joseph or a presumed Joseph
+which is not up to Joseph’s standard comes into the market, it is
+dubbed a Del Gesù prison-fiddle.
+
+The story runs that Giuseppe, being a somewhat reckless person, got
+into trouble and was locked up for many years, during which time the
+gaoler’s daughter got him any wood she could find, and he made these
+inferior pot-boiling fiddles, which she disposed of for such moderate
+sums as she was able.
+
+I prefer to put this legend wholly aside. Del Gesù may not have held
+sacred things in high estimation, and he may have been somewhat of a
+free liver--this rests on the authority of Carlo Bergonzi’s grandson,
+who was not even a contemporary of Del Gesù--still he may have got
+the gossip from Bergonzi, his own father, who was Stradivari’s pupil,
+and doubtless a rival maker; and tongues may wag when interests are
+or seem to be opposed, and stories will come forth finely variegated
+when there is an extraordinary absence of reliable facts, as there
+undoubtedly is in the case of Del Gesù.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+There is, however, no direct evidence whatever that Del Gesù was for
+years in prison and that he died there, as says the legend; but Canon
+Bazzi of Cremona has lately unearthed one Girolamo Guarneri who _did_
+die in prison in 1715, and the names of two very different men, one
+illustrious and the other obscure, have before now got mixed up, to
+the detriment of the illustrious one.
+
+Something similar is said to have happened to the great Athanasius,
+whose name has been confounded with that of the obscure Pope
+Anastasius, in whose presence a creed was recited by one Bishop
+Victricius, and the confession of faith thus recited by command of
+_Anastasius_ now passes as the creed of Saint _Athanasius_, since it
+emphasises the Trinitarian doctrine chiefly connected with the name
+of that illustrious doctor.
+
+A Giuseppe del Gesù is much more difficult to find than a Strad--his
+output, as compared to that of Stradivarius, is as one to six; his
+life was shorter, and his working career probably more erratic. But
+he is placed on a level with the immortal Antonio by some who know
+how to handle him, and the prices of his wares have already reached
+four figures.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+VIOLINS AT CREMONA--_continued_
+
+
+There is something inexorable about the concensus of posterity.
+
+Individuals may chafe under it, and writers may try to reverse its
+verdict. You even have crazes for the revival of neglected poets,
+painters, and musicians, but you will never succeed in pushing from
+their pedestals the great gods whom posterity has once decided to bow
+down to.
+
+De Beriot may choose to play on a Maggini, and Paganini may prefer
+his Joseph, but even Maggini, Nicolo Amati, and Giuseppe Guarnerius,
+who stand round as it were saluting one another, leave Stradivari
+apart by himself like a Colossus on a mountain, and yet no one, not
+the greatest connoisseur, is able to say exactly why. When so many
+esteem individual violins above some Strads, and when Joseph del
+Gesù is held to run the magic master very hard, still Strad stands
+apart upon his mountain for all men to look up to and wonder at. And
+why? We can only say it is the way with all the greatest; there is
+something of the mystery of heaven about the incommunicable touch;
+the true aureole forms about no head to order, and the lonely seats
+are kept for the mighty.
+
+Antonio Stradivari or Stradiuarius was born in 1644, and died, in his
+ninety-third year, in 1737. We get the date of his death from the
+register, and the date of his birth is fixed by a violin label (1736)
+in his own handwriting, in which he states that he was ninety-three
+years old when he made the instrument.
+
+Stradiuarius married at the age of twenty-three a woman of
+twenty-seven, who had been a widow for three years, whose maiden name
+was Ferraboschi, and he adopted her one little girl. By her he had
+six children, some of whom died before him. His second wife, whom he
+married several years later, bore him five children, two of whom died
+before him--so that in all Stradivari had eleven children. None of
+them seemed to have inherited their father’s genius; only Omobono and
+Francesco Stradivari made even decent fiddles, and so far maintained
+the great name as to succeed at first in selling their wares at
+their father’s prices. The buyers probably hoped that at least the
+wood might have been selected by Stradivari _père_, and much of it
+probably was; and if there was the chance of getting a spare rib or
+back or belly with a touch of the master upon it, it was surely worth
+a little speculation.
+
+Antonio Stradivari and Andrea Guarneri, as stated before, were young
+_garzoni_ or apprentices together in the workshop of the great Nicolo
+Amati--sat on the same work bench, used the same tools, and doubtless
+discussed the same problems.
+
+In and out of that shop ran, no doubt, the boy Giuseppe Guarneri to
+see his uncle Andrea. He must have always found Stradivari there;
+and when, later on, Giuseppe imbibed a taste for fiddle-making, and
+became himself the great Del Gesù, it is hard, I insist upon it, to
+believe that what must have been a lifelong acquaintance with the
+mighty Stradivari should have had no influence whatever in forming
+his ideas and methods.
+
+There is no mention of the youthful Stradivari having accompanied
+Andrea Guarneri to the wedding of his master, Nicolo Amati; Andrea
+was doubtless the older pupil, and Antonio Stradivari was taken on
+later.
+
+“If thou wouldst teach, learn; if thou wouldst create, first copy.”
+It is generally held that for some years, roughly between 1660-70,
+Stradiuarius simply made up, blocked out, drew, glued, mixed varnish,
+and worked generally, but without signing his own name to any
+fiddles. He was _learning_; but in 1660 he begins to sign his name,
+not from pride, but because his master made him do so. From before
+that date to about 1670, which brings us to within fourteen years of
+Nicolo Amati’s death, he made what are sometimes called Amati Strads.
+
+At this time Antonio followed closely the violins of the early Nicolo
+rather than the grand Amati pattern, but he appears to have followed
+his master’s developments continuously, slowly, but surely.
+
+There exists a Stradivari violin with a label Nicholai Amati (anno
+1667), and about that date (when he married) Antonio seems to
+have left his master’s workshop, but still continued closely to
+copy Nicolo, and many violins of his between 1660 and 1670 pass
+as Amatis, whilst others are called Amati Strads, and some are
+apparently joint productions.
+
+When Stradiuarius married (about 1667) and left Nicolo Amati, he set
+up round the corner in the same street as the brothers Guarnerii, and
+almost next door to them, in the square opposite the great Church
+of S. Domenico. From about this time connoisseurs notice a great
+improvement in Stradivari’s technique; but up to 1672 at least,
+remaining a close copyist of Amati, he doubtless kept on terms of the
+closest intimacy with Nicolo, now in his decline, and benefited by
+the abundance of orders flowing in for Amati violins which the old
+master was unable to execute.
+
+From 1660 to 1684 was a period of great activity, perhaps haste;
+even some pot-boiling Stradivari violins may then have been made as
+the young family increased. Antonio’s wood is often plain about this
+time, and not up to the best taste and selection of his master, but
+he evidently remained his right-hand man to the end; and when Nicolo
+died, at the ripe age of eighty-eight, he left all his tools and his
+plant not to his son Girolamo, then about thirty-five, but to Antonio
+Stradivari, then just forty years old.
+
+In 1680, four years before the death of Nicolo, Antonio had so far
+prospered as to be able to buy his house (which I visited in 1880),
+at 1 Piazza Roma, for about £800. Desiderio Arisi, a Cremonese, has
+left an interesting MS. in which he speaks of “his intimate friend
+Antonio Stradivari.” The MS. is dated 1720, or seventeen years before
+the death of Stradivari.
+
+Arisi alludes to a point of great interest which early excited my
+attention and curiosity--the many-sidedness of the man. “In Cremona,”
+writes Arisi, “is also living my intimate friend Antonio Stradivari,
+an excellent maker of _all kinds of musical instruments_.” Indeed,
+he could make anything that was in demand, and he did; he could
+“fancy-purfle” to order, inlay, make fiddles in odd shapes, or
+with a twist in the curve here or there, or longer or shorter for
+experiment, or big or small.
+
+The Marquis Carlo dal Negro of Genoa owned a Stradivari harp in 1820.
+The master was not above making mandolines and lutes to order. Messrs
+Hill own a perfectly plain Stradivari guitar in fine condition. It
+is of exquisite close-grained wood. I have often wanted to hear the
+sound of that guitar. I noticed a Stradivari cithern in the South
+Kensington Loan Collection with an elaborately carved female head of
+great beauty. I did not wonder that he who could carve such scrolls
+could carve a head or anything else.
+
+There are, or were, within the present century, other gems of
+workmanship, some of which it is to be feared have perished,
+children’s fiddles, instruments made with small figures, flowers,
+arabesques. Everything that comes from his hand is finely accurate
+in drawing. Sometimes his decoration is merely painted in black,
+sometimes ivory, ebony, or mother-of-pearl is used, but everything
+Stradivari did was perfectly done; he qualified himself to the _n_th,
+as mathematicians say, for each branch of his art.
+
+In these days one man draws, another blocks out, another inlays,
+another finishes. Stradivarius did all, and did all consummately
+well. His heads and arabesques are worthy of Cellini, his inlaying
+of the finest Florentine marqueterie; his scrolls and curves are of
+Pheidian beauty; his varnishing is his own.
+
+On the death of Amati, Stradiuarius and the Guarnerii had the Cremona
+market to themselves, and whilst the competition was quite wholesome,
+there is no reason to suppose that their rivalry was other than
+a friendly one. They had all been brought up together, they had
+worked as boys together, they had doubtless lent each other tools,
+touched up each other’s backs and bellies, varnished each other’s
+ribs, criticised each other’s scrolls from boyhood; and now that the
+Cremona violin was in the ascendant, and kings and nobles from Spain,
+France, Germany, Saxony, and even England were anxious for Cremona
+fiddles, there was a market for them all.
+
+The bitterness of competition is not always due to rival makers,
+but often to over-production; and such a thing as over-production
+of fiddles in those days was unknown. Nay, the orders that came in
+could not be executed fast enough. Music walked faster than the
+instruments could follow it. When the King of Poland wanted a Strad
+violin he knew his man, and sent his Capelmeister Voleme to Cremona,
+with orders to stop there and bring back the twelve violins ordered
+for the court orchestra. “So,” says Arisi, “Voleme arrived in 1715
+on the 10th June, and remained there three months, and when all the
+instruments were ready he took them with him to Poland.”
+
+But at this time Stradivari was at his zenith. “There is not in the
+world,” writes Lorenzo Giustiniani, a Venetian nobleman, to the great
+artificer in 1715, “a more skilled maker of musical instruments than
+yourself, and as I wish to preserve a record of such an illustrious
+man and famous artist, I trouble you with this letter to ask whether
+you feel disposed to make me a violin of the highest quality and
+finish that you can bestow upon it.”
+
+But we must not anticipate.
+
+After the death of the illustrious Nicolo Amati, this patient
+pupil, this careful copyist, this accurate and tireless student and
+experimentalist, begins to assert his strong individuality. His
+scroll departs from the feminine Amati type, and becomes striking
+and independent, his sound-holes recline more, his corners are
+pronounced, his middle bout curves are prolonged, his varnish is
+almost fancifully varied from rich gold to soft velvety red. His wood
+is now invariably chosen with the utmost care, and as he made chiefly
+for the nobility, royalty, and the higher clerical dignitaries, he
+was not only on his mettle, but he could afford to work just as he
+chose.
+
+In 1682, Michele Monzi, a rich Venetian banker, sent him an order for
+a chest of violins, altos and ’cellos, which were to be presented to
+our King James II. They were so much liked that his Majesty ordered a
+viol di gamba of Stradiuarius in 1686.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+        Rode Strad         Spanish Tenor         Spanish Strad
+
+                          Christina Strad
+
+                               CELO]
+
+In 1685, Cardinal Orsini, afterwards Pope Benedict XIII., had ordered
+a violoncello and two violins of him, besides making him “one of his
+private attendants,” an honorary title, but equivalent to appointing
+Stradiuarius instrument-maker to the Cardinal Archbishop. We commend
+this fact to his Holiness Pope Leo XIII. (1897), who has lately
+placed the violin on his _index expurgatoritus_ of instruments, as
+being too frivolous for the solemnities of divine service! Yet Pius
+IX. was a pretty good fiddler.
+
+In 1687 Stradivari makes his famous set of instruments for the
+Spanish Court, inlaid with ivory, with a scroll-work running round
+the sides. One of these rarities--a violin--found its way into the
+hands of Ole Bull, the famous violinist. It has been since sold in
+England to Dr Charles Oldham of Brighton. The tenor is, I believe, in
+existence. When last in the market, it had lost its ivory purfling,
+which has since been exquisitely replaced by Messrs Hill.
+
+There are extant several very small violins made evidently to order
+about this period. The fallacy of different sizes for different ages
+from childhood upwards is one which will always smile to makers
+and those acute persons who teach the violin and buy their pupils’
+instruments, which of course have to be changed as the children grow
+up, for larger and larger ones. I have always protested against this.
+A child of eight had much better play the violin like a violoncello
+(at the age of seven, as I did myself) than be given a small one; but
+when I was eight I could hold a full-sized violin to my chin--not
+quite in the correct position, no doubt, but near enough. Thus from
+the very first, when at six or seven years of age, I played the
+violin like the violoncello, I never had to _unlearn my intervals_
+in stopping the strings. _The brain learns intervals._ An habitual
+tenor player never plays the violin quite in tune, and _vice versâ_;
+and so every time a larger violin is placed in the pupil’s hands, the
+brain is bothered with the narrower stopping learned in the preceding
+period. Still, no one can regret the exquisite cabinet, almost toy
+specimens, made by the Amati and Guarnerii as well as by Strad.
+Artistically they are gems; musically, fallacies. I have never got
+anybody to agree with me about not using dwarf fiddles. Joachim, I
+believe, contended that for a child to use a large fiddle stiffens
+his muscles. I don’t believe it; it certainly did not stiffen mine.
+I believe I am also in a minority in my partiality for old bridges.
+Neither theory is, in fact, “good for trade.”
+
+In 1690 Stradivari executed a celebrated order for the Prince
+of Tuscany, through the Marquis Bartholomeo Aribati. Of these
+_chefs-d’œuvre_ the Marquis writes: “I assure you the Prince has
+accepted your instruments with more pleasure than I could expect. The
+players in the orchestra are unanimous in expressing appreciation.
+They declare your instruments to be quite perfect; they all say
+they never heard a violoncello with such a tone as yours. My having
+brought to the knowledge of such a person as his Highness your great
+skill will doubtless procure you many orders from his exalted
+house”--and then follow more orders for two tenors. On this occasion,
+we learn, from the relics of Stradivari in the possession of the
+Marquis della Valle, that the great violin-maker characteristically
+enough made the most beautiful cases for the royal instruments,
+decorating them profusely with armorial bearings and symbols
+appropriate to each instrument.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+       Rode Strad           Spanish Tenor        Spanish Strad
+]
+
+The order was given in 1684, but the instruments were not handed in
+till 1690. The Grand Duke, it seems, came back for more, as there was
+found amongst his instruments a violin of the grand pattern bearing
+the later date, 1716.
+
+I cannot forbear to call attention to the exquisite
+chromo-lithographs of the Tuscan violin, and the lucid description
+and history of this last-named famous masterpiece, in Messrs
+Hill’s handsome monograph. He declares it to be in the very finest
+preservation still, with an unbroken and authentic record, and to
+possess all the noblest qualities of the incomparable master. It is
+on the very verge of his great period, bearing the date 1690, and
+was bought by Mr David Ker in 1794. The Tuscan viola and violoncello
+are still in the Institute at Florence, and I advise all lovers of
+Cremona who get the chance to go and inspect them.
+
+The only other point of great general interest before the year 1700,
+when Stradivarius enters on his golden period, is the deliberate
+manufacture of a certain number of violins on a pattern distinct from
+the Amati, and from any patterns adopted by himself before 1686-1694,
+or after 1700. These instruments are known as long Strads, and they
+seem to be a sort of constructional or experimental link between
+the smaller Amati pattern and the grand Strad pattern of 1700-37--a
+model evidently suggested by the grand Nicolo, but not adopted by the
+cautious Strad till some years after Nicolo’s death.
+
+From 1694 to 1700 Stradivari not only went out of his way to make
+long Strads, which not only looked longer because they were narrower
+and pinched in, but actually were longer--_i.e._ 14-inch, as compared
+to the 1690 13-inch Strad. In other respects also he walked through
+his own traditions. Having mastered all violin lore, he was evidently
+at last trying a series of daring experiments to settle in his own
+mind once and for ever certain problems of tone.
+
+We have known painters trifle with colour in the same way.
+Gainsborough would paint his blue boy, and Whistler symphonies in
+green, mauve, or anything else unexpected, and Turner would recreate
+the light that never was on sea or land; but in reality it was no
+trifling, but study in arrangement of colour. So you can have study
+in construction, empirical ventures, and a testing of tone problems,
+whether in sound or colour.
+
+As Stradivari mused and carved, and glued and varnished, year after
+year, his meditations might run thus: “Flatten the belly--thicker
+here or there according to wood, density of fibre; air column
+restrained by narrow width, as in the long pattern, but same
+cubic inches of air allowed for in length or height of ribs, only
+differently defined by different shapes of instruments. Enlarge
+width, thin planks, but try different thicknesses; see how different
+densities of wood go together. Try old seasoned wood for back, newer
+for belly, or _vice versâ_; if wood hard, thin it; if soft, thicken
+it; try effect of higher ribs on flat curves; lower the ribs on more
+bulgy curves and grooved sides. What did Nicolo aim at with his grand
+pattern? Adopt his width and size, and flatten his belly. Try and
+save his sweetness (did the grooves give that?) with the flatter
+back and belly, which gives louder tone, adopting the mathematical
+curve of nature, suggested by the vibration of a string; certainly
+that gives power. Is a joined back, or a back in one piece, best or
+indifferent? That would depend on wood attainable. How would it be
+to patch bits of precious wood if inter-congenial? That generally
+succeeds. A good secret that, but an open one--wanted always the
+patcher!”
+
+This idea of patching was certainly one of the most inspired thoughts
+that ever occurred to him. He seems to have kept wood of the finest
+acoustic properties for his best orders. He had favourite planks; we
+can trace one of these by a stain that runs through the grain, and
+the wood crops up again and again in some of his best fiddles.
+
+The plank must have been known to his pupils, for the remains of it
+were worked up after his death.
+
+“Now for the sound-bar,” ponders Stradivari; “thick or thin,
+according to the density or elasticity of the back and belly. And its
+position? A little transverse, of course--slightly diagonal to be in
+the line of vibration. Study effect on power of different strings
+by placing it a fraction of an inch one way or another; place it
+slightly aslant for experiment. And the varnish?” But that will call
+for a few separate paragraphs by-and-by.
+
+I have tried to indicate the kind of observation and meditation,
+demanding unlimited time, patience, and love, which Stradivari
+devoted for the better part of a century to his art, and without
+which those Cremona _chefs-d’œuvre_, the Dolphin, the Messie, Tuscan,
+Betts, and Pucelle Strads, could never have come forth.
+
+I have alluded to Strad’s taking late to the large Amati pattern for
+violins, inclining for some time to the small size. I do not know
+that any one has yet noticed that in violoncellos Strad reversed this
+order of work, making his early violoncellos large, and diminishing
+their size. As he reached his golden period he probably felt that the
+demands made by virtuosity and tone-power were quite alike consistent
+with a larger type of violin and a smaller and more manageable size
+of violoncello.
+
+The violinist is well aware of the value of Strad’s golden period,
+which will cost him gold; for, after about 1700, a fine Strad will be
+worth to him from £1000 and upwards, according to its condition.
+
+The long apprenticeship was at last over, and in 1700 the master
+had reached the ripe age of fifty-six, an age at which so many have
+achieved their greatest work. He was at the acme of his power,
+experience, and fame; no one could teach him anything now, and
+apparently he had nothing to learn. He could at last wield his tools
+as a Millais or a Tadema wields his brush, a Flaxman his pencil, a
+Canova his chisel, or as a Mozart or Wagner handles his score. He
+knew what he wanted, and he could do it, and do it with a spontaneous
+ease and joy which seems even now to smile to us from the saucy
+corners of his bouts, the free daring curves of his grand pattern,
+and the lightly tossed and lifted scrolls.
+
+No one has failed to notice the masterful ease, the emancipation from
+all mannerism, the cool defiance of precedent and uniformity, and
+even symmetry, which characterises his great period from 1700 to 1730.
+
+The violins are not all alike. Strad knew that the secret was not
+merely in the pattern or shape; he could vary his curves, and yet
+produce masterpieces, because he knew all about the air column, the
+wood densities, and the proportions and quantities which should be
+combined for the requisite result, and he could mix them differently
+like a master colourist. He no more treated every violin as if it
+had the same constitution than does a physician treat every human
+body alike; it is not so much nitrogenous or carbonaceous food, and
+so much liquid, but it is these and other things used in proportion,
+according to your digestion and temperament, which will produce in
+that instrument, your body, the harmony of health; and how close is
+the analogy between the constitution of a violin and that of a human
+body--how varied is the texture, the tissue, quality, fibre, and
+density of the component parts of each--I have endeavoured to point
+out as succinctly as I could.
+
+So, in the grand period, the grand pattern Strads are all made
+with a trained, almost inspired instinct, according to those laws
+which govern the tone qualities aimed at; but the fiddles are by no
+means alike to look at. They have the charm of imaginative variety,
+combined with the unity of supreme excellence.
+
+To this great period belongs the Dolphin Strad, so called, it is
+said, from the melting and almost iridescent tints of the varnish.
+To me, however, the violin almost suggests the life, freedom, and
+elegant poise of that graceful fish whose name it bears. The beauty
+and acoustic properties of the Dolphin wood are quite special, and
+can easily be compared with other violins of the same period, some of
+which are much plainer to look at, and somewhat different in form,
+and though very charming, hardly so bell-like in tone.
+
+The last time I had the privilege of touching the Dolphin Strad was
+at my lecture on violins before the Royal Institution in 1880. I
+shall never forget its ringing notes and its exquisite sensibility.
+It seemed anxious to speak before it was spoken to; when touched,
+it seemed to do all for itself like magic. Instead of the player
+showing it off, it shows off the player; he begins to feel he has
+nothing to learn in tone production. It is almost like sitting at
+those ingeniously contrived pianos that make elaborate music, and
+you merely have to put your hands on a dummy keyboard, press the
+keys, and appear to be playing, and then you roll off Chopin and
+Mendelssohn perfectly, though you can scarce play your scales! Since
+then Vuillaume’s sound-bar has been replaced with a stronger one by
+Messrs Hill. It seemed to me quite perfect before, but I suppose one
+must bow to experts in such matters.
+
+The best opinion limits the number of instruments which Strad made to
+about two thousand, only eight hundred of which at most are known to
+be extant. Compared with any other maker except Vuillaume, both as
+regards output and survival of work, Strad probably bears the palm.
+
+An elaborate description, a careful portraiture of every known Strad,
+together with its history, as far as recoverable, I must leave for
+some more gifted and industrious recorder. I believe Messrs Hill are
+preparing the most complete monograph on Stradivari which has ever
+yet or is ever likely to appear, and I only wish I could dip into
+their MS. and steal a few pages. It will certainly, when it appears,
+be a monumental work, and there is no time to lose, as many of these
+gems are known to have been destroyed, others dismembered, whilst
+some are at the bottom of the sea. There are, however, a few more
+famous specimens, which are of such unique interest that they cannot
+be passed over even in so general a survey as this.
+
+Mr Croall (1897) of Edinburgh is the happy owner of M. Artôt’s Strad,
+varnished dark red, quite perfect, and one of the finest known for
+tone; it is dated 1716. Lady Hallé still plays on Ernst’s violin,
+bought for £500, and presented to her by the Earl of Dudley and
+some others. I shall never forget the wonderful effects elicited
+from it by the great magician Ernst in his palmy days, nor can I
+understand the statement recently made that its tone is difficult to
+elicit. I have heard the faintest vanishing whisper of its strings on
+the Covent Garden stage when, as a boy, I was seated up in the top
+gallery at one of Benedict’s monster season concerts early in the
+fifties.
+
+A romantic interest attaches to two Stradivari violins which have
+come down to us in absolutely perfect condition: one is called the
+Messie, the other the Pucelle or the Virgin.
+
+The Messie was secured by Vuillaume after the death of that
+remarkable man Luigi Tarisio, to whom further on I devote a special
+section. It bears date 1716.
+
+Tarisio would never let it be seen till Vuillaume possessed it; it
+had then never been touched or played upon. He lengthened the neck,
+but, without _inserting_ his new neck, he fixed it to a block placed
+outside the ribs. Count Cozio de Salabue had bought it in 1760, but
+never allowed it to be played upon.
+
+Tarisio bought it after the Count’s death, and at his own death in
+1854 it passed to Vuillaume, and was exhibited (No. 91) in the South
+Kensington Loan Exhibition of 1872, and for the first time unveiled
+beneath glass to the gaze of admiring thousands.
+
+When I first saw the Messie I could not believe my eyes. It was
+covered throughout and uniformly with thick rich red-brown varnish,
+laid on with a firm brush, level and lavish. It seemed to have
+left the workshop only the day before; the anointed glitter of the
+fresh varnish was upon it, it looked hardly dry. It is of the grand
+pattern, but not heavy and massive like some of the great Del Gesù’s,
+but beautiful as a Pheidian carving, full of a certain special grace
+and elegance. One “∫” is a shade lower than the other--a practice _so
+common_ with Strad, especially in his later period, that it must have
+been intentional, his artistic eye not tolerating even the suggestion
+of mechanical uniformity. The Greeks worked similarly, no two sides
+of their Corinthian capitals ever quite matching.
+
+The “Messiah” back is in two pieces, the corners are absolutely
+unrubbed, and completely covered with varnish--of no other specimen
+can this be said. The head is light and graceful, “the scroll,” as
+I have elsewhere observed, thrown off like a ribbon lightly curled
+about the finger, and drawn in, one side of the scroll cut a little
+lower than the other; the lines of the scroll are picked out with
+thick black paint; only faint traces of this remain in other violin
+heads. The black outline was artistically conceived, as it called
+full attention to the scroll curve, always so characteristic a part
+of violin physiognomy.
+
+As the Messiah recently bought by Mr Crawford of Edinburgh for £2000
+has now been played upon, it seems a pity that the world should not
+sometimes be allowed to hear its voice; and I venture to say that a
+well-advertised concert, in which two of our finest violinists should
+be invited to play on the Messiah and the Pucelle--_i.e._, each
+player upon each instrument once, thus giving four solos, so that the
+audience might hear the same violins under different fingers--would
+be an epoch in the musical world. The announcement would doubtless
+pack St James’s or any other London hall.
+
+The Pucelle or Virgin is the last Stradivari violin I have space
+to notice. The “Virgin” is so called because its interior organism
+had, up to the time when it came into M. Vuillaume’s hands, not been
+interfered with--_i.e._, the inside bass bar had never been touched.
+All the old violins have had these bars strengthened, and their necks
+lengthened, to meet the strain of the modern high-pitch tension of
+the strings on the belly, and the lengthened finger-board which the
+development of advanced virtuosity demands.
+
+These readjustments the Pucelle owes to Vuillaume. She is in fine
+preservation otherwise, although her varnish is a good deal rubbed
+in places. Her contour, so fanciful are even good judges, is by some
+considered more graceful than that of the Messiah, but less graceful
+by others. To me there seems to be little to choose between them;
+each is a distinct conception.
+
+The Virgin’s varnish is of a rich soft brown and yellow tone, rather
+contrasting with the Messiah’s bright red. The head is stronger and
+less graceful than that of some Strads (the Dolphin’s, for instance);
+the Virgin’s back is in two parts, the belly is a little higher than
+that of the Messiah. The only vestige of repair about her is where
+the chin has rubbed into the purfling, which has accordingly been
+renewed. The corners are somewhat fancifully cut, running straight
+out in the top bouts, and hanging away in the lower bouts; there is a
+rather marked indentation of the curve beneath them.
+
+The Virgin is labelled 1709, and she reached Paris in 1840 (of course
+it is a Tarisio violin); it has been owned by Mons. le Roy, a banker,
+and passed to his heir, Mons. Glanday. She is now the property of a
+member of the same family, and is very jealously guarded by her owner.
+
+In vain does imagination seek to recover the image of the great maker
+as he lived and moved and had his being through ninety-three years of
+shower and shine. Undisturbed by petty sieges and local disturbances
+and changes of administration, sought for and admired impartially by
+the friends and the foes of his country, he wrought out calmly his
+own matchless ideal.
+
+Violins have no politics, and the great republic of Art dominates
+the ages, and comprehends whilst it survives the rise and fall of
+dynasties and empires.
+
+I sometimes seem to see the grand old man standing at the door of
+his modest but comfortable house--a tall, thin, perhaps rather gaunt
+figure, most likely not a man of many words, carrying on for ever
+mental processes connected with his subtle handicraft, seldom seen
+without a chisel in his hand.
+
+Behold him just risen from his stool, or come round to superintend or
+criticise a carelessly cut scroll of Bergonzi, his best pupil; and
+before he goes up into that almost sacred attic, open to the air, at
+the top of the house, where hang the varnished fiddles and anointed
+strips a-drying, he mutters a rebuke or rectifies a curve.
+
+The old man comes to the door, and stands for a moment looking down
+the street. He wears his woollen nightcap and his inevitable leather
+apron; he salutes the neighbours as they pass, but they do not stop
+to speak to him, they know he has no leisure for that. Only later,
+at the café-cabaret, it may be, he will chat with Joseph Guarnerius,
+and exhort him to more refinement; or tell his sons they will never
+uphold the reputation of the firm if they do not work harder; and
+as it is known that the master detests interruptions at home, in
+those moments of rare leisure when he emerges with the regularity of
+clockwork to sip his _vino_ or _sirop_ or coffee, Capelmeister A. or
+Padre B. or Monsignor C. may surprise him for a chat, and inquire
+timidly when the violoncello or quartet of violins ordered are likely
+to be ready, and get for reply something too enigmatic or oracular to
+be of any service; so patrons or patrons’ emissaries had to sit down
+at Cremona and wait on the master’s convenience for the masterpieces
+that could be got nowhere else.
+
+His prices seem to have been altogether moderate, but we must
+remember that the value of money was far greater in those days, a
+sovereign going then nearly as far as five go now.
+
+He sold his violins for £10 (= £40); the original price of his
+violoncellos and violas does not seem to be known.
+
+Although he had a large family, he must have made, if not inherited,
+money, for there seems to have been a proverb current at Cremona, “As
+rich as Stradivari.”
+
+Some years ago, fresh from my visit to the house of Stradivari, then
+still standing in the Piazza Roma, Cremona, I gave a full description
+of the great maker’s _entourage_, which I need not here repeat; but
+a single paragraph may serve better than anything that I can now
+write, at the distance of over a decade, to place the reader in the
+atmosphere in which Antonio Stradivari worked for more than half a
+century.
+
+I stood in the open loft at the top of his house where still in
+the old beams stuck the rusty old nails upon which he hung up his
+violins. And I saw out upon the north the wide blue sky, just
+mellowing to rich purple, and flecked here and there with orange
+streaks prophetic of sunset. Whenever Stradiuarius looked up from
+his work, if he looked north his eye fell on the old towers of S.
+Marcellino and S. Antonio, if he looked west the Cathedral with
+its tall campanile rose dark against the sky, and what a sky! full
+of clear sun in the morning, full of pure heat all day, and bathed
+with ineffable tints in the cool of the evening when the light lay
+low upon vinery and hanging garden, or spangled with ruddy gold the
+eaves--the roofs and frescoed walls of the houses.
+
+Here, up in the high air, with the sun his helper, the light his
+minister, the blessed soft airs his journeymen, what time the
+work-a-day noise of the city rose and the sound of matins and vespers
+was in his ears, through the long warm days worked Antonio Stradivari.
+
+Before the time came for the busy hand to fail, Antonio ceased to
+sign all the violins that he made; but, with an old man’s natural
+pride, he continued to sign a few down to the year of his death,
+registering the number of his years in each case, and it is from one
+of the latest of these, dated 1736, that we know his age.
+
+He sank quietly to rest, evidently worn out naturally and nobly, if
+not with his eye quite undimmed and his natural strength unabated,
+certainly still full of marvellous vigour, unpalsied senses, and
+undulled perception.
+
+When the Chapel of the Rosary in the Church of S. Domenico, opposite
+to which he had lived all his life, was pulled down, his funeral
+tablet was rescued, and it is now in the Town Hall at Cremona; but
+where are his ashes? Are they in the present family vault of the
+Stradivaris, in the Campo Santo of Cremona, or in the parish of S.
+Matthew? I was unable to ascertain. The tablet bears the following
+simple inscription:--“Sepolcro di Antonio Stradivari E svoi Eredi,
+Anno 1729.”
+
+Many of his family had preceded him to the grave, both of his wives
+and six of his eleven children, his last wife dying only nine months
+before him, a significant and painful event in a life so regular
+and uneventful, and one which may not unnaturally have hastened
+his own end. None of the family seem to have been buried in the S.
+Domenico vault, but in one belonging to Signor Francesco Vitani, in
+the parish of S. Matthew; so it may be Antonio lies there.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The Church of S. Domenico was pulled down several years ago; the
+house of Stradiuarius was destroyed only recently. The Piazza S.
+Domenico is now the Piazza Roma, and when an average Cremonese is
+asked about Stradivari, he thinks of the fashionable _avocat_ of
+that name, who appears to spend his time chiefly at Milan, and may
+possibly resent the notion that a man in good society should ever
+have had ancestors connected with fiddle-making. _Sic transit._
+
+The achievements in violin-making up to the first quarter of the
+eighteenth century are clearly summed up in the names of Antonio
+Stradivari and Giuseppe (del Gesù) Guarneri.
+
+It would be an interesting and thorny question to debate whether any
+variations of importance or additions in excellence have since been
+noticeable, and of course we naturally look to the best Cremonese
+makers, who followed these giants of tone-power and sweetness.
+
+The name of Carlo Bergonzi at once stands out as worthy, if not to
+be bracketed with that of the two mighty men, at least to receive
+their mantle and reflect something of their lustre. Carlo Bergonzi
+was Stradivari’s favourite pupil; he lived next door, and afterwards
+occupied Stradivari’s own house with his son.
+
+He finished many of his master’s late violins, and issued some
+others after his death collected from the débris of the great man’s
+workshop; and Stradivari left him all his tools and plant.
+
+He worked at Cremona between 1720-47 or 50, and followed at first
+Stradivari’s example; for as Antonio made his early fiddles on the
+pattern of Nicolo Amati, so did Bergonzi closely copy the grand Strad
+pattern. But later on, and before the death of the old man, Bergonzi
+conceived the ambition of attempting to weld the power of Giuseppe
+Guarnerius with the round, bright, bell-like sweetness of the
+Stradivari. To what extent he succeeded must be left to the judgment
+and decision of connoisseurs, but the grand quality for which his
+violins are increasingly appreciated is, no doubt, their powerful
+sonority; that he clearly saw must be the indispensable quality for
+all violins of the future.
+
+The old tinkling days were over; the feeble, scraping, and muffled
+viol tone was a thing of the past. The instrument had finally emerged
+from the cloister, was no longer to be a mere adjunct to the voice
+in dim sacristies and cathedral choirs; its sphere henceforth was to
+be out in the wide, wide world, its triumphs were to be won in the
+concert room, the opera house, and the grand musical arenas of solo
+virtuosity.
+
+And so, undoubtedly, what Bergonzi aimed at was body of tone and
+_carrying power_, and he won it. This dominant idea has modified
+even his pattern. He looks bold and loud. Yet is the pattern not
+Guarneri, but Stradivari modified. Notice the larger breadth of the
+top curve, a certain bold angularity about the bouts, and a freer
+development of the lower part of the violin as well; the sound-holes
+set lower and nearer to the purfling, and the flat model which
+Stradivari discovered to be favourable to loudness. The scroll is
+also characteristic--flatter in some places than that of his master,
+but made to look bold and full of self-assertion by reason of the
+strongly-defined and prominent curl of the ear, which stands out and
+at once challenges attention.
+
+The whole build is massive. The Bergonzi will outlast the Strad; it
+will be the survival, if not of the fittest, of the strongest. The
+very varnish is laid on with a lavish hand, to allow for wear and
+tear; it is even clotted in places, and is said in some specimens
+to have cracked and become scurfy. It is of a red Cremona brown,
+velvety, and quite the right sort.
+
+Until within the last few years Bergonzi has not received his dues;
+the scarcity of his instruments may in part account for this; but in
+France, and especially in England, he is now fully recognised and
+much sought after. There are, however, only about sixty authentic
+instruments of his known. His working life was but about twenty-five
+years. Two notable Bergonzi violins are those in the possession
+of Miss Eissler and Signor Simonetti. There is a famous Bergonzi
+double-bass of singularly fine quality now in possession of Mr I.
+Sears of Boston. In Count Cozio de Salabue’s collection there were
+two very fine Bergonzi violins, dated 1731 and 1733.
+
+There were five other Bergonzis--a son and grandsons; they all made
+fiddles, but they were of no account, and were far surpassed by some
+other makers who themselves belong to the decline period of the
+Cremona school.
+
+Although I have called Bergonzi Stradivari’s best pupil, it would be
+very unfair to ignore the merit of Lorenzo Guadagnini (1695-1740),
+the only one of that name who poses as a pupil of Stradivari. He was
+born at Piacenza, but lived at Cremona till about 1740. In about 1795
+he removed to Milan after leaving his master at Cremona, but returned
+to die in his native town. His make is bold, his model flat, his
+varnish not so rich as his master’s, his head original, but without
+the grace of Antonio.
+
+His son, Giovanni Battista, born at Piacenza, 1711-1786, made
+violins which are almost more highly esteemed than his father’s. He
+imitated Stradivari perhaps more closely than his father, but Count
+Cozio de Salabue, who thought very highly of him and bought several
+instruments from him, is careful to mention that Giovanni Battista
+Guadagnini prided himself upon being no mere copyist. In fact, the
+Guadagnini in the hands of Mr Willy Hess is quite equal to the best
+of Lorenzo’s work. He was always changing his place of residence, and
+wandered from Piacenza to Milan, and at last to Turin, where he died.
+His own explanation was that the envy of rivals made each town too
+hot for him, but his neighbours said that his frequent migrations
+were due to his own hot temper. There were seven Guadagninis who made
+violins between 1695 and 1881, but of these the first two, father and
+son, alone need be taken account of.
+
+It has been the fashion to separate the Italian makers into schools
+according to the place at which they happened to live--the Milanese,
+the Venetian, the Neapolitan, the Bolognese, etc.; but it is much
+more important to notice the influences under which the chief makers
+worked than to identify them with special towns.
+
+A Cremonese who works at Venice but carries the Cremonese traditions
+with him, is still a Cremonese, and belongs to the Cremona school.
+
+Thus, the “mighty Montagnana,” as the novelist Charles Reade called
+him, made Cremona violins and violoncellos at Venice. He worked
+between 1700-40 as a pupil of Stradivari, and survived his master
+only three years. But he came to him when the Cremona art was
+already perfected, and studied the finest models, assisting in all
+probability at the very manufacture of the most wonderful instruments
+in the world. With such a training, on his arrival at Venice he
+easily took the lead and kept it, and to this day his instruments,
+especially his matchless violoncellos--alas! too few in number--are
+little if at all inferior to the best of Antonio.
+
+Montagnana’s outline is by no means a servile copy, of Stradivari.
+It is flattened at top and bottom, and seems to the eye less
+graceful; but in his selection of wood, his glorious varnish, the
+relative thickness of his slabs, and in the cunning knowledge of
+those fibre densities in back and belly which are likely to sound
+well together, he is second to none.
+
+Montagnana no doubt embodies and transplants to Venice the Cremona
+secrets. As I noticed in the case of Bergonzi, Montagnana, owing to
+the paucity of his instruments as well as to the splendour of his
+contemporaries, Strad and Giuseppe Guarneri, has not until lately
+received the honour which is due to him. He suffers, too, from having
+often been labelled Guarnerius or Bergonzi, makers who had the vogue
+of the day. These frauds are now being unmasked, and the few great
+successors of the Cremona giants, Bergonzi, Montagnana, Guadagnini,
+and Balestrieri (very fine in Guadagnini’s style, flat, big build,
+powerful tone), and Storioni, have at last a chance of taking their
+proper places and fetching their prices.
+
+When we come to Lorenzo Storioni (1769-99) we come to the last maker
+of importance who can with any show of plausibility be called even a
+second or third rate master of Cremona. Storioni’s model was Joseph
+Guarnerius, but he copied him more in his rough work than in his
+great qualities. In his varnish we notice the singular change which
+came over the Cremona varnish after about 1760. Up till then all the
+Cremona violins have the Cremona varnish; after that time it simply
+disappears. Why is it? This interesting problem I shall have to
+consider in my chapter on Cremona varnish.
+
+Storioni’s instruments are not much esteemed in England as yet, but
+are thought a good deal more of in Italy.
+
+I may here fitly mention the Gagliano family, who are associated
+with the Neapolitan school, but really derive their importance
+from Cremona. Alessandro Gagliano, the first of the name, was
+distinguished for his very fine red varnish, 1695-1730. A violin
+remarkable for its tone is the Gennaro Gagliano that has been used by
+Mr Otto Peiniger for solo purposes during many years.
+
+Alessandro Gagliano was actually in early life a _bonâ fide_ pupil of
+Stradivari. Finding himself, no doubt, unmercifully overshadowed by
+the prestige of the immortal workshops in the square of S. Domenico
+at Cremona, and being a person of native enterprise, Alessandro
+Gagliano migrated to the South, carrying with him the Cremona
+craft, and founded the so-called Neapolitan school. His model was,
+of course, the approved flat one of the golden age, 1700-37, but
+his scroll is small and rather mean, the ∫ ∫ are set low down, and
+the work is sometimes lacking in finish. It is in the varnish of
+Alessandro Gagliano that we see some connection with Stradivari, his
+varnish very often being fine in colour and of the right texture.
+
+Attempts have been made to classify the various towns in which
+Italian violins were made during the Cremona period into schools,
+which is about as profitable an occupation as the attempts to divide
+the work of individual makers into distinct periods--one period runs
+into another, and one school runs into another.
+
+Roughly speaking, you find but two influences--the Cremona, _i.e._,
+the Nicolo, the great Giuseppe and greater Antonio influence with its
+flat form, gentle curves, and red and yellow varnish; and the German,
+_i.e._, the Stainer model, of which I shall presently speak, with its
+elongated form, arched belly, deep side-grooves, and brown-yellow
+varnish.
+
+Some fine Venetian and Milanese makers like Montagnana and Serafino
+inclined to Stainer, whilst the Roman and Neapolitan adhered more
+to the Cremona type; but Stainer himself learnt at Cremona, and all
+the best men like Tecchler (Rome) and Gagliano (Naples) who went
+South copied either Stradivari or Giuseppe Guarnerius. The Milanese
+school, on account of the great importance of the capital, naturally
+attracted good makers like Grancino, Testore (pupil of Grancino), and
+Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza (1687-1720).
+
+Venice, Florence, and Bologna can also boast of a few respectable
+names, but I prefer, for the sake of completeness, to treat them
+later more in catalogue style, for the guidance of the student, and
+not to mix them up with the great central figures which have formed
+the subject, and I hope absorbed the attention, of the reader of this
+section.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+VIOLINS IN GERMANY
+
+
+Of course, by this time, “every schoolboy,” to use Macaulay’s famous
+phrase, knows that most things--including, alas! violins--can be made
+in Germany faster and cheaper than anywhere else; and if we trust to
+German writers like Dr Schebek, we might almost believe that viols,
+not to say the violin, originated in Germany.
+
+I am quite willing to leave the viol origin an open question. If, on
+the one hand, Albert Dürer and his father-in-law both made violins
+and dated back to 1500, Benvenuto Cellini tells us that long before
+1500 his father made the finest Italian viols at Florence; and an
+ingenious writer has now unearthed a print by Maso Fineguerra, the
+father of engraving about 1460, in which Thalia is represented
+playing on a small violin pochette or kit--which, by the way, has
+rather upset the idea that the kit was a reduced violin, but seems
+to show, on the contrary, that the violin followed the kit instead
+of the kit following the violin, the kit being in reality a small
+violin. It is thus triumphantly argued by Mr Fleming that even the
+predecessor of, and every suggestion of, the violin came from Italy;
+but in his ardour he fails to notice that although an Italian print
+shows a woman playing on a kit, the kit she plays on might all the
+same have been “made in Germany.”
+
+If I see an English picture with a tomahawk and a boomerang, I do not
+assume at once that the objects depicted were necessarily “made in
+England.”
+
+But, as far as this book is concerned, such questions are of quite
+secondary importance. It is sufficient to notice that the first
+instruments possessing the distinctive features of what we call the
+viola and the violin, as distinguished from the viol tribe, came from
+Brescia and Cremona; and that the greatest, if not the earliest,
+German maker, Jacobus Steiner or Stainer, is commonly reputed to have
+studied at Venice, or, as some say, learnt his art under Nicolo Amati
+at Cremona.
+
+As we approach the great figure of Stainer we are in the presence of
+a man who stands only second in popular estimation to the greatest
+of the Cremona masters. Indeed, so great a musician and eminent
+an authority as Sir John Hawkins writes in 1776: “The violins of
+Cremona are _exceeded_ [_sic_] only by those of Stainer a German
+whose instruments are remarkable for a full and piercing tone.”
+The popularity of an English maker, Duke, who followed the German
+Stainer model, and whose fiddles were all the rage when good Sir
+John wrote, may have a little blinded his eyes to the Cremona
+_chefs-d’œuvre_--few of which, if any, he had ever seen. But it is no
+small tribute to the power of the German that for at least a hundred
+years he retarded the due recognition of the Cremonas and gave a
+faulty direction to the violin pattern throughout England, France,
+and Germany.
+
+The arguments in favour of Stainer having visited Cremona in his
+early life rest a good deal on romance--the story of his having
+been a pupil of the great Nicolo, whose daughter he is said to have
+refused to marry, is unreliable. Whether he went home or stayed at
+home and married the village belle whom he appears first to have
+compromised, and who bore him seven daughters and one son after
+marriage and one daughter before, it matters very little to us.
+
+Poems and novels have been written about this unhappy child of
+genius, but, as far as I can gather, the only reliable facts seem to
+be these, and they have been quite recently unearthed and sifted by
+Herr Ruf, who died at Hall in 1877:--
+
+Jacob Steiner or Stainer was undoubtedly born at Absam, a village not
+far from Hall. The townlet lay on the high-road between the Tyrol and
+Italy, and doubtless nothing that went on in the northern cities of
+Lombardy was long in finding its way to Hall, for mules and pedlars
+constantly carried all sorts of merchandise--viols, and violins, and
+lutes amongst other things--to and fro. The great argument against
+Steiner ever having received early instruction at Cremona seems to
+be that he affected the tubby raised bellies and deep side-grooves
+of the old German viols; but it must be remembered that if as a boy
+he came under Nicolo Amati’s influence, it was at a time when Nicolo
+himself approached far more nearly the raised viol form than he
+did later on when his own model improved. The Steiner pattern is
+therefore consistent with all these theories:--
+
+Firstly, that Steiner adopted the raised pattern which he found at
+Cremona, and which was then common throughout the violin-making
+world; that, returning early to Absam, he adhered to it, and, perhaps
+from motives of national pride, accentuated it _Germano more_.
+
+Secondly, that he visited Cremona later, when his own model was
+already formed, and was too proud to alter it.
+
+Thirdly, that German he was, and German he remained, and never went
+to Cremona at all.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All these questions, upon which much ink and paper have been spent,
+remain more interesting to the antiquarian than to the collector.
+Still, an indescribable interest and a deep human pathos seem to
+cling about the meagre facts of this remarkable man’s life.
+
+Stainer’s popularity was so enormous that ten times the number of
+violins he could ever have made have been attributed to him, and his
+name has been forged quite as often as that of the great Stradivari.
+
+Stainer married in 1645, and was appointed one of the Archducal
+servants, 1669; he advanced rapidly in favour, became violin-maker to
+the Emperor’s court, and was turning out instruments as fast as he
+could make them, forming such admirable pupils as Klotz and Albani,
+when he fell a victim to the _odium theologicum_.
+
+Heretical books were found in his possession, or heretical opinions
+were expressed by him, or both. He was, in fact, a Lutheran, and a
+Lutheran in Absam was far too near to the preserves of Mother Church,
+and very soon, like a hawk on a pheasant run, he was shot down.
+Stainer was also miserably in debt, and perhaps somewhat litigious,
+as people of genius and independence of character are wont to be.
+
+In 1677, having got out of prison, Jacobus petitioned the Emperor
+Leopold, whose protégé and employé he had been, and who was a
+great musical amateur, for money. Leopold lost his opportunity;
+unlike Ludwig of Bavaria, who won for himself an easy immortality
+by supplying Wagner with funds, Leopold turned a deaf ear to the
+immortal violin-maker.
+
+Stainer seems to have dragged on a wretched existence for six years
+longer, overburdened with care and debt. The attentions of his wife
+and eight daughters did not prevent him from going mad with worry
+and want; nay, a helpless and incompetent family may even have
+contributed to this so unhappy close of a splendid but blighted
+career.
+
+They show even now at Absam the bench to which the wretched man is
+said to have been bound when his paroxysms came on. He died in 1683,
+not only insane but insolvent. His wife died in great poverty six
+years afterwards, in 1689.
+
+There seems no room in this sad life-story for his sentimental
+retreat into a monastery on account of his inconsolable grief for the
+death (?) of his wife. Had she been such an inestimable blessing,
+we might have expected her to have kept her gifted husband alive,
+managed his household more thriftily, rescued him from his debts,
+moved the hearts of his great patrons, or at least saved him from
+going mad.
+
+But, on the other hand, eight daughters were doubtless a trial to
+a couple who seemed always hard up; and the one son, born in 1657
+and dying in infancy, as we learn from a tombstone in the Pilgrims’
+Church at Absam, deprived the great artificer of a coadjutor who
+might have been interested in building up the firm, and, perhaps,
+brought into it those business faculties without which the most
+brilliant abilities in every department of life so often make
+shipwreck.
+
+A certain Marcus Stainer, whose reputed date is about 1665-69, and
+who called himself citizen and violin-maker, it is difficult to
+connect with the illustrious Jacob, although he has been called his
+brother, and some say he was a monk and actually assisted Jacob
+Stainer in the workshop.
+
+The great violinist Tartini is said to have possessed two of this
+man’s instruments, called Peter and Paul.
+
+Veracini, another eminent soloist, is said to have lost both of them
+in a shipwreck.
+
+Herr von Reimer possesses a violin with label “Markus Steiner Burger
+und Geigenmacher, anno 1659” (not a very clerical label, by the way),
+and that is all that can be ascertained about this other Stainer; for
+of an Andreas Stainer, 1660, nothing but the name is known.
+
+So everything tends to keep the ill-fated genius Jacob apart. Alone
+he remains as the one important rival of the Cremonese school; alone
+he stands at the head of all the Germans. Genuine Stainer instruments
+are rare; Stainer labels, copies, and forgeries are innumerable, and
+one of the greatest curses of the fiddle market.
+
+The general look of a Stainer is so distinct from that of any maker
+except such as copied him, that it must arrest the attention of even
+a casual observer.
+
+The Stainer belly is much higher than the back, the rise is kept up
+through half its length; the varnish is yellow (or as in the Elector
+Stainers), with a sort of pale-rose flush in it.
+
+The early pattern, deep Amati side-grooves, the long-shaped,
+beautifully thrown end of the scroll, sometimes a lion’s head carved
+with the art of a Stradivari, the narrow purfling lying close to
+the sides of the strong, roundly moulded edges, the circular-topped
+sound-holes rather shorter than the Cremonese, peg-box often dark
+brown, contrasting with the palish-yellow belly--such are the leading
+characteristics of the great Jacob.
+
+His earlier specimens bear varnish something akin to the Amatis; they
+are also of the smaller pattern. A good example of them is one in the
+possession of Mr Russell of Bedale, Yorkshire, dated 1645.
+
+Jacob’s finest type may be seen in the famous Elector Stainer; of
+these he is said to have made twelve, one for each of the Electors.
+The popular legend refers them to his Benedictine monastery, but
+there is no shadow of proof that he ever was there at all; perhaps,
+however, if one Markus Stainer who is reputed to have made Peter and
+Paul was a monk, _he_ may have been a Benedictine monk, and as the
+obscure Guarneri who did get locked up seems to be responsible by
+transference for the great Joseph del Gesù’s legendary incarceration,
+so Monk Markus may do duty for J. Stainer’s reputed sojourn and
+residence in a Benedictine monastery. It matters very little when
+the Elector Stainers were made; most connoisseurs are agreed that
+the two quite authentic “survivals of the fittest” are miracles of
+workmanship, beauty, and the perfection of Stainer tone.
+
+The Stainer tone! What is there about that tone, which for 150 years
+so fascinated the musical world as to dull the perceptions of so
+experienced a professor as Sir John Hawkins to the more exquisite
+timbre of the finest Cremonas? No one but myself is responsible for
+the following conjecture.
+
+Perhaps there is less tonal difference between the early Amati and
+the later Strad than between the early Amati and the full-blown
+Stainer; and it may have been the sharp, pungent contrast--the type
+of tone that was _quite new_, as it were an original creation--which
+at once arrested and held the ear of that epoch. For, after all,
+musicians in the seventeenth century were only beginning to be
+cultivated in the delicate appreciation of tone _nuances_. The proof
+of this would not be far to seek. It is quite notorious, though
+to us amazing, that the differences between the Amati, the Strad,
+the Guarnerius, and the Bergonzi or Ruggerius, should not have been
+more clearly apprehended. When, for instance, a man--an orchestral
+leader, too--had bought a Ruggerius and paid for a Joseph, we do not
+find that he was dissatisfied with it until he discovered that the
+_label_ was false. The superb qualities of the great Joseph have been
+appreciated only since the Strad craze; but the world-wide cult of
+Strad dates from Tarisio, who began his work of violin exploration
+and discovery in 1827, dying only in 1854. But any tyro would be
+arrested by the clear, sharp, biting tone of Stainer. A violinist
+in the orchestra could make his Stainer cut through all the first
+fiddles, and once the taste for that sort of tone was excited, it
+would be to the ear what curry, or vinegar, or quinine bitter, or
+absinthe is to the palate. The Stainer tone is a sort of drastic,
+stinging stimulant to the ear, almost an intoxication; and the ear
+that has been once caught by it craves for it, and misses it even in
+the loud richness of Joseph, the exquisite velvety timbre of Amati,
+or the superb ringing brightness of the great Antonio.
+
+Thus, in his own original way, Stainer met the crying want of his
+age for loud and piercing tone. He was the very antipodes of the
+tubby, muffled sound of the old viols. With a bound he reached the
+opposite pole. The coarse ears of the multitude were at once tickled
+and “grisé,” as the French say, by his wiry intensity; and soloists
+soon found that it was an immense help to wield a novel and stinging
+timbre which, without any special gift of theirs, awakened attention
+like the roll of a drum, or the blast of a cornet, or the tinkle of a
+triangle.
+
+These considerations alone, in my opinion, account for the popularity
+of Stainer in all ages; the bulk of hearers belong to the musically
+untrained, who like pungency, and desire above all to have their ears
+tickled.
+
+Just in proportion as music developed and the musical ear got trained
+to higher and higher refinement, so that specialities of tone became
+a cult for the ear, as specialities of colour for the eye, just in
+that measure did the great and subtle qualities of the Cremona school
+emerge, whilst the rage for Stainer, Klotz, and Duke declined.
+
+I have no wish to disparage these last-named fine artificers. The
+increasing rarity of their instruments, and the really splendid
+qualities which we grant ungrudgingly to the best of them, must
+always make them much prized, and I fully expect that in a few years
+there will be a revival of the Stainer craze, and that his violins
+may then touch Cremona prices. I shall be very glad if they do; it
+will mean that at last we shall get something like a definite sifting
+of this great master’s best specimens, and that in this shaking
+in auction rooms, and in the cabinets of collectors, the forged
+parasites and impudent copies which have for years sailed under false
+colours--labels (libels, I mean)--will fall off into the limbo of
+violin refuse and other things “made in Germany.”
+
+The best pupils and followers of Stainer were Klotz and Albani;
+but as it became the fashion to dub every one who made respectable
+violins in Germany about that time, and showed traces of the Stainer
+model, “pupils” of the great man, modern writers have grown properly
+cautious about dogmatising.
+
+If all Stainer’s reputed pupils had really worked with him, they
+ought certainly to have married his eight daughters and relieved him
+of some of his heavy family responsibilities.
+
+Sebastian Klotz or Kloz (1675) and his son Mathias (1696-1709) made
+excellent violins, and some prefer the son’s to the father’s. There
+were, besides, four other Klotz, relationship uncertain. Sebastian
+of Mittenwald visited Florence and Cremona; but although when he
+returned to his native town he announced his intention of making
+a second Cremona of Mittenwald, he and his family adhered mainly
+to the Stainer model, and reproduced very successfully the Stainer
+tone. Vidal says that his sons inundated Germany with false Stainers.
+Of the great violin manufactory which, on the suppression of the
+Mittenwald Fair in the seventeenth century, is said to have revived
+the commercial prosperity of the town, no trace now remains; but it
+is certain that, whilst the Klotz family lived and worked, a pretty
+steady stream of pseudo- (or _scuola_) Stainers poured forth from
+Mittenwald till about the year 1750.
+
+The Albani family, like the Tecchler, stand midway between the
+Cremona and the Absam school, but Albani _père_ (1621-73) was
+certainly Italian, though he was born and lived at Botzen, in the
+Italian Tyrol, where he made German fiddles in the Italian style
+and for the Italian market, although his son Joseph was also bitten
+with the Cremona model. Albani’s violins pass for Italian; they are
+varnished red, and rival the Amati tone, and the Joseph Albanis are
+more highly esteemed than the violins of Albani _père_.
+
+It is further significant of Albani’s popularity in Italy, that
+the most accomplished maestro and composer of the early part of
+the eighteenth century, Corelli, played on an Albani. This appears
+certain from an examination made by Mr Arthur Hill of the will of
+the late William Corbet, who had a large collection of rare fiddles,
+and disposed of them in his will, where mention is made of an Albani
+fiddle, which he left with the memorandum that it had _belonged to
+Corelli_. This is a very interesting example of a carefully excavated
+fact, and does Mr Arthur Hill great credit.
+
+Tecchler, also called a pupil of Stainer, is perhaps most esteemed
+for his violoncellos, the best of which run the Strad ’cellos very
+hard. A very fine Tecchler ’cello is in the possession of Mr E.
+W. Hennell (1898), and there are several others in this country.
+Tecchler seems to have made few, if any, violins, which is strange,
+as his master made few, if any, violoncellos; he worked in Rome
+between 1695 and 1735. His instruments are sometimes rather
+cumbrous; his varnish is yellow, like Stainer’s.
+
+The subsequent history of “violins made in Germany” is, to say the
+least, very mixed; nothing so good as Stainer was done there before
+him, and nothing equal to him has been done there since.
+
+The golden age of German violin-making begins and ends with Jacobus
+Stainer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+VIOLINS IN FRANCE
+
+
+Italy and Germany have to look back to their golden age, but it seems
+as if France and England had to look forward.
+
+France and England have never yet gone beyond a doubtful silver age,
+but there is good reason to think that the manipulation and alchemy
+of time, whilst thinning out by wear and tear and loss the older
+gems, will not only transform the Piques and Lupôts, and perhaps the
+Vuillaumes and Chanots, but also the Banks, Forsters, and Fendts, and
+probably the Dukes and Hills, into golden quality, with very advanced
+prices; and so, instead of being, like Artemus Ward’s future,
+_behind_ them, they may still be found to have their future _before_
+them.
+
+The French work contemporaneous with the Cremona period is not
+nearly so interesting, nor do the makers appear to have been nearly
+so capable as the men who followed them towards the close of the
+seventeen hundreds. This is no doubt accounted for by the streams of
+violins pouring out of the Italian and German workshops, the superior
+reputation of Cremona, which drew at once the patronage of the
+Spanish and French Courts, and perhaps the small demand for stringed
+instruments in France compared with the huge demand in Italy and
+throughout Germany.
+
+So there was a poor market as yet for French work.
+
+In Italy, in the luxurious little Duchies and Principalities, as
+well as in the churches, and in Germany in the small Electorates,
+each of which supported its band and gave an indirect impetus to the
+churches, Reformed and Roman Catholic, violin-making flourished, and
+so it came to pass that Italy and Germany made for all the world.
+
+The Cremona period in France can boast of but two considerable names,
+Jacques Boquay (1705-30) and Pieray (1700-25). Boquay worked on the
+early Cremonese model, which had already been left behind by the
+modified forms of Stradivari (1700 great period). His violins have
+not yet reached a high selling figure, but may possibly rise; they
+are by no means scarce; his varnish is reddish-brown, transparent,
+warm and soft. He reverted to the Jerome Amati type, arching even a
+little more than Jerome.
+
+The quality of his tone is good, but it lacks power, which in these
+advanced days tells against him except for cabinet playing.
+
+Claude Pieray (1700-25) worked in Paris, and followed the later Amati
+contour, but he was far enough removed from the Cremonese influence
+to follow a line of his own. Whilst varying, some think capriciously,
+the thickness of his wood, and not always securing the best quality
+of wood, he varnished pale red, and turned out a small and large
+pattern; but he evidently inclined to the larger pattern of the late
+Amati Strad.
+
+A violin of Pieray’s was advertised in the sale of Tom Britton, the
+musical coal-heaver, as “a very beautiful violin, and _as good as a
+Cremona_,” which shows that even at that date the Stainer influence,
+then so strong in England, had not dimmed the fame of Cremona.
+However, it would of course have been absurd to compare him to
+Stainer, the affinity between Pieray and Amati being too obvious.
+
+But the really great silver-gilt if not golden age of French
+violin-making dawned with Lupôt (1736-58), was extended by Pique
+(1788-1822), Vuillaume (1798-1875), Chanot (1801), Gand (1802), and
+Aldric (1792-1840), famous for his varnish; and Fent,[2] an admirable
+copyist, whose violins often sell as Lupôt’s copies of Strad.
+
+The labours of these great French disciples of Cremona, copyists and
+occasional forgers as they were, are sufficient to decide for ever
+the superiority of the Strad model over all others. Their lives were
+chiefly occupied in reproducing the unique Antonio minutely without
+attempting the least modification of the ultimate Cremona form, which
+he had defined.
+
+The firm of Lupôt, immortalised by Nicolas Lupôt (1758-1824), dates
+back to 1696 or somewhat earlier. The father and grandfather of
+Nicolas Lupôt resided at different times at Plombiers, Luneville,
+and Orleans, but Nicolas was born at Stuttgart in 1758. He returned
+to Orleans in 1770.
+
+[Illustration: F. TOURTE]
+
+[Illustration: N. LUPOT]
+
+Nicolas Lupôt was a man of great discernment, and not carried away
+with the fashion of the times. Although during the first twenty years
+of his life he must have seen and heard the German model of Stainer
+extolled, neither his own work nor yet his father’s show any leaning
+towards it. His eye was enamoured with the Stradivari grand pattern,
+and his best violins are such loving and faithful copies of the
+great Antonio that many amateurs and some professional judges have
+been deceived by them. But Lupôt never got rid of the glassy, chippy
+French varnish, and although his warm orange tints are generous and
+the varnish has been laid on with a lavish hand, the rubbing bare
+by time of a Lupôt is very different from that fading away upon the
+fibres of a Strad, where always a subtler film protecting the wood
+seems to linger, a sort of mist of varnish to the end.
+
+But Nicolas Lupôt was a great workman, and, as Hamlet modestly puts
+it, “indifferently honest”--that is, honest as violin copyists go. He
+did not imitate, he _copied_, and varnished throughout; he never aged
+his copies prematurely, or tried to take in buyers; he reverenced his
+great Cremona model too much to palm off his own work as those of the
+master. Of course his violins have rubbed since and aged since, but
+they have aged and rubbed honestly, and are every year increasing
+in value, and distinctly mellowing in tone and sensitive quality.
+The moment Nicolas Lupôt arrived in Paris, early in this century,
+his talents were recognised; orders flowed in, and he remained and
+remains without a rival in the French school.
+
+He was appointed maker to the Paris Conservatoire, which involved
+the manufacture of the annual prize violin to be presented to the
+gold medallist of the year, and to this academic privilege we are
+doubtless indebted for some of his finest efforts. A violin which
+would annually at the time be associated with one of the chief
+musical events of the year, and come under the criticism of all
+musical Paris, would certainly call forth the mettle of one who
+admittedly “took the cake,” but was not without formidable rivals.
+
+One of these rivals was Pique. He was in the habit, it is said, of
+buying Lupôt’s fiddles unvarnished, varnishing them, and labelling
+them with his own name. He had better have left the varnishing alone
+and contented himself with a fraudulent label. It is surprising
+that he should have stooped to such a device. Pique is quite a
+considerable person, second only to Lupôt as a maker. He must have
+been influenced by commercial considerations, but his dishonesty is
+a great tribute to the superior popularity and merit of Lupôt. Still
+Pique was so clever that he could have afforded to be honest.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+François Gand, who entered as Lupôt’s pupil in 1802, was much beloved
+by his master. He became his best pupil, married his daughter, and
+succeeded to his business in the Rue Croix des Petits Champs in 1824.
+
+Time has invented a new industry--the art of repairing--which
+François Gand raised to a veritable fine art (Mennégand, Kolliker,
+Rambeaux and W. Ebsworth Hill have since rivalled him). Pique would
+join and split mutilated grain in such a way that, without the aid of
+a microscope, the patch or closed fissure cannot be spotted. He would
+spend days over mending a crack; it became with him a sort of passion
+of ingenuity.
+
+It was almost worth breaking a fiddle to have it mended by Gand, and
+his exquisite skill and profound knowledge as a repairer no doubt
+gave rise to the common but risky notion that an old violin was
+improved by being mended, as some surgeons pretend that a skilful
+operation will not only prolong life, but positively improve the
+constitution. The firm of Gand and Bernadel is still of high standing
+in Paris. The violins of François are useful and solidly built, but
+lack altogether the Italian grace and finish of his master, Lupôt.
+
+Pique (1788-1822) is by some held to have run Lupôt very hard as a
+copyist of Stradivari. Pique avoids at once the error of the vulgar
+copyist, who cannot refrain from emphasising the peculiarities of his
+model, and the sin of the brazen forger, who bakes and rubs, treats
+with acids, and simulates the cracks and the wear and tear of time.
+But Pique had some conscience. He may have passed himself off as
+Lupôt, but at least he never posed as Stradivari.
+
+Those conversant with Pique’s instruments observe a very high and
+conscientious finish throughout. Spohr, the violinist and composer,
+played for many years on a Lupôt, and was never tired of extolling
+both Lupôt and Pique. Pique died in 1822, two years before Lupôt,
+and his violins improve every year, and will by-and-by fetch prices
+second only to those of Lupôt, which are already up to £200 (1897).
+
+
+A VIGNETTE OF J. B. VUILLAUME.
+
+If I were to seek for an appropriate pendant to the figure of
+William Ebsworth Hill in London, I could not find a better one
+than Jean Baptiste Vuillaume of Paris. Yet the two men were very
+different;--the careful, neat, systematic enthusiast, with a shrewd
+eye to business, and the dreamy worker always apparently in the midst
+of a chaos of material, out of which he alone could select at a
+moment’s notice what he required; the ready purveyor of whatever sort
+of article happened to be wanted, and the careless distributor of his
+wares, who forgot what he owed his customers, and kept them waiting
+for months; the clever copyist, the reverent repairer, the ingenious
+brain for ever evolving new sorts of bows, fiddle shapes, screws; and
+the idolater of the old forms, who had so firmly grasped the truth
+that violins and all that belonged to them had culminated at Cremona
+before the middle of the eighteenth century, that he never aspired to
+invent anything new or alter anything old;--the Parisian, who made
+many fiddles, and died rich; the Londoner, who made few fiddles,
+but repaired innumerable antiques, and died with but a moderate
+competence. The force of contrast could go no further; nay, you can
+look at the two men’s faces, and see the secret of their characters
+writ plain enough.
+
+[Illustration: J. B. VUILLAUME]
+
+[Illustration: WILLIAM EBSWORTH HILL]
+
+I can remember old Hill’s dreamy gaze, peering at me with screwed-up
+eyes through his spectacles. You were nothing in particular to him,
+duke or pauper; it was your fiddle that gave you the importance
+or the reverse in his eyes. But look at Jean Baptiste Vuillaume’s
+portrait--it lies before me as I write: the jaunty embroidered and
+tasselled velvet skull-cap, the well-arranged black satin tie, the
+well-cut coat, the grave sharp look and keen eye, not dreaming at
+all, but taking everything in at a glance; the mouth a little aslant,
+as we often see it in men of speculative and ingenious minds; the
+firm fine nose, and the strong quiet face, but a face that betrays
+a mind ever alert, capable of dominating its owner’s gifts, his
+customers, and the market generally, whilst the man was genuinely
+devoted to the art and craft which made him great, and rich, and
+famous. Yes, the two great connoisseurs might well hang side by side
+in twin frames, for they are two types, united by a like enthusiasm
+and speciality of craft and knowledge, but differently interesting,
+variously unique each in his own way.
+
+Both were hereditary violin-makers, and the tendency--I had almost
+said the cult--was born and bred in the blood.
+
+Vuillaume was early saturated, in his father’s workshop at Mirecourt,
+with all the secrets and arts of the trade, long before he served his
+apprenticeship. But Paris drew the young fellow, then only nineteen,
+with an irresistible magnetism.
+
+Victor Hugo, that typical Parisian of Parisians, has somewhere
+described the Frenchman’s inborn love of his capital, the centre to
+him of life, art, pleasure, movement, industry, and invention. So to
+Paris must your Jean Baptiste go. But to whom?--to whom but Chanot
+(Francis), incomparable worker, copyist, forger, suitable adept,
+indeed, for such a bright novice.
+
+With Chanot, Vuillaume remained till 1821, when he went over to Lété,
+the organ-builder, who also dabbled in fiddles, and was glad to
+have at his beck and call as a foreman such a specialist, with all
+the experience of Mirecourt and the craft of Chanot at his back; in
+fact, he lost no time in taking the young man into partnership, and
+the partner throve so well that he married in 1828, being then just
+thirty years old.
+
+Things ran smoothly with Vuillaume; his wife did not drink, or abuse
+him, or waste his money. His home was happy, and, in the sunshine of
+domestic peace, his talents expanded in the direction of that growing
+market which was created by the taste for old fiddles, excited by
+Tarisio, and supplied by the not always scrupulous skill of Chanot.
+
+But Vuillaume went one better than Chanot. Chanot’s trick was to
+produce such deceptive copies or patch with counterfeit backs
+and bellies of his own--or to forge downright a whole antique,
+to be foisted upon some unwary but ill-informed enthusiast. But
+Vuillaume, to his honour be it said, soon discerned that the world
+at large could not be won by fraud, but that men were the slaves of
+imagination and sentiment. This timely and philosophic discovery made
+him famous and wealthy, almost at a bound. He loved the old Italian
+fiddles; he had the best opportunities of seeing them; his admirable
+technique enabled him to copy them accurately--to counterfeit the
+wear and tear, even the cracks and worm-holes, the inlaying, the
+rubbed varnish, the old wood; and for about five pounds, or even
+less, he proposed to provide people with new fiddles, which looked
+like old ones worth fifty or a hundred pounds.
+
+The device succeeded beyond the dreams of avarice. Orders poured in
+faster than they could be executed. Just look at the old man’s face.
+Can you not see the shrewdness, betrayed by that slight pucker in
+the lip, which discovered and worked this now familiar tendency of
+human nature to possess what _seems_, if you can’t afford to buy what
+_is_ really good? It is the secret of cheap art, shoddy satsuma,
+coarse blue china, common silks, oleographs, and sham Palais Royal
+jewellery galore--every bazaar reeks with it; whilst the biggest
+warehouses are not above selling a made-up wine that deceives the
+palate, a walking-stick not ebony, only paint or stain, and furniture
+not really inlaid, but ditto ditto. So Vuillaume began early those
+amazing copies, chiefly of Stradiuarius, which even now deceive the
+innocent, and for a moment may even puzzle a connoisseur. Well, it
+was no doubt shoddy, but shoddy of the best sort; shoddy raised to a
+fine art, like those roses so subtly made out of silk or cambric that
+we might easily pop them into water to prevent them from fading.
+
+This new-found copying industry was a delight as well as a profit to
+the clever French craftsman.
+
+He loved a Cremona; he copied it as men copy the old masters again
+and again, till they know every touch of the immortal workman, and
+revel in its reproduction.
+
+“I have completed,” remarked Vuillaume in his declining years, “three
+thousand instruments, all sold, all paid for, and the money spent,
+and it affords me great satisfaction.”
+
+Like Ebsworth Hill, Jean Baptiste loved to do it all himself. Every
+instrument was varnished carefully by his own hands, and many are
+made throughout by him.
+
+But what is the actual merit of Vuillaume’s violins? Fine work, yes;
+admirable counterfeits, yes; but the great expectations raised by the
+appearances are unfortunately not always answered by the tone. His
+best are good, and will run into forty pounds, perhaps more; but his
+worst are dear at five pounds. Nor can Vuillaume pretend to rival in
+power his great French predecessors, Pique or Lupôt, who copied, but
+without registering the defects of age, accident, and decay, which
+are so cleverly reproduced in Vuillaume’s typical specimens.
+
+It is an exaggeration to say that Vuillaume baked his fiddles; but
+he treated the wood chemically in various ways, besides reproducing
+cracks and even worm-holes; and this artificial age put upon
+his planks not only fails to carry the mellowness and timbre of
+wood grown naturally old, but seems actually to impair instead
+of improving its quality, and this is but too apparent as the
+instruments recede in time farther and farther from the hand of the
+too cunning artificer.
+
+There are, however, a few fine quartets of instruments, one of which,
+made for the Comte de Chimay, was lately exposed to public view in
+Messrs Hill’s windows in Bond Street. These are varnished equally
+throughout, and no attempt at aging the wood or tampering with the
+surface is visible. The work throughout is charming and finished,
+as in the best Cremonese models, and the only wonder is, that as
+everything about them is so good, the tone is not better; still,
+everything is relative. But Vuillaume claims to be judged by a high
+standard, and so we judge him.
+
+Vuillaume’s ingenious brain was ever devising improvements and
+novelties, but few of them have turned out successes.
+
+He made a violin tenor, but it never came into use, it being too
+cumbrous. He made a steel bow; but, although hollow, it was found to
+be too heavy. He made a sourdine tailpiece which acted on the bridge,
+but it has never superseded the usual simple dummy contrivance. He
+made a self-hairing bow, which is still sold by Mr Withers; but most
+violinists prefer to pay a small sum and get their bows haired, just
+as most men prefer to get themselves shaved--it is less trouble, and
+does not cost much.
+
+Apart from his undoubted finish as a workman, and skill as a copyist,
+Jean Baptiste Vuillaume’s title to fame will rest largely on his
+connection with Tarisio. As we have seen, he not only dealt with him
+living, but bought all the violins found in the bedroom along with
+the peasant carpenter’s lifeless body.
+
+His possession of the Messie, which he kept in a glass case, and
+never allowed any one to touch, was a source of great anxiety to him
+during the Paris Commune in 1870.
+
+He writes to Madame Alard, his daughter, who married the celebrated
+violinist of that name: “In my last I spoke to you of Alard’s violin
+and my Messie, and of certain valuables I have here. I do not know
+what to do with them, for if one survives, one will be able to
+recover the valuables when the hubbub is over; and some _sous_ can be
+buried, but violins cannot be buried.” And again: “Where ought I to
+place all these in case of pillage?”
+
+He referred chiefly to his violins, and old medals received in the
+Paris Exhibition from 1827 to 1855, and the Great Exhibition medal in
+London, 1851.
+
+Later on we are relieved by reading: “I have found quite a safe
+hiding-place protected from fire, _et puis à la grace de Dieu_!”
+
+All went well with the treasures, and in 1875, when he died, the
+Messie fell to the joint share of his only two children, Jeanne
+and Claire. Jeanne (Madame Alard) bought out Claire’s interest for
+five hundred pounds, the violin at that time being valued at one
+thousand. In 1890 Messrs Hill bought it for Mr R. Crawford for the
+unprecedented figure of two thousand pounds, the largest sum ever
+given by a dealer for a single instrument. Mr Charles Reade valued it
+at six hundred, but that was several years ago, when a first-class
+Strad could be obtained for about three hundred and twenty pounds.
+Prices have run up since then, and (like “Charley’s Aunt”[3] as we
+write) are “still running”!
+
+Down to the end of his life Vuillaume was a great dealer, and he
+hurried over to London when quite an old man to attend the sale of
+Mr Gillot’s fiddles. He mistook the date, and arrived a day after
+the sale. He came into Mr Hill’s shop in Wardour Street, and gave
+vent to his disappointment. Mr Hill, whom he always visited when in
+London, had bought several instruments, and had a second deal with
+Vuillaume then and there, much to the Frenchman’s gratification. It
+is interesting to catch this glimpse of the two greatest dealers
+and artificers of the age face to face for one moment, and in such
+friendly and characteristic relations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+VIOLINS IN ENGLAND
+
+
+It is an amusing fact that hardly a Continental writer on musical
+instruments, M. Vidal excepted, has thought it worth while to give
+any reasoned account of the English viol and violin-makers who have
+occupied such a distinguished place in the history of the art.
+
+I heard the other day of an American school atlas which left out all
+the islands in the world as unimportant details calculated to confuse
+the minds of young students. England, of course, being a small
+island, was one of the first to disappear.
+
+The names of Barak Norman, Banks, Forster, and Duke may be somewhat
+confusing, but we must risk the mention of them just for the sake of
+an approximate completeness.
+
+The fact is, that in Queen Elizabeth’s time the English were really
+almost a musical people. Whether the viols came across from the Low
+Countries or Germany or from Italy has never seemed to me a matter
+of much importance. Undoubtedly the viol and its descendants is
+cloisteral, and that means Italian, since all the arts along with
+Christianity spread from the great Italian centres--Rome, Florence,
+Milan, Brescia; and in Elizabeth’s time Italian influence is as
+marked in English music as it is in the Shakspearian drama, or in
+these gorgeous brocades, silks, and tapestries that still dazzle us
+behind glass at the South Kensington Museum, or in such Elizabethan
+gems of Renaissance architecture as Knole and Hatfield, which seem to
+touch as with the glory of a foreign world the palatial seats “of our
+old nobility.”
+
+Modern music rises in Elizabeth’s reign with Monte Verde and the
+discovery of the octave and the perfect cadence.
+
+Along with it rise the Italian singing-schools of Naples; whilst the
+viols, improved to meet the new demands, culminate in the Brescian,
+Maggini and the Cremonese Amati patterns (the very word Madrigala,
+the hymn of the Mother of God, is Italian and cloisteral), and the
+viols which accompanied such part-songs were doubtless of Italian
+origin.
+
+But, for all that, the viols were genuinely naturalised and
+acclimatised in England, and for a short time it seemed as if England
+were even going to lead the art of viol manufacture.
+
+The father of Galileo the astronomer declared in 1583 that the
+best lutes were at that time _made in England_, and we know that
+lute-making and viol-making so invariably went together that in
+France and Italy the violin-maker is to this day called a “lutier”;
+and J. J. Rousseau remarks, a little loosely perhaps: “The viol
+passed from the Italians to the English, who _first_ began to compose
+and play harmonised pieces for it, and who imparted the knowledge to
+other kingdoms.”
+
+Mace, an old writer and quite a musical expert (1676), mentions
+the viols of Ross (1598) and Smith (1633) as “old instruments” in
+his day. But the movement did not go on, and I cannot for a moment
+doubt that what checked the rise of music and the manufacture of
+musical instruments in this country was that same Puritan craze which
+snubbed art, smashed the stained glass, and mutilated our cathedrals
+throughout the land.
+
+Viols had by this time crept out of the cloister and joined hands
+with the frivolous Rebek, used at fairs and pothouses. At all events,
+in Cromwell’s time and the “Barebones-praise-God period,” everything
+that savoured of festivity was tabooed, and the fury against art
+seemed part and parcel of all sincere religion, according to the
+masses at least.
+
+To Cromwell’s honour be it set down that he was personally no
+such extremist, and that he, moreover, saved for us Raffael’s
+cartoons; but still music in any of its secular forms was mightily
+discouraged by the Puritans, whilst in its higher religious form it
+was associated with Prelacy and Papacy, and we have to wait for that
+reaction in favour of the world, the flesh, and the devil, which
+marked the Restoration, and which also made provision for the more
+innocent as well as the more perilous delights of music in the home,
+the concert room, the theatre, and the sanctuary.
+
+In Charles I.’s band (1625) there were “eleven violins and four
+viols,” so at last the violin was creeping up; but not until Charles
+II.’s restoration did the full-fledged violin come in with a rush of
+“four-and-twenty” fiddlers, over whom presided no less a person than
+the immortal Thomas Purcell, who, in a brief span of life, achieved
+his almost Mozartian fame, and died at the early age of twenty-seven,
+just ten years younger than the incomparable Wolfgang Amadeus.
+
+The King had no doubt got his notion of fiddle bands from Louis
+XIII.’s “petits violons du roi”; and from the French Court, our
+“merrie monarch” borrowed a good many other ideas of a less
+respectable and harmless character.
+
+The King was so seriously addicted to music that he could hardly
+hear a sermon and never eat his dinner without the solatium of his
+four-and-twenty fiddlers.
+
+“They played before him at his meals,” writes Anthony Wood in the
+diary of his life, “as being more airy and brisk than the viols”;
+and the grave Evelyn much resents the invasion of the upstart “petit
+violon” and its profane intrusion. He writes in 1662: “One of his
+Majesty’s chaplains preached, after which, instead of anthem or
+solemn wind music accompanying the organ, was introduced a concert of
+twenty-four violins between every pause, in the French fantastical
+light way, better suiting a tavern or a playhouse than a church.”
+
+’Tis an ill wind that blows nobody and nothing any good, and we
+cannot doubt that his Majesty’s royal mistresses, like the Duchess
+of Cleveland (Barbara Palmer), the Duchess of St Albans (Nell Gwynn,
+the actress), the mother of the Duke of Monmouth (Lucy Walters), the
+Duchess of Portsmouth (Louise de Querouaille, a French girl), greatly
+favoured all the more frivolous diversions with which secular music,
+and especially the new-fangled violin, were associated.
+
+These ladies were bound to be musical, as music undoubtedly delighted
+the “merrie monarch,” and flattered his jaded tastes by its frequent
+novelty and emotional excitations.
+
+The revellers at Whitehall soon attracted to the capital the greatest
+violin players from foreign parts. The supremacy of the new violin
+pattern was achieved, and the rage of virtuosity began.
+
+Even John Evelyn succumbed to the witchery of Thomas Balzar, a Swede,
+who arrived in 1656. He seems to have been the Paganini of the
+period, and electrified the Court. Evelyn calls him “incomparable”;
+he played off at sight the most amazing difficulties with ravishing
+sweetness and “improvements”; he played a full concert on his single
+instrument, so that the rest flung down their violins, acknowledging
+the victory. As to worthy Mr Paul Wheeler and Mr Mell, who were the
+Spohrs and De Beriots of their day, they had to hide their diminished
+heads.
+
+We are not surprised to hear after this that his Majesty installed
+the great Balzar as director of his twenty-four violins, retained his
+services at court, and buried him in the cloisters of Westminster
+Abbey.
+
+It will be convenient to focus our attention on English violin-making
+about this time, for doubtless the arrival of these foreign players,
+and the popularity of the king’s band, gave a great impetus to our
+native manufacture. The supply of foreign violins, for which there
+was now a growing demand abroad--_i.e._, in England and France--began
+to give out as the century waned. There were plenty of old _viols_,
+but no _old violins_ to fall back upon; the violin was a new product;
+and, as the court set the fashion, we should naturally expect
+the English viol-makers would be wide awake to the importance of
+supplying the new want, and such was the case.
+
+The Brescian and Cremonese fiddles were hardly known in England, and
+what the Italians made were chiefly for home consumption.
+
+As the English were great viol-makers in Elizabeth’s time, we may
+ask: Why did they allow the Italians to take the lead in violins? Why
+is the English school of violins at least fifty, and the best English
+violins a hundred years later than the early Cremona _chefs-d’œuvre_?
+Why is Nicolo Amati’s date 1596-1684, whilst W. Forster is 1713-1801,
+Duke 1769, and Banks 1795? The answer is not far to seek: the fact
+that violin manufacture was checked by the Puritan movement in
+England, whilst its progress in Italy was steady and continuous,
+enabled the Italians to steal a march upon us which turned us into
+pupils, and pupils afar off too, when we resumed the industry. I do
+not say that the superior climatic conditions and generally the art
+atmosphere of the small Italian courts must not also be taken into
+account; but when attention was called to improved tonal quality, and
+a timbre, power, and sensibility undreamed of by the old viol-makers
+became _de rigueur_, in response to the demands of virtuosity and the
+advance of the musical art, Italy was bound to win; such Tyrolean
+woods, such varnish, such sun, such sentiment, as was required for
+the perfect evolution of the violin, could hardly be found outside
+Italy. Both Spain and Germany confessed to the fact, nor could
+England put it aside. Accordingly, the highest praise that was ever
+given to an English maker was given to Benjamin Banks (1727-95), who
+was called “The English Amati”; but to this day no one has ever been
+called “The English Stradivari”!
+
+Passing by Aireton (died in 1807), who copied Amati, but used yellow
+varnish; Henry Jay (1744-77); the famous kit-makers (the kit is a
+tiny instrument with normal neck and finger-board, used chiefly by
+dancing-masters), the Kennedys, father and son (1730-1870), most
+prolific but mediocre fabricators, chiefly of violins and tenors;
+Panormo and Parker, the two first excellent eighteenth-century
+makers; we make special mention of John Rayman, one of, if not the
+earliest, English violin-maker. “An extraordinary Rayman” was amongst
+the violins owned by Britton, the musical coal-heaver. Urquhart was
+also a maker of exceptional originality.
+
+Pamphilon (1685) was a fair and excellent workman, high model,
+moderate tone, with quite splendid varnish. “Peter Walmsley, at Ye
+Golden Harp in Piccadilly,” good copyist of Stainer and an excellent
+maker, we are bound to notice on account of his early date and more
+solid reputation.
+
+“Barak Norman” worked and sold fiddles at St Paul’s Churchyard
+(1683-1740). His label runs thus, with a ✠ and crown above it,
+similar to the labels of Del Gesù, some of which he may have seen:
+“Barak Norman and Nathaniel Cross, at the Bass Viol in S. Paul’s
+Churchyard, London, fecit 1702.”
+
+Mr Walter Brooksbank of Windermere had one of the Cross viol da
+gamba, in which, after the style of the early bell founders, the
+instrument is supposed thus to speak for itself. “Nathaniel Cross
+wrought my back and belly” (the scroll and sides being by Barak
+Norman).
+
+Meares, about whom little to speak of is known, except that he was
+probably a pupil of Rayman’s, is reputed to have taught Barak Norman.
+
+Meares is known to have adopted the Brescian model. He was probably
+the earliest English maker of violoncellos. He retains some of
+the decorative use of purfling, which rapidly went out as the new
+violins came in. He runs his purfle into his monogram with attendant
+flourishes. Meares made at first chiefly viols, after that tenors of
+excellent quality.
+
+His violins are much esteemed. He was a close copyist of Maggini.
+
+Three of his viols were exhibited in the South Kensington Loan
+Collection of 1872, but one of them, dated 1690, had been cut down.
+
+It remained for Stradiuarius, in the dawning year of the eighteenth
+century, to discover and fix the model of the bass viol that needed
+no cutting down.
+
+The musical world owes a debt of eternal gratitude to the Forster
+family; there were four of them.
+
+“Great-grandfather John (1683), maker of spinning-wheels and violins.
+
+“Grandfather William, _the_ Forster, commonly called ‘Old Forster.’
+
+“Father William, No. 2, who also made spinning-wheels.
+
+“William, No. 3 (1764-1824).”
+
+His sons, the two brothers William (1733-1824), and Simon Andrew
+(1731-1869).
+
+The second Forster (1739-1807), William, called “Old Forster,” bears
+off the palm.
+
+Born in the north, a native of Brampton, he made his market, like his
+father, out of the spinning-wheel industry of Cumberland, but he was
+a many-sided man, a great repairer of viols, and afterwards a maker
+of violins, the greatest maker in the north--the greatest maker in
+all England.
+
+He commended his violins to the public by playing on them himself. He
+was not beneath playing at country dances and on village greens.
+
+We may be sure he never lost an opportunity of parting, for a
+consideration, with the violin he played upon--since naturally,
+people would often be seized with a desire to possess themselves of
+an instrument which they had heard discourse such excellent music and
+to the purpose.
+
+Indeed, I have sometimes known professors in these days who would so
+cunningly play to their pupils that they have been able to palm off
+for considerable sums quite inferior instruments.
+
+How much more easy must it have been for the man who made them,
+and made none but the best, and played them on occasions when his
+purchasers’ spirits were high and their dispositions yielding, to
+dispose of his exceptional wares.
+
+About 1759 Forster seems to have concluded that Cumberland was played
+out, and, sighing for new worlds to conquer, he came south. He was
+quite a young man, but in the great whirlpool of London, as it was
+even then, he seems to have sunk so low as cattle-driving, but that
+is in itself a tribute to his versatility and pluck. Presently he
+sets up in the Commercial Road, East, but finding there neither
+demands for spinning-wheels nor fiddles, takes to gunstock-making,
+till he at last “strikes ile” with one Beck, of Tower Hill, and there
+makes such fiddles that Beck grows fat while Forster remains lean.
+
+Unable to get his wages raised, he leaves Beck in 1762, and sets up
+at Duke’s Court, a site now occupied by the National Gallery.
+
+For about ten years Forster adopted the high Stainer pattern, then
+so popular in England, and attracted the patronage of amateurs like
+Colonel West. Afterwards he set up in St Martin’s Lane, and then
+went to 348 Strand. He had by this time attracted the attention of
+royalty, and the Duke of Cumberland, George III.’s son, is said even
+to have once dined with him off black pudding.
+
+Old Forster’s versatility and enterprise is still further shown by
+his opening communications with the great Joseph Haydn, and it is
+chiefly to him that England owes the introduction and publication of
+Haydn’s immortal Symphonies.
+
+The shrewd old man doubtless saw the profit which lay hid in a scheme
+which would popularise the greatest _writer_ for stringed instruments
+who ever lived, and he had not miscalculated.
+
+The same cleverness which prompted him to give the English a dose of
+the Stainer model when Stainer was the rage, prompted him to revert
+to the later Amati grand pattern as he reached his ripe maturity. He
+also changed his varnish before the close of his life, and is said
+to have found the secret of solving amber with the assistance of the
+chemist Delaporte, who invented some stuff known as the Verins Martin.
+
+Amongst his patrons were George III., who, as Prince of Wales, was
+fond of playing the violoncello, probably one of “Old Forster’s,”
+and who, when he asked Haydn, who had been listening to him, how he
+thought he played, received the altogether diplomatic reply, “Vy,
+your ’ighness do play like a Brince.”
+
+Peter Pindar (Dr Walcot) and Bartolozzi the engraver were also
+amongst Forster’s patrons. He made but four double-basses, and his
+tenors and ’cellos are thought better of than his violins. They are
+steadily rising in value. He died in the same year as Haydn (1808).
+His son William already suffered much from the foreign competition,
+which was just beginning to tell, the duty which protected the
+English manufactures having been removed.
+
+William made some very good instruments, but they do not equal his
+father’s; and he made a great deal of rubbish for the trade besides.
+
+There was no doubt a certain erratic vein in the Forster family,
+which in Old Forster took the shape of amazing versatility and
+profitable enterprise, but which in his son and grandson degenerated
+into speculative eccentricity. The son went in for buying grocery,
+and invested in other bad businesses. The grandson turned out very
+unmanageable, but clever and many-sided; he worked for a time with
+Thomas Kennedy, but got away from him and went in for play-acting,
+sometimes taking a turn in the orchestra at the violoncello desk. He
+made about fifteen instruments altogether, two or three of which only
+approached the Forster high level. He died in 1824, suddenly, whilst
+still quite a young man.
+
+His brother Simon made a large number of violins--tenors and ’cellos;
+they are those signed S. A. Forster, but they do not rank very high.
+He was the first to write a history of the violin, and has deserved
+well of all succeeding writers, who quote him with a touching
+simplicity of faith, as though, forsooth, because the first, he must
+needs be the best authority.
+
+At the name of Benjamin Banks all tenor and ’cello players lift their
+hats; for although the later importation into England of Cremonas
+has somewhat obscured our countryman’s fame, his splendid work--even
+surpassed, as some think, by his sons James and Henry--is bound to
+hold the market again; and a name extolled by the great virtuoso
+Lindley, whose favourite instrument was a Banks, is not likely to be
+neglected by Lindley’s successors, even though they may be the happy
+possessors of Stradivari basses.
+
+Benjamin Banks (1727-1795) was a contemporary of Old Forster
+(1713-1801), but there is no reason to suppose that the two
+artificers ever met or materially interfered with each other; for
+Banks worked at Salisbury, whilst Forster worked in London, and no
+express trains bore fiddles or fiddle-buyers swiftly to and fro in
+those days.
+
+Benjamin Banks copied Nicolo Amati very closely; but Mr Sandys
+speaks of a rare long-shaped violoncello of his quite of the Stainer
+pattern, with the round-topped Stainer sound-holes. This was none
+other than the great Lindley’s famous instrument which so nearly
+escaped destruction in a coach accident. The passengers had a bad
+shaking and a bad spill, and Lindley and his violoncello among them;
+but the rare enthusiast, in the midst of the confusion, had but
+one thought. He flew to his ’cello-case, and was found seated in a
+ditch, quietly playing away to assure himself that his beloved was
+uninjured.
+
+Mr Lucas had an excellent Benjamin Banks violin, but Banks tenors
+and violoncellos are more esteemed. Banks made no double-basses;
+his varnish is yellow-brown, of excellent quality, but badly laid
+on, that on his bellies being often clotted, so that, in technical
+parlance, it is said to kill the grain.
+
+The Earl of Pembroke, who presumably knew no better, ordered a
+violoncello of Banks to be made entirely out of an old cedar-tree,
+which had been blown down in his lordship’s park (Wilton). It was, as
+might have been foreseen, a great failure in tone. Of course Banks
+made it “right enough,” and pocketed the money, but it is doubtful
+whether the Earl ever got his money’s worth.
+
+I remember a very carefully made violin, all of silver, another
+expensive freak of ignorance and eccentricity; doubtless it sounded
+like a tin kettle, and was musically of no use whatever. Some of us
+may have heard an ingenious itinerant violinist playing on a tin
+biscuit-box with similar results.
+
+Benjamin’s scrolls are not very elegant, but that does not affect
+his tone. Benjamin had a very good idea of his own importance, and
+probably, too, a suspicion of the extent to which his name would be
+taken in vain after his death. He tried to make this more difficult
+by not only varying his labels in about four different ways, but also
+stamping his instruments in several places with his own peculiar
+seal, B.B.
+
+Benjamin’s sons fell far below their father, but the old man left
+quite a number of white unvarnished instruments in a cellar when the
+business was sold, all of which were duly completed and sent forth
+with his name, to which, however, they have but a partial right; for,
+as his sons worked with him, it is by no means certain that every
+fiddle in Bank’s shop at the time of his death was made by Benjamin
+_père_.
+
+Duke (1754-69) was remarkable as having largely contributed to create
+in England the Stainer furore which so confused the judgment of
+amateurs in this country, and retarded for at least fifty years the
+triumph of the Stradivari grand pattern. In reality the best Dukes
+are on the Amati pattern, but they are few in number, and though
+there are innumerable fraudulent Dukes about, a real Duke is seldom
+seen. The fraudulent Dukes exaggerate the high bellies and deep
+grooving of the earlier Amati, and thus pass for Stainer pattern.
+Duke’s varnish is also of a yellow or yellow-brown hue. It is not
+likely that Duke’s reputation will increase, though the rarity of
+genuine Dukes and the plentiful number of counterfeits may still run
+up a few real specimens to fancy prices.
+
+I cannot close this brief survey of the old English makers without
+a mention of Bernard Fendt (1756-1832). He was originally a Swiss
+cabinet-maker, but coming to London, went into business with Thomas
+Dodd, for whom, and with whom, he began to make violins. Fendt soon
+got hold of another cabinet-maker, a compatriot, and Dodd took him
+also into the business. These two clever artificers soon raised
+Dodd’s business to great prosperity, and Dodd thus had the honour of
+putting his own name in their violins. All he had done, however, was
+to varnish them, but he did that superlatively well, so that Dodd’s
+varnish became as famous as Dodd’s bows.
+
+Fendt afterwards left Dodd and worked for John Betts, who was famous
+for his imitations of Amati, which he said paid better than making
+fiddles with his own name in them. Many of his best imitations were
+made by Fendt, who has thus created the reputation of two makers
+besides himself. His son, who died only in 1851, would have equalled
+his father had he not been seduced by the vicious practice of
+prematurely aging his violins, thus pandering to the taste for old
+fiddles at the expense of the fiddles themselves--for it is notorious
+that such frauds do not improve by age.
+
+
+A VIGNETTE OF W. E. HILL.
+
+Dark--yes, to my eyes very dark; but the light in William Ebsworth
+Hill’s old shop in Wardour Street was good enough for him; a greater
+glare might have flouted those hundreds of old brown fiddles,
+and dusty débris of fiddles, which that very moderately sized
+establishment was hung, lined, strewn, and littered o’er with.
+
+So the dim light, relieved on foggy days with a casual gas-jet, or
+even a candle-end, seemed better than the garish sunlight for that
+dusky brood--even as the moonbeam, according to Sir Walter Scott,
+touched the grey ruins of Melrose more tenderly than the light of
+day.
+
+There were no electric lamps in those days (in 1870), consequently no
+patent asbestos appliances for converting the impure London gas into
+a specious and blazing rival.
+
+Mr Hill tried to do too much. In his back shop he conducted repairs,
+and frequently brought his “repairs” into the front shop. I have seen
+him there, behind the counter, busy with gouge, knife, or scraper.
+When customers or applicants for advice arrived--some with cheap
+German fiddles which they fondly believed to be rare specimens of
+Cremona, others with their own good, bad, and indifferent instruments
+to be done up--they were received one and all with the same mild and
+tolerant inattention, born not of incivility, but of abstraction.
+Such as knew Mr Hill in those days, knew the nearest approach we
+shall perhaps ever see to the great Cremona makers. I do not say that
+any of Mr Hill’s work (barring his exquisite repairs and carving) is
+likely to rank with theirs; he was an admirable maker, but he very
+soon left off making. When the duty on foreign violins was removed
+there poured into England a continuous stream of fiddles, which
+entirely swamped the demand for new ones of English make. Mr Hill,
+following the market, turned his attention to repairing and dealing;
+but the art and craft atmosphere, the knowledge, the familiarity
+with violin constitution, the infallible intuition and single-minded
+love of the violin for its own sake, as a thing of beauty, wonder,
+mystery, more than enough to monopolise a lifetime of devotion--this
+is what made Mr Ebsworth Hill the spiritual heir of the grand old
+fiddle-makers. “Why,” he said to me once, “talk about not knowing
+the touch of this or that maker? I know the sort of tools Stradivari
+or Joseph used. I can see the mark of a special favourite knife here
+or gouge there. I know which way he used to cut and slice, and how
+he held his tool for such and such a kind of finish. I can see ’em
+at work, and the handling of one is no more like another’s than the
+touch of one painter is like another’s.”
+
+When you took a fiddle in to show Mr Hill, you had to wait Mr Hill’s
+good time; he seldom answered immediately he was spoken to, but would
+look up dreamily through his spectacles without laying down his file
+or knife, and let off some such dogmatic and oracular sentence as:
+“You want to know how I can tell a fiddle. Well, I don’t know how I
+can tell; and there are days when I don’t trust my judgment--days I
+can’t see, for instance. I leave off looking at fiddles for a day
+or two; and when I come back I take up this fiddle and that, and
+just at first I can’t see anything--those fiddles tell me nothing;
+it’s a peculiar state of mind--just as a player or a surgeon’s hand
+gets out, so a judge’s eye gets out. I know exactly when I see and
+when I can’t see, and when I can’t see I hold my tongue; and I know
+exactly how much I can see, but I don’t tell everybody.” The casual
+visitor could make very little of old Hill at first. There was a
+curious sort of inner otherwhereness--to coin a word--about him. Some
+people found him very trying indeed. You never knew whether he heard
+what you said; but when at last he favoured you with a remark, you
+discovered that he had not only heard your words, but that he had
+accurately gauged _you_.
+
+His action was often unexpected and sometimes alarming. I one day
+entered his shop with a friend who had a fiddle which he much
+prized, and indeed it was a really valuable instrument, but needed
+overhauling.
+
+We both stood in front of the counter, and old Hill was bending over
+a scroll that he was fitting on to a new neck. I addressed him on
+behalf of my friend, but he took no notice whatever; he remained
+absorbed in his delicate adjustments; and no Prince of the blood
+would have fared any better than we did until he had finished what he
+was about. Again I mentioned my friend’s name: “Mr ---- has brought
+you his fiddle to look at by my advice. Perhaps you can tell him what
+ought to be done.” Hill looked up, nodded, eyed my friend through his
+spectacles with cold interest, and then resumed his work. I had to
+rouse him a second time before he seemed to grasp the fact that my
+anxious friend had taken his precious Cremona from its case and was
+standing with it in his hand ready for the magician’s inspection.
+
+At last Hill laid down his tool, and taking the instrument in his
+hands, gave it one quick glance and a couple of taps; he then
+deliberately looked in its astonished owner’s face, tore off the
+finger-board, loosened the neck, and drove a knife under the belly.
+The fiddle was soon in pieces, and he threw the loose fragments aside
+in a heap, took up his repairs again, and said he would attend to the
+matter by-and-by, and the gentleman need not stop; and we got no more
+out of old Hill that day, who immediately became reabsorbed in his
+work.
+
+I shall never forget the rueful and amazed look with which my poor
+friend beheld the tearing to pieces of his Cremona, but I touched him
+on the arm, and seeing that Hill was in no mood for talk, got him
+out of the shop, assuring him that it was all right, and that the
+great repairer had shown more interest than usual in his valuable
+instrument, or he would never have torn it to pieces then and there;
+and with such words I strove to comfort my perplexed and anxious
+friend.
+
+I am bound to add that although Hill kept him waiting several months,
+when the fiddle came back its owner was more than satisfied, and
+declared that he then heard his Cremona for the first time.
+
+Mr William Ebsworth Hill came of a family of violin-makers and
+violin-players. Joseph Hill, who was born 1715, was proud to trace
+his descent from the “Mr Hill” mentioned in Pepys’ Diary as being
+employed to alter his lute and viall.
+
+Joseph was a prolific and excellent violin-maker, and carried on
+business in the early part of the eighteenth century at the sign of
+the Harp and Flute in the Haymarket.
+
+He had five sons; all made violins and three played professionally,
+whilst the other two, like the present four brothers Hill in Bond
+Street, followed their father’s vocation alone. The third son, Lockey
+Hill, was the father of Henry Lockey Hill, who became in his turn
+the father of William Ebsworth Hill, known in the middle of this
+century as Mr Hill of Wardour Street. Hill’s father, Henry Lockey,
+an excellent violin-maker, died in 1835. The Hills seem prolific in
+sons, and Lockey left four sons. Henry distinguished himself as an
+admirable quartet player, and well do I remember the splendid tone of
+his Barak Norman tenor at Willis’ Rooms as far back I think as 1848,
+when, with Sainton, Piatti, and Cooper--one of the best, as it was
+almost the earliest string quartet cast in London--he assisted in
+delighting and educating a select public in the mysteries of chamber
+music, which has been since so freely expounded by Ella’s Musical
+Union and the Monday Popular Concerts.
+
+Berlioz always spoke of Henry Hill in terms of the highest praise; he
+even went so far as to say that he considered him one of the first
+performers in Europe.
+
+It is seldom that a tenor player ever comes in for direct
+commendation. He acts as a sort of go-between to violoncello and
+violin; but his individual efforts, although so important to the
+combined effect, are usually lost sight of between the grand work of
+the bass and the brilliant lead and musical embroideries of the first
+and second violins.
+
+There are too few concertos or strong parts written for the poor
+tenor, the Cinderella of the establishment, which is regrettable when
+one thinks of the glorious violas of Maggini and the Amati. Mr Hill’s
+Barak Norman is now the property of Mr Doyle.
+
+William Ebsworth Hill, our great repairer, connoisseur, and dealer
+all in one, was born in 1817. He was educated at the Borough Road
+School, under the well-known Dr Lancaster, but it is certain that
+he went early to the bench, for at the age of fourteen we find him
+employed in cutting bridges in his father’s workshop.
+
+For this purpose he used only a bradawl and a knife, and towards the
+end of his life he returned to bridge-cutting, and has left many
+beautiful specimens. His sons have a collection of two hundred, and
+no two of the same pattern; they have also reverently preserved
+under glass his simple tools. He worked with extraordinary rapidity,
+equalled by his fastidious finish. He preferred the commonest
+tools, so only they were of the finest metal. He used to scorn the
+mechanical labour-saving appliances which now enable workmen to turn
+out hundreds instead of dozens of fiddles, and he heartily despised
+artificers who needed an elaborate plant before they could produce
+anything decent. A good maker, he was wont to say, could make a
+fiddle “with a knife and fork.” Mr Hill’s skill in bridge-making on
+one occasion misled so eminent a judge as Monsieur Fétis, of the
+Brussels Conservatoire. In 1851, the Prince Consort having expressed
+a wish to hear a concert of old instruments, a viol d’amore which
+was to be played by Ebsworth’s brother, Henry Hill, required a new
+bridge, which Ebsworth very quickly made. I remember hearing Hill
+perform on this viol d’amore with seven strings, at one of Monsieur
+Julien’s Popular Concerts at the old Surrey Gardens. The elaborate
+arpeggios were most fascinating, and unlike anything I ever listened
+to before or have ever heard since. In due time the viol d’amore,
+which had been lent by the Brussels Conservatoire, was returned,
+and Monsieur Fétis, who was the Principal, and engaged at that time
+in writing his valuable monograph on Stradivari, was very much bent
+upon hunting up old bridges. He happened to pitch upon the viol
+d’amore bridge, which he declared to be a highly interesting specimen
+of the artistic work of the great Cremona period. Mr Alfred Hill,
+one of Ebsworth Hill’s sons, happened to be at Brussels, and his
+attention was called to Monsieur Fétis’ eulogium on the antique viol
+d’amore bridge. “That,” says Mr Alfred to Monsieur Victor Mahillon
+the curator, “is not an old bridge; it was cut by my father.” An
+incredulous smile overspread the worthy curator’s face, which was
+quickly changed into a look of apologetic admiration and surprise
+when Mr Hill, junior, turning up the bridge, pointed to “W. E. Hill”
+stamped upon it.
+
+Ebsworth Hill’s father died in 1835, and not long afterwards
+Ebsworth, wishing to perfect himself in the technique of his art,
+went to study under the accomplished maker Charles Harris, of Oxford.
+
+About 1838 he set up for himself in St George’s Road, Southwark.
+
+Mr Woolhouse, the well-known collector, was one of his earliest
+patrons; but his fame soon spread, and he found he had more work than
+he could well manage. He was also much resorted to as one of the few
+men whose judgment on a violin admitted of no appeal, and who could
+be trusted to give an honest opinion.
+
+From Southwark, Hill went to Wardour Street, which for many years
+was as much the violin quarter in London as the Rue Croix des Petits
+Champs is in Paris. It was there, when I was little more than a
+boy, that I first made Mr Hill’s acquaintance. I used to take him
+my fiddles, and I was always drawn to the young boys, his sons, who
+frequented their father’s shop, and had the profoundest sense of
+his importance and ability. It is not too much to say that Arthur,
+Alfred, William, and Walter Hill have enjoyed unique opportunities
+from their earliest childhood, and have not failed to qualify
+themselves assiduously for the high position that the firm of Hill &
+Sons now holds in the violin world.
+
+The boys inherited violin tendencies. They were steeped from
+childhood in violin tradition. They had special chances for seeing,
+handling, and diagnosing most of the great violins now extant. No
+time or money was spared by their father on the boys’ education, and
+certainly no boys ever made a better use of their privileges.
+
+Alfred and Walter went to Mirecourt, to study all that could be
+taught in the most scientific and celebrated workshop in the world.
+
+Arthur stayed at home and kept his eye in, being always in close
+attendance on his father, and never missing an opportunity of
+acquiring a new fact, or a fiddle, old or new, which was likely to
+bring grist to the mill or credit to the firm.
+
+From what has been said it may have been inferred, and not
+erroneously, that Ebsworth Hill was not, financially speaking,
+a business man--though he did all his own business. For years
+everything that came into the shop passed through his hands; he
+made every repair, doctored every fiddle, adjusted every screw,
+regulated or replaced every sound-bar and sound-post, and even strung
+the fiddles for his clients with his own hand--in short, he did or
+closely superintended everything; division of labour, to the extent
+to which it is now carried, being a thing unknown in those early days.
+
+That such a system could not bring in large profits was obvious. Hill
+had many bad debts; his memory for fiddles was infallible, but his
+memory for accounts shocking, and he was cheated right and left.
+
+His fame was so widespread that orders poured in which could not be
+executed; and when the old man’s apparently inexhaustible powers of
+work began to give out, the sons, who had watched proceedings for
+years and slowly qualified themselves for every department, came in
+and broke up the one-man system--not before financially confusion was
+becoming worse confounded. They trained their workmen, distributed
+the work, kept proper accounts for the first time, and in a few
+years built up what is, perhaps, when considered in all its branches,
+the largest individual violin-dealing industry in the world.
+
+Mr Hill was a man of striking appearance: thin, spare, with light
+hair, and moustache early gone grey; blue-grey eyes, very keen; a
+thoughtful face, often lighted up with a whimsical smile--for the man
+was full of humour, though mostly of a genial sort.
+
+He was very much more of an all-round man than people who merely
+conversed with him on violins would suppose. Highly educated, in the
+usual sense of the word, he was certainly not; but he had a great
+acquaintance with human nature, and an extraordinary insight into
+character.
+
+His sly remarks on men and their manners, including their morals,
+were a perpetual feast to all who were admitted to his intimacy. In
+his own special line he was without a rival. He did not always say
+what he knew, but he never said what he did not know.
+
+He was frequently appealed to in doubtful cases, but was greatly
+opposed to litigation, and it was difficult to extract from him any
+opinion likely to lead to it.
+
+Once in the witness-box he was what the lawyers call a dangerous
+customer. His manner was perfectly quiet, assured, and straightforward.
+He was absolutely decided, and would never budge from his opinion, and
+under pressure of cross-examination often raised a laugh at the expense
+of counsel.
+
+His sons have treasured many of his wise and witty sayings. On one
+occasion he refused to sell to a customer who already owed more than
+he could pay. Hill remarked dryly when the gentleman had left the
+shop, “That man’s complaint is wind in the pockets.” Of an amateur
+who was proud of showing off his style on his fiddles, Hill, looking
+up from his work, would say with a comical twinkle, “Hark, now, he’s
+doing the lovely.”
+
+The manner was often worth more than the matter.
+
+His memory was as extraordinary as Tarisio’s. On one occasion a claim
+was brought against a railway company for sixty pounds’ damage to the
+belly of a violoncello. The company demanded a valuation, and damages
+to be assessed by Hill. The claimant at last angrily submitted.
+Hill reported on the instrument, which he repaired for about thirty
+shillings. Five pounds he thought would be very liberal damages. The
+owner was furious, and would not even accept fifteen guineas. Mr Hill
+was at last called up, and made the following unpleasant statement:
+“This instrument does not belong to this man at all. It is one of the
+instruments belonging to her Majesty, and used by the members of the
+private band.” The _soi-disant_ owner was perfectly dumbfounded, but
+was obliged to confess that he had actually borrowed the instrument
+when employed as deputy in the Queen’s Band several years before, and
+had never restored it. Mr Hill had only seen it once before.
+
+A violin, said to be by F. Panormo, was sold as such by a dealer in
+Pentonville Road. It came into Hill’s hands many years afterwards,
+who was asked to take it in part payment for another violin. He said:
+“This fiddle was not made by Panormo; it was made by my father about
+the year 1812 for my brother Henry, and owing to the difficulty of
+getting good foreign wood, my father made the back and ribs from
+English maple. It could not possibly have a good tone, but I should
+like to have it, and will allow £10 for it.” Mr Hill immediately
+proceeded to remove the belly. On the inside was written in pencil,
+“Made for my son Henry in the year 1812.”
+
+Mr Hill led an extremely abstemious life. His only relaxations were
+reading and long walks on Sundays. Towards the close of his life he
+found himself surrounded by his sons, superintending a large staff
+of workmen, and his workshops at Hanwell, adjoining his country
+home, are well known. For some years before he died the direction of
+affairs had practically passed into the hands of his sons, whom he
+had so admirably trained to succeed him, and to them is entirely due
+the present great commercial prosperity of the firm.
+
+William Ebsworth Hill sank gradually from senile exhaustion of brain
+power, and died in 1895, aged seventy-seven.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+VIOLIN VARNISH
+
+
+When a true chemist enters a laboratory fitted up with the usual
+mysterious tubes, crucibles, “baths,” and general apparatus for
+distillation, and his nose scents the aroma of gums, spirits,
+essential oils, and what not, he experiences an atmospheric sensation
+which enthuses him for his work. What the odour of stables is to the
+lover of horses, or the smell of paint to the artist, that is the
+laboratory aroma to the chemist.
+
+I have no insight into crucibles, and I don’t like smells. The
+proportion of subtle weights and measures, avoirdupois or troy, are
+beyond me; the disputations of science and the general incapacity
+of scientists to agree about mixed problems puzzles and sometimes
+“impatients” me, as the French say.
+
+In wading through various treatises on Cremona varnish I regret to
+say I have experienced vague emotions of annoyance and perplexity
+which I would fain conceal from the reader. I should like to pose as
+the clear exponent of the famous Cremona secret, or hold some one
+fixed opinion, buttressed by arguments weighty enough to confound all
+opponents, and based upon the “triumphs of modern research.” The
+triumph of modern research seems to me to consist in the discovery
+that we have as yet failed to discover the Cremona varnish, as,
+although we may speculate about it and at moments seem to come very
+near the mark, as yet we cannot make the stuff, or, at all events,
+apply it in Cremona fashion to our new fiddles.
+
+It may be consoling, but not very satisfactory, to reflect that no
+one has mixed it or applied it in Cremona fashion since about 1750;
+but that fact only serves to whet the curious appetite, and each
+writer braces himself for renewed disquisitions, visits workshops,
+and scrapes bits off Cremonas when he can, perhaps dabbles himself
+with gums and alcohol, and pumps fiddle-makers with a view to
+wringing the secret out of the Cremona sphynx.
+
+So entirely mixed is the whole subject that the violin world can’t
+even decide in what the proper functions of the varnish consist. One
+maintains that it is merely for the preservation of the wood, another
+that it greatly affects the tone, and the third that it is chiefly
+decorative.
+
+To me it seems almost a truism to say that the varnish is good for
+all three purposes: that it preserves the wood is certain, though
+exactly how is open to discussion; that it affects the tone is
+equally certain, though exactly how is still a moot point; that it
+is decorative is obvious, though taste in the colouring has varied
+with each school of makers as much as some makers have varied with
+themselves.
+
+For my part, after reading a dozen disquisitions on the Cremona
+varnish, and inspecting hundreds of fiddles for a quarter of a
+century, I applaud the courage and reticence of Mr George Hart, who,
+in his valuable book on old violins, gives just five pages on Italian
+varnish, with an intelligent description of its various appearances,
+a brief quotation from the inimitable writer Charles Reade, and not a
+single recipe.
+
+As I am not writing for violin-makers, but only for collectors, I
+shall certainly not rush in where authorities like Mr Hart fear to
+tread, and shall content myself with a few probable suppositions and
+a few more generally descriptive remarks.
+
+Some authorities maintain that the wood should be first saturated
+with oil before the colouring varnish is applied, a practice which
+has a tendency to clog the pores, so that until some age has been
+put on and the wood has become desiccated and shaken free from the
+grosser oily particles, the vibrations are stifled and the tone
+consequently dull.
+
+Others declare that the sizing of oil should not penetrate the wood
+far, but leave it free to desiccate by itself, and merely act as a
+sort of veneer for the colour varnish which has got to be spread
+over the transparent oil covering. The wood, in fact, has to be
+sized first and varnished afterwards. Taking this view, the process
+would be something of this kind: The white belly is cut from fine
+pine which has been six or seven years drying in the sun, but never
+exposed to rain and waits patiently for its anointing. A stick of
+that resinous gum beloved of artists, gamboge yellow, from Gamboga,
+Siam, or China, is then powdered and dissolved in pure alcohol; sloes
+are sometimes added, or when a yellow ground is not desired, sandarak
+and the long resinous tears of benzoin are treated with pure alcohol.
+When the back, belly, and ribs are thoroughly dry, the colouring,
+like a flavouring to taste, is added.
+
+The chief colouring ingredients appear to be of two kinds of
+sandal-wood, one yielding red orange tints, from Calcutta, and the
+other a deeper red, from the Coromandel Coast. An alcoholic solution
+of these is mixed with essential oil of turpentine, freely oxydised
+(or exposed to the air) and laid on the perfectly dry surface in
+successive layers, each layer being allowed to dry separately.
+
+The colour coating thus lies like an agate film over the oil
+sizing, and through the top varnish as through coloured glass may
+be seen--dyed orange, or red, or brown--all the delicate curls and
+fibres of the wood, shown up as by a kind of Röntgen rays by the oil
+size.
+
+We are told that the resins used may be divided into hard and soft,
+and that of these the soft, such as mastic and dammar, are the best,
+because the most elastic and friendly to the waves of vibration. The
+mastic and dammar resins seem to unite, in the greatest perfection,
+the three essential properties most suitable for varnish--elasticity,
+solidity, and transparency.
+
+The Cremonese are said to have used nothing but the soft resins. The
+much-talked-of, old-fashioned dragon’s blood, a resinous gum from
+the Draconian Draco, does not seem now to be commonly forthcoming.
+The Calami Draco of Borneo has taken its place. The old dragon’s
+blood has been much talked about, and credited with giving a certain
+splendid sanguineous flush to some of the rare Cremonese bellies upon
+which the judicious amateur dotes.
+
+And now, what is amber varnish? The usual answer is, there is no such
+thing. Certainly it was never used by Stradivari, for it is said
+the secret of fusing that hard gum was only discovered by Martin
+the chemist in 1737, the year of Stradivari’s death. On the other
+hand, I hear that amber has been found in the varnish of Giuseppe
+del Gesù--by what analysis I do not know. The usual way of rubbing a
+violin and smelling the surface has always seemed to me to furnish a
+most unreliable test. One saith, “I smell benzoin”; or another, “I
+smell mastic”; and a third, “I smell amber”; and a fourth, “I smell
+nought”; and this battle of olfactory organs is like to go on, as
+saith the poet--
+
+      “As long as man has passions,
+      As long as life has woes”;
+
+or, as we may say--
+
+      “As long as man has nose.”
+
+So here I desire to take my leave of this thorny subject, and with
+a sense of relief I abandon crucibles to the expert, and oils and
+resins to the disputatious, merely reminding our collectors for
+practical purpose that the Brescian varnish is soft and brown,
+but without the magical Cremonese transparency; the Cremona is
+amber-coloured (early) or (later) light red orange, and sometimes
+velvety brown, and very soft and glossy as it rubs away.
+
+The Venetian varnish of many shades is very clear; the Stainer,
+yellow-brown, with a subtle roseate flush at times; the normal
+German, brown and muddy; the French, Cremonese in colour, but glassy
+and chipping rather than soft and glossy. Some of the English varnish
+is remarkable, that of Dodd even approximating closely to the Cremona
+school, etc.
+
+On the whole, the best solution of the Cremona mystery seems to me
+that it was probably no mystery at all, which also best accounts for
+the disappearance of the varnish towards the middle of the eighteenth
+century. It is absurd to suppose that the varnish used by at least
+one hundred makers for more than one hundred years (for Italian
+violins from 1550 to 1660 up to 1740 all have it) could have been a
+secret; it was probably the ordinary varnish of commerce, superseded
+by the quicker and more convenient spirit-varnishes which came in and
+thrust it out of the market, and these ready-made compounds proved
+excellent for furniture which is not prized for its resonant or
+variously tinted qualities, but they unfortunately put out of court
+the kind of varnish best suited for violins--the yielding, soft,
+elastic oil varnish; and the very ingredients, _e.g._ dragon blood
+(of the liliaceæ trees), ceased to be in demand, and consequently
+disappeared from the Italian markets.
+
+The materials being now absent, the varnish was differently composed.
+The trick of mixing it got lost along with the stuff to be mixed, and
+the Cremonese secret, once an open secret, lapsed and lapsed, as it
+seems, most irrecoverably.
+
+At one time every one knew how the ancient war-galleys were rowed;
+how the Pyramids were built; how Stonehenge was poised; how the
+Medicean poisons were distilled, and how the old masters mixed their
+colours; now no one knows.
+
+Of the Cremona varnish it must be written, as we have to write of
+these unexplained disappearances of the lost and missing--
+
+                      “Gone, and made no sign.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+VIOLIN STRINGS
+
+
+“To scrape the inside of a cat with the outside of a horse” is far
+from an accurate or exhaustive description of violin playing, nor can
+I understand why violin strings are called cat-gut at all, since they
+are made from the intestines of the sheep, goat, or lamb, and have
+absolutely nothing to do with pussy.
+
+I can only suppose that the frightful and melancholy tones habitually
+elicited by inexperienced players may have reminded people of the
+nocturnal cat sufficiently to credit that maligned animal with
+providing part of the mechanical apparatus for their production.
+
+Of late years a great deal has been said about the extreme importance
+of the strings, of adapting the player to the fiddle’s constitution,
+etc. I freely admit that some players with very strong hands, like
+Lindley and Dragonetti, can manage thicker strings with effect
+better than people with weaker muscles. I also admit generally that
+it would be a mistake to string a sensitive old Nicolo Amati with
+thick strings, which a robust Joseph or Bergonzi might be able to
+bear; that a raw new fiddle to be rubbed down in the orchestra will
+also take to thick strings; and that it is pretty obvious, as every
+player knows, that one cannot stop fifths in good tune if the strings
+are not relatively well proportioned.
+
+It is also a truism that it is best to buy the best strings, and
+that false strings are abominable. But I do not go much beyond
+this, and I would say about strings what I say about bows, that bad
+workmen always complain of their tools, and that, as Paganini was
+able--although as a mere trick--to discourse excellent music with
+a tobacco-pipe or a reed, so his admirers were often surprised to
+notice that he would go into the concert room with his strings very
+much out of condition.
+
+Practically I do not suppose that one violinist in fifty uses a
+string-gauge; he soon learns to judge sufficiently by the eye what
+his fingers want, what his tone requires, and what his violin exacts.
+
+Still, in these days of analysis and detail, there being nothing left
+untalked about, writers have fastened quite within the last thirty
+years on the strings; but I have often noticed that players who fuss
+most over these details, which are doubtless of importance, are those
+who are least able to avail themselves of the perfect conditions
+which they seek. Perfect gut, rosin by rule, and an exquisitely
+poised bow, no more make a fiddler than scientific sanitation makes
+a healthy subject. I cannot too persistently urge that the violinist
+bends conditions to the magic of his will and his skill.
+
+His business is to qualify _himself_, and then get the best fiddle,
+bow, and strings that he can. This ought he to do, and not to leave
+the others undone.
+
+There is no reason to suppose that any advance in the manufacture
+of gut-strings has been made since the seventeenth century. Even a
+work by Le Roy, dated 1570, gives the best recipe yet known for the
+detection of false strings.
+
+“It is needful,” he says, “to prove them between the hands in the
+manner set forth in the figure” (which we reproduce); and he goes on
+to explain what everybody now knows--that if two lines only appear,
+the string is true; if more, false. But he fails to add that such a
+rough test only holds good for the thinner and simpler woven cords.
+In Doni’s book (1647) we find such subtleties as these: “There
+are many particulars relating to the construction of instruments
+which are unknown to modern artificers, as, namely, that the best
+strings are made when the north (and the worst when the south) wind
+blows”--a suggestive hint relating to the acknowledged importance of
+atmospheric, perhaps magnetic, and at any rate climatic, conditions.
+
+How do we make our strings?
+
+Putting aside mature sheep and goats, we kill our young Italian lamb
+in September. We open him at once, and take the intestine whilst
+still warm; stretch it on an inclined plane; scrape it and clean it
+thoroughly without delay. We then steep it for about fifteen hours
+in cold water, with a little carbonate of soda, and then substitute
+tepid water for a few hours more.
+
+Now we are ready to remove the fibrous or muscular membrane from
+between the peritoneal and mucous membrane. This is done by women,
+who scrape it with a cane. The precious selected membranes are
+then soaked in jars containing an ammoniacal solution; they are
+then rubbed through the fingers three times a day, treated with
+permanganate of potash, cleaned, sorted, cut, and split; and,
+finally, the threads are spun--three or four thin threads for first
+violin strings, three or four thicknesses for the second, six or
+seven for “D” string. Double-bass strings take up to eighty-five
+threads. Further twistings, soakings, and polishings take place, into
+which we need not enter, and the strings are finally dressed with
+olive oil and then coiled.
+
+I have gone into these details to show with what care and complex
+elaboration string manufacture is carried on.
+
+The false string is due to inequalities, lumps, and varieties of
+texture in the gut; and if only the defective part can be distributed
+either near the head or the tailpiece, outside the vibratory length,
+your false string becomes true. This is why the experiment of
+reversing the string, putting tail portion headwise or _vice versâ_,
+will sometimes remedy the defect.
+
+For the fourth or silver string the gut or silk (which is used)
+is wrapped with pure silver, or copper, or alternate silver and
+copper wire. The beautiful French patent silver fourth, as smooth as
+polished steel, is incomparably best for solo playing; it is also
+thinner, in my opinion too much thinner, than the mixed silver and
+copper fourths, which are very serviceable for rougher orchestral
+work.
+
+The vice of silver strings is to rise (and of gut strings to fall)
+with heat; but if your screws are in perfect order, and you are
+expert enough, you will remedy either by a rapid subtle twist during
+a bar’s rest, or a quick nipping the head of the peg between the
+first and third joint of your left-hand forefinger. I have seen
+Sarasate tune two pegs thus in the course of a very brief “tutti.”
+
+Mr Hart may be accepted as a final authority on the relative merits
+and the different schools of violin strings at present in the market,
+and his dicta substantially agree with my own experience. Of course
+he gives the palm to the Italian strings, which is largely due to
+the good climatic conditions, which enable their manufacture to be
+carried on in the open air and sunlight of that favoured clime.
+
+In Rome strings are yellowish, hard, and brilliant, and a little
+rough in finish.
+
+The Neapolitans are smooth, soft in texture, and whiter in appearance.
+
+The Paduans polished, durable, and frequently “false.” Strings “made
+in Germany” (Saxony), as a set off against the swarms of trade German
+fiddles, rank next to Italian.
+
+The French rank third. Their larger strings are better than their
+seconds, which are often brittle; their patent first _accribelles_,
+made of silk, are hard and brilliant, but not comparable, in my
+opinion, to a fine Roman gut “E” string.
+
+The English make a good, serviceable, dull green looking string,
+durable, uneven, and not unfrequently false. To my mind, English
+strings are only fit for rank-and-file orchestral fiddling, but not
+good enough for the loader. Mr Heron Allen, who has given great
+attention to such details, says that the best strings in the market
+are imported from Signor Andrew Ruffini of Naples, but I have always
+had a weakness for Roman strings.
+
+Too great caution, however, cannot be used in buying strings. Never
+buy from any but the best firms; they can’t afford to keep “job lots,
+going vera chep”--these may be bought up by provincial houses and
+retailed to an undiscerning public.
+
+Notice that small “job lot” people do not know how to keep their
+strings--or, I should rather say, they keep them too long and too dry.
+
+It does not follow that even the best strings will turn out successes
+if they have been kept too long or too dry.
+
+I once ordered £1 worth of Roman “E” strings for myself, and another
+£1 worth for a friend. They all arrived as dry and brittle as mummy
+wood; they all snapped as I put them on. In about a week I got a
+furious letter from my unfortunate friend who had trusted me--all his
+strings had snapped.
+
+I have but one counsel to give. Take the best firm’s advice and pay
+the best firm’s price--if you can afford it. Always keep a couple
+of tested, _i.e._ stretched “E” lengths in your case. If you are a
+soloist this will save you some annoyance and delay should your “E”
+string go in the middle of a performance.
+
+So far, then, and no further, need I discuss violin strings; but
+there are two other violin adjuncts not important enough to call for
+a separate chapter. I allude to the mute and the chin-rest. The mute
+is occasionally fixed on the bridge to give the sound that singular
+faint far-off twang like the whisper of a ghostly violin. The mute
+has the singular property of making the violin abnormally sensitive
+for the time. The mute is made of wood, metal, or vulcanite;
+personally, I much prefer the metal mute--it does the business more
+thoroughly. It is not a good practice to use the mute habitually
+while practising to subdue the sound. The violin really resents the
+use of the mute at all, but will put up with it for a short time
+(just as a good horse will not resent a spur or a bearing-rein in
+moderation). For a minute or two after the removal of the mute the
+violin does not quite recover its tone; some of the particles in its
+wood have been exposed to a different or eccentric vibration by the
+dominating mute, and the full tonal vibration is not immediately
+recoverable. It is as though you had put a man in boots with leaden
+soles for a time, and then suddenly freed him; he would not at once
+regain his full suppleness of movement.
+
+Quite within the last thirty years the cult of chin-rests has become
+almost universal. When I was a boy people held the violin honestly
+under their chins, and a few used a silk pocket handkerchief. I much
+prefer it to this day; but something between the chin and the violin
+is no doubt good for the protection of old instruments already too
+much rubbed by centuries of beards and bristles.
+
+I have nothing to say against the various velvet, vulcanite, and
+ebony fixed substitutes for the homely pocket-handkerchief, except
+that in my eyes they are extremely ugly, and to my chin extremely
+uncomfortable; but I may be very much out of date, and in such minor
+matters “_chacun à son goût_,” or, as Pepys would say, “there’s an
+end on’t.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+VIOLIN BOWS
+
+
+He who wields the violin bow aright wields the wand of a magician.
+If ever mortal could call the spirits from the vasty deep, it is
+the virtuoso who throws into sympathetic vibrations the cords of a
+Cremona.
+
+The wood of his wand, from the forests of Fernambuc or Pernambuco,
+choice and seasoned, and delicately graduated and tapering, receives
+through the varying pressure of his five fingers the waves of his
+personal magnetism.
+
+The back of his thumb will often touch even the hairs which are
+in direct contact with the strings, and therefore the psychic and
+emotional vibrations of the artist’s soul are wedded closely to the
+physical pulses of sound which throb in the agitated air column of
+the Cremona, and flow forth in the air waves (like light and heat),
+filling space with their musical magnetism, and seeking only the
+medium of kindred spirits and suitable organisms to utter through
+the vibrating human nerve tissues of others the open secrets of the
+player’s soul.
+
+No Mesmer, or magician of the East, controls a more subtle force than
+does the violinist, who, face to face with his audience, lifts his
+tapering wand and rules therewith the
+
+      “_Tides of music’s golden sea setting towards eternity._”
+
+By those who indite exhaustive historical or constructive treatises
+on the violin--the bow, like the violin, has been treated
+archæologically--we have been led up to ancient monuments and shown
+bows (or things supposed to be bows) on vases, sculptured frescoes,
+missals and other monkish manuscripts. We have been sent out to wild
+islands and continents, and introduced to the Ravanastron bow of
+ancient Ceylon; the bow of the Moorish rebab; the ninth, eleventh,
+twelfth, and thirteenth century viol bows of Europe--all more or less
+primitive, with sometimes gut for hair, or hair loose, hair limp, and
+with no means of regulating its tension except by the introduction of
+the fingers to press the hair or tighten it for a moment.
+
+In Paul Veronese’s Marriage at Cana (Versailles) this is well shown.
+Paul himself was a viol player, and apparently held his bow chiefly
+by the hair for this same regulative purpose.
+
+C. Simpson (the division “viol”), 1667, gives a somewhat more
+advanced viol bow, in which the hand splits the difference between
+wood and hair and rests on both (Fig. iii). Of course, when held to
+the chin, this clumsy finger regulation of the hair tension would
+be less convenient to manage, and hence we come upon the eighteenth
+century with a strip of notched metal (Fig. iv.) and a movable
+sliding nut.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ I
+
+ Maggini   Nic Amati   Dolphin Strad   Joseph Guarnerius
+  1630       1641          1714              1734
+
+ II
+
+ Corelli 1700
+ Cramer  1770
+ Viotti  1780
+ Tartini 1740
+
+ III
+
+ Finger control
+ 17th cent.
+
+ IV
+
+ Cremabliere control
+ 18th cent.
+
+ V
+
+ Screw control 19th cent.:
+ Paganini’s bow  Tourte  29 inch ’34
+
+ VI
+
+ 19th cent.:
+ Hair control.
+ head.  handle.
+]
+
+As for our purpose the violin proper began in the eighteenth century
+with the emergence of its true type from the viol tribe, so for our
+purpose the violin bow begins with the emergence of the violin. A
+glance at the bows of Corelli (1700), Cramer (1770), Viotti (1780),
+and Tartini (1740) (Fig. vi.) will show the evolution in the
+direction of the Tourte bow; and although Tourte (1740) is generally
+credited with substituting the screw for the crémaillère, it will be
+noticed that Corelli’s bow (1700) has already got the screw. But is
+the Corelli bow authentic, or in reality a bow subsequent to 1740,
+the earliest working date of Tourte _père_?
+
+With François Tourte, the younger son, culminated the art of violin
+bow making. He is the Stradivari of the bow. We give his portrait,
+but father and son were both master-workers. Although the Stentor
+(Fig. vi.) bow’s head has superseded, for some reason, the more
+rounded form of François Tourte, nothing has been done since
+in advance of Tourte, and “after Tourte” is still the greatest
+recommendation a bow can have.
+
+It is easy to see what called forth François Tourte. He came in
+answer to a need. He doubtless heard of Tartini and examined
+his bow. It was comparatively short and cumbrous. Forty years
+afterwards Viotti comes to Paris, and with him dawns a new era in
+violin playing. Refinements and delicacies of tone, upper shifts
+and varieties of execution, various styles of bowing, dealing with
+staccato, arpeggio, and rubato, methods varied and brought to
+perfection, demanded qualities of balance, lightness, and elasticity
+which would have been quite thrown away on the old sawing and
+scraping school of the seventeenth century. The very Cremona violins,
+beginning to mature as the century waned, called aloud for a suitable
+and sympathetic companion to caress, excite, charm, draw from them
+their sweetest tones and most vigorous powers.
+
+François Tourte was rescued from the clock-making business, to which
+he had been early apprenticed, by the sheer bent of his own genius.
+His brother, who worked with his father, was not the genius, and, as
+is often the case, the father failed to see which of the two sons was
+to carry on the fame of the house, and there may have been jealousies
+and disputes besides. The poor stuff given François to work upon
+when, after eight years of watch-making, he was allowed to enter the
+parental workshop a little, suggests that he was the male Cinderella
+of the family.
+
+He had to deal with strips of old sugar-barrels and fashion them into
+bows, which he sold for about fifteen-pence each. But as soon as he
+got a free hand he experimented with all kinds of wood, and arrived
+at the conclusion that the only wood suitable for his purpose was
+Fernambuc wood. It combined stiffness and lightness, but was very
+difficult to obtain, on account of so many ports being in those
+disturbed times blockaded. Fernambuc wood was only imported for
+dyeing purposes, and the price had risen in Paris to five francs
+a pound. Then, as only pieces with straight grain were required,
+whole trees might be cut up in search of a few likely strips. This
+accounts for the high prices of Tourte bows, even when first produced.
+
+They were doubtless largely labours of love with this matchless
+artificer, who could neither read nor write. The nut would be often
+made of tortoise-shell, jewelled with mother-of-pearl, and gleaming
+with a gold screw button. These cost £12, and would now fetch, if
+ever they came into the open market, fancy prices. His bows, mounted
+in silver with ebon nuts, sold for three guineas, and now fetch £30.
+
+Tourte _père_ originated the backward bend of the bow, which is not
+cut but artificially bent by heat; but both the father’s and the
+eldest son’s bows are held to be now too short for the strain of
+execution put upon them by modern players--not so François Tourte’s,
+and all bows made “after Tourte.”
+
+He fixed the proportions--length, between 29·134 inches and 29·528
+inches. The weight of the bend is nicely poised with the gold,
+tortoise-shell, or ebon of the nut; in each is a small wedge, as may
+be seen in Fig. viii., which nips the hairs and keeps them flat. The
+fine selection of hairs, 150 to 200 (modern exigencies require more,
+or up to 250), the careful flattening of it out, the preference for
+live hair, or hair combed out and not taken from dead horses who
+may have lain some time in the shambles; above all, the exquisitely
+graduated thicknesses, now held to be _de rigueur_, all characterise
+the intuitive genius of Tourte.
+
+I say advisedly “intuitive genius,” for Tourte had no education but
+that of a watch-maker. This may, indeed, have given him his fine
+sense of delicate and exact proportions, but it is still remarkable
+that examinations of the diameter of Tourte bows in different places
+give uniform results. The bows swell or taper in the same place, and
+as the air columns in the violins of Strad give the same note, so do
+the bows of Tourte yield the same proportions, which it has not been
+found safe or expedient to depart from.
+
+Violin bows may be smaller or larger, _i.e._ shorter or longer,
+as far as I can see, without any detriment to Tourte’s principle;
+children, women, and exceptionally long armed men may have to
+use them, but the proportions, the wood, the balance, even the
+mechanique, must be left as Tourte left them--perfect.
+
+The one point in mechanique in which the invention of F. B. Vuillaume
+may be thought to have improved upon Tourte is in his fixed nut for
+viola, tenor, or violoncello bows. This consists of a metal nut,
+which alone is moved by the screw up and down inside the main nut,
+which remains rigid; thus the length of the hair exposed for playing
+always remains the same.
+
+The only other original maker of the first rank and excellence, who
+has been nicknamed the English Tourte, was John Dodd. He was born
+in 1752, and lived chiefly at Kew, and there he was buried. He was
+always out at elbows, even when his reputation was at its height.
+Poor Dodd had his friends and admirers. He was his own worst enemy;
+he was undersized in stature, and walked with a shuffling gait. He
+wore his clothes until they were in rags, and a broad-brimmed hat
+somehow gave him an additionally dilapidated air.
+
+I am afraid he drank, for although his habits were said to be
+regular, the most regular of them all was his four daily visits to
+the public-house, where he consumed what to less experienced topers
+seemed an immoderate quantity of a drink called “pearl.”
+
+When the old fellow was known to be excessively hard up, kind Mr
+Richard Platt, a musical professor of the town, and Dr Sellé, who
+has given us some of the above details, came to the rescue. But the
+bow-maker tired them all out, and ended at last in the Richmond
+Workhouse.
+
+I will not say whether he can be exactly cited as a frightful example
+of the degrading effects of liquor, for he died of bronchitis at the
+altogether respectable age of eighty-four.
+
+Indeed, he had his qualities; no bribe or stress of want could make
+him swerve from his sense of what was due to his art.
+
+His wood is as magnificent as his workmanship. He doubtless had his
+secret, but it was possibly one that he could not impart. He would
+take no apprentice, for fear he should learn the trick; and whether
+he could or could not teach it, he refused £1000 offered him by some
+one who wanted to learn it. Dodd’s bows are not very uncommon; he
+died only in 1836, and, strange to say, these true musical wands do
+not run into a five-pound note yet (1898).
+
+John Dodd the bow-maker must not be confounded with Thomas Dodd the
+fiddle dealer and varnisher, who employed Fendt and Lott to make the
+fiddles. John Dodd the bow-maker was the brother of Thomas Dodd. John
+lived in Blue Bell Alley, Mint Street, Southwark, before he went to
+Kew, but the rustic suburbs suited his habits, and as he had acquired
+a European reputation before he died, it little mattered where he
+lived.
+
+Vuillaume of Paris made excellent bows, and even founded a school of
+bow-making. Many bows that don’t sell as his are stamped “d’après
+Vuillaume,” “scuola de,” which is certainly more respectable than a
+forged label to which violin dealers do so commonly resort.
+
+Vuillaume’s hollow steel bows have never “caught on,” though good
+players have used them now and again. But then a good player can use
+any bow, and whilst a good bow is a luxury, a real violinist will
+be able to perform very respectably with a bad one. It is said that
+Paganini on one occasion excited the wonder and enthusiasm of his
+audience by performing on his instrument with a long churchwarden
+clay pipe, and at another time with a rush!
+
+It would be unfair even in a sketch like this, which only professes
+to seize the salient point of general interest to collectors and
+amateurs, not to mention Jacques Lafleur (1760-1832), an admirable
+imitator of Tourte.
+
+Lupôt, brother of the great violin-maker (1774-1837), was the first
+to line with metal the groove in the underside of the nut, to
+prevent wear and tear of the ebony or tortoise-shell.
+
+Domminique Peccate (1810-74) is also thought to have almost rivalled
+Tourte. He was originally a barber, and transferred the delicacy of
+hand required in tonsorial operations to the fine adjustments and
+elegant tapering and octagonal proportions of violin bows.
+
+Peccate went to Vuillaume in 1826, stayed with him eleven years,
+and then became foreman to François Lupôt. He ended his life at
+Mirecourt, where he began it; latterly he worked entirely on his own
+account.
+
+We have now among us one James Tubbs, whose bows are already known
+throughout the world owing to their attractive appearance and good
+balance. Time will alone decide Tubbs’ position in the scale of
+bow-makers, for time alone will determine the question of “last,”
+“warp,” and flexibility, and general endurance of efficiency.
+
+On rosin, about which pages have been unnecessarily written, I have
+but one word to say--get it pure. You can do this by confining
+yourself to the best shops, or those who deal with them. Go to Hill,
+Chanot, Hart, Withers, and Vuillaume.
+
+Some ignorant people talk of rosin as “greasing the bow.” Smooth
+horsehair or greased horsehair is, of course, useless. It is not
+the absence but the presence of friction which sets the strings
+in vibration; it is the surface of the horsehair, roughened by
+infinitesimal particles of rosin, which prevents the horsehair
+touching the string with a continuous pressure, so that it receives
+in reality a succession of tiny shocks. This is what renders the
+succession of vibrations so rapid as to sound continuous.
+
+Without rosin, the violin, in spite of strings and bow, and the art
+of all Cremona, would be mute.
+
+To average rosiners let me give a word of advice, early given me by
+my old master, Ouri, pupil of Frank Mori: “Don’t rub the horsehair
+down smooth with long sweeps, but powder the rosin off into the hair
+with quick rubs and a light hand; in this way you avoid rubbing the
+oleaginous particles of the gum into stickiness.”
+
+I notice that the best players use plenty of rosin and never let the
+bow get thirsty. I remember the matchless violinist Remenye taking
+up my violin and bow and calling aloud for rosin. “Why, you have
+no rosin on; you cannot expect the violin to speak without.” Yet I
+thought my bow had plenty of rosin on, but it was not enough for
+Remenye, who powdered it away in clouds. But please to remember that,
+however thirsty the bow may be, the _violin_ does not require to
+drink, and the habit of smothering and smearing its beautiful smooth
+belly with thin glutinous dust is a most vile one, and worthy only of
+third-rate second violins at fourth-rate music halls. These musical
+galley-slaves may not have time to clean up; you of the Stradivari
+and the Amati violins and the Tourte and the Dodd bows _ought_ to
+have, or you are no fit guardian of such treasures.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+VIOLIN TARISIO
+
+
+This extraordinary man, originally an obscure Italian carpenter,
+at once created and answered that demand for Italian violins which
+followed both in England, and to a great extent in France, the rage
+for the German, and especially German of the Stainer and Klotz
+pattern.
+
+Luigi Tarisio, like W. Forster, eked out the scanty income which he
+derived from making tables and benches for the peasants by playing
+dance music on a very poor fiddle at village routs.
+
+He wandered from place to place, what time the vintages were being
+gathered in, and the simple folk, who turned out in their Sunday
+finery for a little relaxation and merriment, doubtless regaled
+the Italian carpenter with open-hearted hospitality, whilst he, in
+return, mended their benches and fiddled for them at the vineyard
+cabarets.
+
+Our Charles Mathews has given in his delightful autobiography
+interesting glimpses of that free, open-air, open-hearted life;
+for he also, for a time, lived amongst these rustics of a favoured
+clime, enjoying their simple pleasures, and contributing in his own
+peculiar way, by his histrionic gifts and a somewhat free-handed
+distribution of coin, to their revels and their needs.
+
+Luigi Tarisio soon began to be dominated by the spell of his violin;
+he got to notice other violins, to repair them all in the way of
+trade, to possess them, not always very honestly, pitting his own
+growing knowledge of their merits against the ignorance or necessity
+of their owners. Gradually Tarisio the carpenter and Tarisio the
+fiddler seemed to be merged in Tarisio the cunning repairer and
+Tarisio the still more knowing buyer.
+
+He bought chiefly by exchange, for money he had little or none;
+but he began in the early years of this nineteenth century to lead
+that nomad life--as it seemed to outsiders, the life of a common
+pedlar--which enabled him to glide without suspicion into half the
+sacristies and convents in Italy.
+
+Wherever he went, bag on shoulder, and basket of tools in hand, his
+cry was not “knives to grind,” nor “shoes to mend,” but “violins to
+repair.”
+
+He usually had with him a decoy violin or two, in the shape of
+common fiddles in good playing order; and over a glass of lemonade
+or a bottle of wine, in some local café or monasterial domicile of
+priest or cathedral musician, the cunning Tarisio would view with
+unaffected pity the miserable old battered Cremonas which were then
+lurking in a thousand ecclesiastical nooks, split as with the “wolf,”
+ill-adjusted, ill-strung, and generally out of sorts, and whipping
+out his common fiddle in perfect order, would play a few notes
+on each, so manifestly to the disadvantage of the Cremona that an
+exchange was soon effected, and Tarisio would decamp with an Amati,
+a Strad, a Joseph or Bergonzi treasure, which, after a little clever
+mending, might be worth a fortune; and in this way he possessed
+himself, often for a few francs, of instruments which now fetch over
+£1000 in the open market--if ever they get there.
+
+Tarisio, with the infallible instinct of a born collector and
+connoisseur, in a few years was able to gauge accurately the merits
+of the different great Italian makers. He knew exactly where to rank
+the Amatis, and how to separate the qualities of the great Nicolo
+from those of Andrea; he understood the supreme excellence of Antonio
+and the power of Giuseppe, and all other grades of merit of which
+even the admirers of the Cremona school in England seemed entirely
+ignorant of. All Amatis at that time were lumped together, and
+Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri were hardly known at all.
+
+But Tarisio knew all this, and a good deal more, before he tossed his
+heavy bag of old violins one day over his shoulder and set out, they
+say, on foot, or anyhow else he could, for Paris; for what market
+was there in Italy for such priceless Cremonas when their owners
+were prepared to give them up for fiddles worth from five to twenty
+shillings?
+
+But why did Tarisio go to Paris? He probably judged wisely that the
+Stainer craze, and the huge crop of common violins then being made
+in Germany, would have killed his market nearer home. Then he must
+have heard when a boy how Napoleon I. had ransacked the art treasures
+of Italy, and how, under the advice of the cultivated Marquis
+d’Avèze, who had narrowly enough escaped the guillotine in 1793, the
+great conqueror had inaugurated a high Art Exhibition for the people.
+
+The famous bronze-gilt horses from S. Marco, Venice, the Dying
+Gladiator, the Apollo Belvedere, the Cupid and Psyche from Rome, and
+Raffaello’s Transfiguration itself, had been carried in triumphant
+procession through the streets of Paris, and installed in a vast hall
+for the benefit and instruction of the people. Of course a rage for
+everything Italian was the result, and the shrewd Tarisio may have
+thought, why not a rage for old Italian fiddles?
+
+One day in the year 1827 there arrived at the shop of M. Aldric,
+at that time a famous violin dealer in Paris, a travel-worn man in
+ragged clothes, who had begged and fiddled his way for days and weeks
+across country. He carried a huge dustman’s sack over his shoulder.
+He seemed to M. Aldric a very poor sort of pedlar, grimy and unkempt
+enough to claim kinship with the man who had “used somebody’s soap
+sixteen years ago, since when he had used no other.”
+
+The fashionable violin dealer was at first inclined to show him the
+door, but probably something in Tarisio’s independent manner betrayed
+that indefinable quality we call character, and, more in amusement or
+out of pity than with any serious intent to make a deal, M. Aldric
+allowed the pedlar to empty his sack of fiddles on his counter. It
+is easy to imagine his astonishment at what he saw; but he seems to
+have kept up his indifferent manner, not supposing the poor creature
+before him could be in the least aware of the treasures he sought to
+dispose of.
+
+M. Aldric was soon undeceived.
+
+He quickly found the tables turned upon him.
+
+The clever French tradesman was conversing with the greatest
+violin connoisseur that the world has ever seen, or in all
+human probability ever will see, for no one can ever again have
+Tarisio’s opportunities, even should he unite in himself Tarisio’s
+extraordinary qualities.
+
+Now, the pedlar, with all his enthusiasm and self-sacrifice, was a
+man of exceeding cunning, and had that tact, quickness, affability,
+and bonhomie which is well known to tourists in Italy, and has often
+proved so fatal to the amateur of old laces, pottery, and objects de
+vertu, or to such as may have tried to do a little fancy collecting
+as they passed through the Italian towns, and haggled over bargains
+in small curiosity-shops and market-places. So, with due astuteness,
+the shrewd carpenter had not brought his _best_ wares on this his
+first visit; he had come on a voyage of discovery, and only produced
+a small pattern Nicolo Amati, and half a dozen Maggini, Ruggerii,
+and such-like. He had with him no Strad, no Joseph, not even a grand
+pattern Nicolo, but he had brought enough.
+
+M. Aldric, concealing his emotion, and fervently hoping the shabby
+man did not know the value of his wares, offered him a small sum for
+the lot, which Tarisio refused, doubtless with those picturesque
+invocations of horror to the Virgin and all the Saints which seem
+necessary to the Italian who attempts to convey to a “screw” the
+mingled indignation and pity excited in his generous and artistic
+breast by a mean offer.
+
+Tarisio was certainly disappointed; but he forgot that he himself had
+to _create_ the market; and so at last he left, with his empty bag
+indeed, but with his ragged pockets far from full.
+
+Back to Italy, back to his monasteries and cabarets, a little
+dazzled; but, with unabated energy, he recommenced his search.
+
+He was now beginning to be known far and wide as a clever repairer
+and a convenient dealer. As his stock of good, bad, and indifferent
+fiddles increased he could offer a greater selection, and readily
+parted with the worst ones, nicely done up, to his ignorant and
+confiding but not over-wealthy Italian patrons.
+
+When next he journeyed to Paris he met with a different reception.
+Vuillaume, Thibaut, and Chanot the elder opened their privileged
+doors to him, and especially Vuillaume had the acumen to see that
+in Tarisio he had lighted upon what gold-diggers call a veritable
+“pocket,” and gave him higher and higher prices for the harvest of
+Amatis, Strads, Guarneri, and Bergonzis which now flowed steadily
+into Paris through this odd medium.
+
+Tarisio was far more than a connoisseur and dealer; he was a
+singular and most whole-hearted enthusiast. As the novelist Charles
+Reade (who was himself a great fiddle dealer and knew Tarisio) has
+well said, “The man’s whole soul was in his fiddles. He was a great
+dealer, but a greater amateur. He had gems by him which no money
+would buy from him.” Mr Reade then goes on to relate how once, when a
+splendid equipage rolled by him in Paris, the carpenter remarked, “He
+would sooner possess one Strad than twenty such carriages.” He would
+stalk the back or the belly of a valuable fiddle until he recovered
+the whole, just as the Roman antiquary stalked the fragments of the
+Hercules Farnese, finding the trunk in one place and the head in a
+ditch miles away.
+
+Chanot had stumbled upon the cracked belly of a Strad violin in
+Spain. Ortega, the fiddle-maker, had sold the remainder, ribs and
+back, to a Spanish lady, fitting them nicely with a brand-new back
+made by himself! The precious belly caught Tarisio’s eye in the shop
+window, and he at last worried Chanot into parting with it for 1000
+francs. Off went Tarisio to Madrid, extracted from the bewildered
+Ortega, who had sold the patched Strad, the required information,
+interviewed the donna who possessed the patched Strad, and who,
+after the fashion of the high-born Spaniard, at once said, “Sir, the
+instrument is at your disposition,” which only meant that she would
+part with it for a consideration, or what she considered to be the
+good round sum of 4000 francs. This was a mere bagatelle for such a
+treasure, which, refitted with its own belly by Vuillaume, is now
+known as the Spanish Bass.
+
+It was sold for £800, and exhibited in the south Kensington
+Collection of 1872 (No. 188).
+
+On one occasion, says Charles Reade, Tarisio was crossing the Bay of
+Biscay with his famous Spanish Bass. The ship rolled; Tarisio clasped
+his treasure tightly and trembled. It was a terrible gale, and for
+one whole day they were in real danger. “Tarisio spoke of it to me,”
+continues his friend, “with a shudder. ‘Ah! my poor Mr Reade,’ he
+exclaimed, ‘the Bass of Spain was all but lost!’” As to Tarisio also
+being lost, that did not seem to matter so much!
+
+It is not too much to say that, with hardly a memorable exception,
+all the great Cremonese and Brescian fiddles, which now command such
+_prix fous_, have passed through the cunning hands of Luigi Tarisio
+the pedlar, and most of them have at one time been benefited by the
+tender and artistic skill of Vuillaume, his great patron.
+
+When Tarisio, who by this time wore a decent coat, and no longer
+carried Cremonas in a sack on his back, visited England in 1851,
+he was received by the whole trade as a person of rare quality, as
+indeed he was.
+
+Mr John Hart took him to see Mr Goding’s unique collection. As
+one by one the owner took his treasures out of a glass cabinet,
+before ever he had got within two paces of Tarisio, he was amazed
+at hearing their names called out. A glance was sufficient. Tarisio
+had had them all through his hands--the “King” Guarnerius, Lafont’s
+Guarnerius, the matchless Bergonzi, the Marquis de la Rosa’s
+Amati, Ole Bull’s Guarnerius, the famous Serafino ’cello, called
+the Beauty--all of which might never have reached Mr Goding had it
+not been for the enterprise and indomitable energy of the Italian
+carpenter who now stood before him.
+
+Barring a narrow circle of dealers, it may seem strange that so
+remarkable a man should not have been more widely known and esteemed
+during his lifetime; but we can well understand that the restricted
+circle of dealers amongst whom he moved, did not find it to their
+interest to place their special Cremona “pocket” within reach of the
+wealthy amateurs out of whom they themselves were busy making their
+market.
+
+Tarisio, had he been dealer first and enthusiast second, might have
+done better financially; but he did not do badly, and he wanted
+little except the privilege of handling Cremonas to the end of his
+life and dying in their good company.
+
+He did both. Although there was a strain of geniality about
+Tarisio, he never seemed to unbend except in the company of
+fellow-enthusiasts; and as he was too cautious to give himself
+away to Italians, from whom he was gradually securing the spoils
+which built up his fortune, fame, and immortality, the only people
+who really knew Tarisio were the few foreigners like Vuillaume,
+the Chanots in France, John Hart the dealer and Charles Reade the
+novelist in England.
+
+In his own land he remained to the end nothing but the quiet,
+unobtrusive repairer and occasional dealer in dilapidated fiddles.
+
+It seems he had removed to Milan, where he was quite safely hidden,
+along with his fiddles, up in an attic at the top of a second-class
+restaurant in the Via Legnano Porta Tegnaglia.
+
+No one was ever allowed to enter his room. He locked himself in, and
+he locked himself out. They saw him going up and down the staircase,
+and that is all they saw of him.
+
+One day in 1854 Tarisio dragged himself up those stairs for the
+last time. Whether he had any premonition of his end, none may
+know--certainly no one was with him when he died--only it was noticed
+that he locked himself in, but came out no more; nor had he gone down
+to the restaurant for any of the necessaries of life.
+
+At last the neighbours thought it time to ascertain what was taking
+place in that mysterious attic. They seemed to have watched his
+strange movements closely, but their efforts to find out who he was
+and how he lived had been hitherto fruitless, as he made a point of
+carrying on his particular and nomadic business at a distance from
+his abode. They were not going to be baulked any longer, so they
+knocked, but there was no answer.
+
+At last they broke open the door, and a strange and piteous sight
+burst upon them. There, on a squalid couch, lay the pedlar, quite
+dead.
+
+Around him all seemed chaos--piles of fiddle-boxes, fiddles in and
+out of cases, tenors, ’cellos, violins in pieces and violins whole.
+Half a dozen Strads there; a Gasparo (afterwards Mr Bennett’s), a
+Ruggieri (Mr T. R. Bradson’s); about a hundred Italian fiddles, by
+different makers.
+
+Here, too, was found the “Messie” or “Messiah.”
+
+These trophies created little enthusiasm at the time, but to the joy
+of the relatives, two nephews, who had been hunted up with difficulty
+by the municipal authorities, a sealed packet was found containing
+valuable securities and a considerable amount of gold.
+
+The rest is matter of common history.
+
+The instant his friend and patron Vuillaume heard of the magician’s
+death he hurried to Milan, and visited the nephews at their farmhouse.
+
+“Where are the fiddles?”
+
+“At Milan; but we have six here.”
+
+On the spot Vuillaume opened the cases. The first contained a
+splendid Strad, the second a Joseph del Gesù, the third a Carlo
+Bergonzi, the fourth and fifth two Guadagninis, and the last the
+famous Messiah, preserved by Count Cozio de Salabue, intact until
+1824, when it was bought by Tarisio.
+
+Vuillaume came to terms with the nephews for these six, and then lost
+not a moment in visiting the famous attic at Milan, where he found
+246 more, which he bought at once for £3166, leaving the astonished
+heirs no doubt laughing in their sleeves, under the impression that
+the _gobe-mouche_ of a Frenchman had been nicely hi-diddle-diddled by
+the wily Italians.
+
+When we remember that a couple only of these gems would realise now
+more than the sum Vuillaume paid for the lot, we may well remember
+the proverb, “He laughs best who laughs last.”
+
+
+A VIGNETTE OF PAGANINI.
+
+I have advisedly steered clear in this collector’s volume of
+violin-players and violin-music, excepting in so far as they acted
+or reacted in any way upon the violin and its progress towards
+perfection. From this point of view, the growth of music appears to
+be responsible for the definition and survival (as the fittest) of
+the violin, violoncello, and double bass; and virtuosity is certainly
+responsible for the lengthening of the violin-neck and finger-board,
+the strengthening of the sound-bar to resist an increased
+string-tension, and the lengthening of the bow. But virtuosity can
+claim nothing more than these trifling details. The Strad pattern
+of 1684 to 1700 has remained completely unaffected by the feats,
+vagaries, or demands of soloists.
+
+In this the grand pattern violin stands out in sharp and singular
+contrast to the old grand pianoforte. The imperious demands of Liszt
+and Thalberg, Rubinstein and his followers, have compelled a series
+of improvements in strength, sonority, delicate mechanism, and
+sensibility, undreamed of by the old firms, and only perfected by the
+later Erards, Broadwoods, Collards, and Steinways. But not a single
+substantial improvement has been made in the violin since the last
+one left the hand of the great Antonio at Cremona, and not even a
+trifling modification of any sort has been adopted or applied to the
+grand violin of the golden period for at least a century. The excuse
+then for introducing the name and portrait of Paganini into this
+book is not because he reacted in the least degree upon the art of
+violin-making, but because he accepted it as an absolutely finished
+art, and asked for nothing which he found not in Strad and Joseph.
+
+[Illustration: NICOLO PAGANINI]
+
+Now this is important and interesting, because Paganini was the
+greatest of all players in this culminating century of the musical
+art--a man admittedly unsurpassed in the opinion of violin experts
+like John Ella, Cipriani Potter, Onry, and others, who, for forty
+years after his death, listened to all the phenomenal violinists of
+an age which boasts of Ernst, Joachim, Wieinawski, and Sarasate and
+Ysaye. As it has not been possible to produce the face and figure of
+any of these great old makers, with the one exception of Lupôt, who
+belongs at best to the silver age, I have thought it worth while to
+glorify their work by reproducing the grand though eccentric face
+and figure of the one man who has invested their _chef-d’œuvres_
+with that romantic glamour, that almost unearthly prestige which the
+violin alone amongst instruments can lay claim to.
+
+Paganini’s favourite violin, a Joseph Guarnerius, lies in its case
+under glass to this hour, open for all eyes to inspect, in the Town
+Hall at Genoa, his native town, to which he has bequeathed it. His
+dying directions, that no one should ever play upon it, recall
+Shakespeare’s curse upon those who should move his bones. The great
+musician’s orders have not been quite so scrupulously observed as
+those of the immortal bard of Avon. In “My Musical Life” will be
+found my “Homage à Paganini,” together with a woodcut of Danton’s
+very fine bust, given to me by John Ella, who played in the orchestra
+among the violins when first Paganini visited England.
+
+Nothing is so ephemeral as the fame of an orator, actor, or musician,
+unless they leave books or music behind them. Henceforth the
+phonograph may do something to give future generations some idea of
+the fascination which lived and died with them; but no phonograph
+will ever give us even a faint echo of Siddons’ declamation or
+Paganini’s playing; these are alike buried with the generation which
+they charmed and electrified. But in Leigh Hunt’s description of
+Paganini’s performance we have something like a pictorial phonograph,
+if I may hazard the hibernianism, of the “Pale Musician’s” mighty
+personality and power. Somewhere between the forties and fifties,
+I remember, as a very young boy, standing awestruck before a thin,
+gaunt, dislocated wax effigy of Paganini in an ill-fitting dresscoat,
+with wild dreamy eyes and arm uplifted high--just as Leigh Hunt
+describes him--before his bow came down like a crash of thunder on
+the strings; but let the lively and graphic essayist who heard him,
+speak for himself:--
+
+“Paganini, the first time I saw and heard him, and the first time
+he struck a note, seemed literally to strike it, to give it a blow.
+The house was so crammed that, being among the squeezers in the
+standing-room at the side of the pit, I happened to catch the first
+glance of his face, through the arm akimbo of a man who was perched
+up before me, which made a kind of frame for it; and there, on
+the stage in that frame, as through a perspective glass, were the
+face bent and the raised hand of the wonderful musician, with the
+instrument at his chin, just going to commence, and looking exactly
+as I described him--
+
+                            --‘His hand,
+      Loading the air with dumb expectancy,
+      Suspending ere it fell a nation’s breath,
+      He smote, and clinging to the serious chords,
+      With godlike ravishment drew forth a breath
+      So deep, so strong, so fervid thick with love,
+      Blissful yet laden as with twenty prayers,
+      That Juno yearned with no diviner soul
+      To the first burthen of the lips of Jove.
+      Th’ exceeding mystery of the loveliness
+      Sadden’d delight, and with his mournful look
+      Dreary and gaunt, hanging his pallid face
+      ’Twixt his dark flowing locks, he almost seem’d
+      Too feeble, or to melancholy eyes
+      One that has parted with his soul for pride
+      And in the sable secret lived forlorn.’
+
+To show the depth and identicalness of the impression which he made
+upon everybody, foreign or native, an Italian, who stood near me,
+said to himself after a sigh, ‘_O Dio!_’ and this had not been said
+long when another person in the same manner exclaimed, ‘_O Christ!_’
+Musicians pressed forward from behind the scenes to get as close to
+him as possible, and they could not sleep at night for thinking of
+him.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+VIOLINS AT MIRECOURT, MITTENWALD, AND MARKNEUKIRCHEN
+
+
+MIRECOURT
+
+Mirecourt in Lorraine has the glory of being associated from so early
+a date as 1566 with the Cremona workshops.
+
+Andrew Amati, who made six small fiddles for Charles IX. about that
+time, employed Nicolas Renauld of Nancy, who was a pupil of the
+celebrated Mirecourt lutist Tywersus, to assist him in finishing
+these important court orders, which did so much to establish the
+supremacy of the “petit violon” over the crowd of competing viols
+which then held the popular ear, and, as we have seen, died very hard.
+
+The great princes of Lorraine occupied a castle of pleasure called
+Ravenel, at a short distance from Mirecourt.
+
+These accomplished noblemen, touched with Florentine culture, often
+made excursions into Lombardy, and delighted in the refinements of
+the Italian princedoms and duchies.
+
+They brought back with them pictures, ironwork, laces, musical
+instruments.
+
+Tywersus, their private lute-maker, was deeply influenced by the
+work and models of the early Amatis, and from the school of Tywersus
+came Nicolas Renauld, Jean Medard, and Nicolas Medard. When Amati
+left Paris, whither he had gone to present his violins in person to
+Charles IX., he left behind him Nicolas Renauld, who slipped into
+the lucrative post of luthier to his French Majesty, and we find his
+friend and co-worker Medard installed in the same fat office under
+the Grand Monarque, Louis XIV., who, with his expensive mistresses,
+certainly spared no money or patronage to secure those who could
+in any way minister to the extravagant court pomp and artistic
+amusements of the Pompadour and the Petit Trianon.
+
+Meanwhile Mirecourt, in the heart of the Vosges mountains, with easy
+access to the grand timbers of their ancient forests, within beck
+and call of Lombardy, and in close touch with the great Italian
+fiddle-makers, Mirecourt long held supremacy as one of, if not the
+most important mart of fiddle manufacture.
+
+It shared with Mittenwald and Markneukirchen the honour of supplying
+that rapidly growing violin market which was now springing up, and
+whilst Cremona made largely for home consumption and a few foreign
+courts, Mirecourt undertook the more modest but equally useful duty
+of multiplying Cremona school violins, which circulated far and wide
+throughout the French provinces, and frequently reached our own
+shores; indeed the fiddles often passed for Cremonas.
+
+The popularity of these Cremona replicas brought on that inevitable
+deterioration in quality which always follows over-rapid production
+and cheap wares, and at one time Mirecourt, in spite of its elaborate
+industry, was fast becoming a byword for bad fiddles. Happily the
+danger was seen and speedily checked, and Mirecourt now stands out
+as perhaps the greatest and most excellent emporium of modern violin
+manufacture.
+
+All who wish to know what can be known, go to Mirecourt, just as
+people who study art go to Rome and Florence, or people who study the
+fashions go to Paris.
+
+To Mirecourt we owe Rambaux, who was born there in 1802 and died
+there only in 1870.
+
+Francis and George Chanot both came from there.
+
+The Lupôt family are claimed as natives of Mirecourt, although the
+greatest of them, Nicolas, whose violins run some of the finest
+specimens of Cremona very hard, was a native of Stuttgard. His father
+was a Frenchman, and came from Mirecourt. All his traditions belong
+to Mirecourt, and these, as we all know, he carried with him to
+Paris, where he died in 1824, and was succeeded by Gand.
+
+The names of Maucotel, Medard, Menegand, Silvestre, and Deragay, and
+above all Vuillaume, must always shed an imperishable lustre upon the
+little town in the Vosges mountains.
+
+Every one of the Vuillaumes, eight in number, including the immortal
+Jean Baptiste, were born at Mirecourt. Two settled at Brussels, three
+at Paris, but all the others lived and died at Mirecourt.
+
+William Ebsworth Hill was careful to send his sons to this
+celebrated school of violin art, and we may be sure that they did
+not come away until they had possessed themselves of everything that
+Mirecourt had to teach the violin maker or the connoisseur.
+
+M. Thibouville Lamy of Mirecourt, who has trade branches in Paris and
+London, manufactures a violin at about 3s. 10d. cost price, selling
+at about 4s. 6d.; but Markneukirchen probably leads in cheapness and
+quantity, if not quality, turning out quite playable fiddles for the
+modest figure of £1 to £2, 10s.
+
+The best Mirecourt fiddles will fetch from £6 to £10.
+
+The Grand and Bemardel prices range from £16 to £20.
+
+The ever-increasing demands for “trade fiddles” of all kinds, as
+distinguished from the solo violins reserved for the use of virtuosi,
+has called forth an abundance of fair makers beyond the limits of
+Mirecourt, Mittenwald, and Markneukirchen.
+
+In England it is enough to mention such names as Hill & Sons;
+Duncan of Glasgow; the Chanots, London and Manchester; the late
+Furber, London; in Paris, Bernardel, Silvestre, Germain, Audinot,
+and Chardon; in Vienna, Zach, Bittner, Lembök, Voigt, Guttermann,
+Rampfler; in Munich, Sprenger; in Frankfort-on-Maine, Lenk; in
+Breslau, Liebich; in Brussels, Darche; in Lille, Hel; in Milan,
+Marchetti; in Turin, Bros. Guadagnini; in Cremona, Ceruti; and for
+further general information the reader may consult the tolerably
+exhaustive catalogue index of makers at the end of this volume,
+for the bulk of which I am indebted to the studious and admirable
+labours of Miss Stainer. Her booklet is entitled “Violin Makers,” and
+it forms one of the music primers of an educational series issued by
+Novello & Co.
+
+
+MITTENWALD.
+
+In old days Mittenwald, quaintest of Bavarian towns, with its
+frescoed houses and its picturesque river-side, for it is on the
+banks of the dear Isar, overshadowed by the Wetterstein and Kurwändel
+mountains, was a town of considerable importance from very early days
+as the halting-place for the Romans on their way to the Danube.
+
+It long retained its peculiar caravanserai character, which resulted
+in the establishment of the handy mart or Mittenwald fair, for which
+in more recent times the place was chiefly famous. After the removal
+of the fair to Bozen, the importance of Mittenwald began to decline;
+trade and commerce suddenly seemed to have made unto themselves
+wings, until one Matthias Klotz, who in his boyhood is said to have
+been apprenticed to no less a person than the great Nicolas Amati,
+settled at Mittenwald, and wrote up outside his house: “Matthias
+Klotz, Geigen Macher, im jahr 1684.” The prime hazel and maple, to
+be found in the Wetterstein hills, is of splendid quality, and the
+woods, then close up to the town, were full of old trees.
+
+Thither, before the days of Matthias, was wont to come a dreamy,
+ill-regulated sort of person, who excited the curiosity, and perhaps
+ridicule, of the villagers by tapping their trees with a hammer and
+then putting his ear close to the wood to hear the sound.
+
+They thought he was mad, and he did go mad from worry and want, but
+the sanest thing he ever did was to tap those trees and listen to the
+sound.
+
+His name was Jacob Stainer.
+
+Matthias Klotz was only nineteen when he came to Mittenwald, but by
+this time the Mittenwalders, who had heard how the eccentric tramp
+with the hammer had gone back to Absam and made the place famous by
+his fiddles, were prepared to receive the young workman with favour
+and hospitality, for they hoped he might do something of the kind for
+Mittenwald.
+
+They were not mistaken. One year before Klotz arrived at Mittenwald,
+Stainer had died incoherent and insane at Absam, and now that the
+greatest of German makers was dead, Mittenwald was soon destined to
+become noted in its turn for its fiddles.
+
+It is generally affirmed that Klotz was a pupil of Stainer. Certainly
+his relations with Nicolas Amati are not very well defined. The
+probabilities are that he was a pupil of both--in the sense of being
+familiar with their work. The fact that his violins are sometimes
+mistaken for Stainer, points to the strong Absam influence which
+was upon him--it could hardly be otherwise--whilst the tendency
+noticeable in the fiddles of his son Sebastian, who certainly did
+visit Cremona, to bring down the model flatter than was fashionable
+at this time, indicates that the firm at all events reflected the
+later Amati model of Nicolas, who died the very year Klotz came to
+Mittenwald.
+
+Had Matthias or Sebastian Klotz attended to the methods either of
+Stainer or Amati more carefully, they would have observed that wood
+cut in spring with the sap in it was not calculated to last like
+the drier autumn timber. Whether from haste or ignorance, the Klotz
+wood, especially that used by Matthias and Sebastian, is sometimes
+found to be worm-eaten, but Sebastian’s fiddles are much esteemed.
+His brothers, George and Egidius, and his nephew, Joseph, son of
+Egidius, all made fiddles of the same type--varnish running from
+yellow to brown, and laid on rather more lavishly than was the habit
+of Matthias, founder of the firm.
+
+The Mittenwald industry, although now less prolific than that of
+Markneukirchen, preceded it in point of time, and undoubtedly it was
+through Bavarian Mittenwald that the Cremona influence reached Saxony.
+
+Master Reiter, whose teacher was Johan Vauchel of Wurzburg, is now
+the most prominent Mittenwald maker, and Herr Neuner, who was a pupil
+of Vuillaume, directs the school and factory. The school instructs
+about twenty boys, and is under Government.
+
+Out of eighteen hundred Mittenwalders, three hundred are
+fiddle-makers.
+
+The place provides from fifteen to twenty thousand instruments per
+annum, including zithers and guitars. I will not say that Herr
+Reiter, who is an artist versed in the old secrets and the old
+enthusiasms, is personally responsible for the “trade fiddles” that
+annually pour from the Mittenwald workshops. He himself has made
+comparatively few fiddles, but he supervises them all, and remarked
+to a visitor the other day, “I, Master Reiter, never let one go out
+of my hands that has not been thoroughly tested, and I have sent out
+into the world, to Russia, to America, Athens, and where not, some
+two hundred violins and twenty-five ’cellos, besides having repaired
+some four hundred others.”
+
+
+MARKNEUKIRCHEN.
+
+Quiet resting-places, secluded valleys of the Tyrol, mountains of
+Saxony!--Mittenwald, Markneukirchen, Mirecourt; sleepy Italian
+towns!--Brescia, Cremona, once provincial villages like Mirecourt,
+far from the stir of mighty cities!--such retreats seem to have been
+ever favourable to the development of violin manufacture. Something,
+too, of simple and almost _naïve_ religious sentiment has entered
+into the production of the earlier violins, most of which were, after
+all, chiefly intended for the sanctuary, Catholic or Protestant.
+
+The arts and craftsbook of the Worshipful Guild of Violin-makers
+of Markneukirchen, 1677 to 1772, has lately been unearthed and
+translated by the many-sided and indefatigable Heron Allen, and it
+throws a kind of sudden flashlight upon the origin of an industrial
+centre which has since become one of the most famous emporiums of
+violins “made in Germany.”
+
+Here we read how a mere handful of masters and workmen went out from
+kith and kin into a wilderness--some would say a paradise--for the
+sake of worshipping God in their own way--that is to say, the new
+reformed Lutheran way. They settled, to the number of sixty-six,
+about the year 1627, at the retired and mountainous village of
+Markneukirchen. The old book which records their uneventful annals
+begins characteristically enough with, “In the name of the Holy
+Trinity, Amen”; and then follow the names of twelve families, the
+principals being Reicher, Hans George, Polles, Gaspar, Schönfeldes,
+and Gaspar Hopf; and from this modest nucleus, emigrants, chiefly
+from Graslitz, grew the famous Guild, which by-and-by was responsible
+for scattering abroad violins innumerable, labelled with every known
+name, and of quality good, bad, and indifferent; for it is a notable
+peculiarity of the Markneukirchen makers that, whilst they were
+compelled by the rules of the Guild to produce diploma instruments
+and others of recognised quality, the cost of production has got
+down as low as about four shillings, and a very playable instrument,
+labelled Stradivari, is actually sold for a sum not much above that
+astonishing cost price.
+
+Many of these workers were all-round men, and did not confine
+themselves to fiddle-making. Thus, Carl Frederick Jacob was
+carpenter, locksmith, and general instrument maker; one Andrea
+Gher, 1587, was a schoolmaster; whilst Gasper Reichel was a barber.
+Gottfried Pitz was admitted to the Guild on easy terms, because he
+had served his country as a cavalry soldier.
+
+The master-workers were mostly people of some substance. They had to
+pay a tax of one florin on being admitted to mastership; but sons of
+a master were admitted on a reduced fee of five florins.
+
+Most of the masters were expected to have a decent house, with a
+room large enough to entertain the Guild with their wives at a
+banquet on their installation. As this cost some money--there were
+various ways of lightening the burden when the candidate happened
+to be a desirable addition to the Guild--he was allowed to pay in
+instalments, or part was remitted by favour. A popular means of
+effecting economy was to _propose_ to marry the daughter of a master;
+that at least staved off payment. The apprentices often got in cheap
+that way.
+
+Hans Adam Narlitzer, who “intended” to marry a master’s daughter, was
+admitted on reduced terms, on the understanding that, if the match
+did not come off, he was to pay up in full.
+
+One Kretchman also “intended” to marry the youngest daughter of Hans
+Martin Schönfeldes; also Johann Christian Envel, in 1761, had “half
+a mind” to marry the youngest daughter of Reichel, and was admitted
+for ten thalers; but in case he could not make up his mind to marry
+the girl, _or any other master’s daughter_, he would have to pay
+thirty-one thalers. In no case is it _recorded_ that any of these
+gentlemen failed to marry as per contract; the masters’ daughters
+probably took very good care of that, or would have sufficient
+influence to suppress the fact of their rejection.
+
+With the spread of the Reformed opinions, there at first arose
+a certain demand for violins in the new churches; but the rigid
+Lutherans soon smelled the odour of abuse and reversion to Romanism,
+and discouraged any approach to ornate services, or an over-supply
+of instrumental accompaniment. A decree that the violins used in
+Church should be reduced in numbers naturally spread consternation
+throughout the little country town; but the growing demand for
+stringed instruments of good quality for secular bands soon
+counteracted the effect of sectarian bigotry and clerical parsimony;
+and when one Joseph Haydn, bandmaster to Prince Esterhazy in Vienna,
+practically founded the modern orchestra with its symphony, and
+created the modern oratorio and quartet, the demand for violins
+and basses led to a prodigious development of the Markneukirchen
+industry; and as the masters not only had ready access to the best
+Cremonese models, but were surrounded by some of the finest maple
+timber in the world, felled in forests full of seasoned trees
+hundreds of years old, the fame of the Markneukirchen makers soon
+spread throughout Europe.
+
+At Mittenwald a similar community flourished, and the crop of German
+instruments made, and still made, by these enterprising artificers
+have flooded all the orchestras of the world, providing them with
+samples of every maker, from Gaspar and Maggini to Stradivari,
+the Guarneri, Bergonzi, and Guadagnini. The Mittenwald makers owed
+their inspiration chiefly to Egidius Klotz, pupil of the great
+Stainer. They were as famous for their fine hazel-fir timber as the
+Markneukircheners were for their maple; it was also through the
+Mittenwalders that the Cremona methods filtered readily into the more
+northern region--Markneukirchen, Prague, Nuremburg, Wurzburg, and
+Franken.
+
+The increased demand for instruments resulted necessarily in a
+tendency to deterioration, which did not escape the attention of the
+Guild, and rigid rules were drawn up, called “Beneficent Mandates for
+the Suppression of Abuses.”
+
+Every master had to prove himself equal to producing one masterpiece
+as a sample of his skill, though it was freely admitted that a cheap
+demand involved a cheap type of instrument, which could not be
+expected to rival the diploma standard of tone and finish.
+
+The quaint record of the Markneukirchen arts and craftsbook ends with
+the year 1772, and with the words “_Deo Gloria_.” Since that date the
+names of Reichel, Schuster, and Paulus have all been _en evidence_
+at various European Exhibitions as medallists and exhibitors of
+distinction; but, after a great fire in 1840, a good many families
+left the town, and thus the old centre became like a flower that had
+overblown itself, and began to obey the inevitable law by which a
+mature centre distributes itself gradually, losing as it were its own
+central wealth in its circumference, as the seeds of the dandelion
+get blown abroad over all lands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+VIOLIN TREATMENT
+
+
+The notion that the more a fiddle is knocked about the better it is,
+is similar to the theory that the more you knock about a horse the
+better he goes.
+
+A good horse will take a great deal of spoiling, and so will a good
+fiddle. Your well-bred beast, even when broken down, if you turn him
+out to grass and attend to his ailments, will recover marvellously,
+and so will a violin, if you glue him up, readjust his nervous
+system, keep him dry, and coax him a bit.
+
+The delusion that a fiddle is all the better for being maltreated
+is due to this:--Many people observe that their old, battered,
+disorganised fiddles, which went into the skilful repairer’s hands
+sounding like tin kettles, come out with the true Cremona timbre; but
+that, my deluded friend, is not in consequence, but in spite of the
+knocking about to which your favourites have been exposed.
+
+The fiddle-doctor has attended to your violin’s internal economy, and
+gently healed its bruises, killed the wolf or fiddle stomach-ache
+from which it was suffering, glued tight the rattling back, ribs,
+belly, fixed the loose sound-bar, and readjusted your Cremona’s very
+soul (_l’âme du violon_), which is the sound-post and so it fares
+well; but remember, ’tis better to keep a fiddle in repair and use
+than allow it to get out of both, and go a mere wreck to the workshop.
+
+I am not forgetting, when I say “use,” that the incessant and
+continued playing upon an instrument is said to result in its getting
+what Joachim calls “played out,” and that collectors have been great
+benefactors by withdrawing choice instruments from wear and tear,
+giving them thus long periods of suspended animation; but, as a
+general rule, so long as a violin lasts--and how long it will last is
+still a vexed question--fair wear and tear and attention is just as
+good for a fiddle as work, exercise, and cleanly habits are good for
+man and beast.
+
+Neglect is _never_ good; knocking about is _never_ good!
+
+Lay it to your heart, O young player!
+
+What is that precious thing committed to your care? You have brought
+it home from the auction-room--your Amati. There was a conspiracy to
+keep down the bidding. An influential dealer wanted to buy it cheap,
+having already half sold it in advance for twice as much as he meant
+to give; he went up to £40 at the auction and stopped, but you were
+the dark horse and made another bid; he winked at the auctioneer,
+supposing it to be a bogus bid; the man with the hammer paused and
+looked at the dealer, who shook his head; for once the dealer had
+been too clever and lost his Amati for a £5 note. It was knocked down
+to you.
+
+You get it home; there is something wrong about it; the timbre of the
+A string is unequal--sweet, but too weak--it has a crack in one rib.
+
+You don’t expect a trumpet-sound like that of a Joseph, or quite the
+bell-like ring of a Strad, but you do mean to have a quality like
+the ripple of water--a round, soft, and incomparably sensitive and
+_intime_ tone, not to be surpassed by Strad and never reached by
+Stainer.
+
+Of course your early Nicolo has got to be overhauled. He has got
+a crack--perhaps more than one. Why, he is already more than two
+hundred years old, and may have a mark of the young Stradivari’s
+chisel about him. Of what attention is he not worthy! Take him to a
+subtle violin medicine-man, who will at a glance see what he has got
+to deal with, and will sit down before him and think!
+
+He will then take him up, handle him, tap him, pull him to pieces
+with excessive care and reflection. When you get him back, you may
+still be not quite satisfied, but wait. _Your_ treatment has to begin
+where the fiddle-doctor’s ends.
+
+The convalescent home comes after the hospital--your house is the
+convalescent home.
+
+The glue must dry; the changed sound-post must grow to the
+newly-directed strain and tension of the vibrating boards; the
+refixed flanks must learn to deal with the air column, and the
+filled-up crack, by constantly thrilling with the rest, must have
+time to forget that it ever was a crack!
+
+Be not impatient. Play upon it gently at first, and by-and-by draw
+out its tone; lay it aside and watch that no harm comes to it; let it
+lie open, with a soft silken wrapper on the strings--near, not too
+near the fire; it must not get hot, but, like good claret, just the
+temperature of a comfortably warm room.
+
+Think of it in winter as you would think of your pet canary;
+don’t let it get chilled at night; let it be in your own bedroom,
+or wherever there is an atmosphere and temperature fit for a
+well-cared-for “human.”
+
+’Tis half human; ’tis caressed by your hand; it lies close to your
+cheek; ’tis breathed on by you when you press it, in moments of rare
+inspiration and musical trance, between your chin and your left
+breast, where its vibrating back actually _feels_ the pulses of your
+own heart. The waves of sound that you generate from it are saturated
+with the magnetism of your touch; the trembling pressure of your
+fingers comes from the shaking of your own life-blood as it beats in
+the mysterious valves of the heart, and seems to mingle with those
+more than atmospheric, those _psychic_ waves which travel out upon
+the air in a flow of magic sound conveying your inmost self to the
+inmost selves of others!
+
+So this half-human thing must live with you and be cared for by and
+fare with you, and be kept in good humour.
+
+See that no clot of dirt be in its case, no speck of rosin to vex and
+fret the smooth amber-coloured back. Take it out lovingly; polish it
+with soft handkerchief; keep it shining wherever the varnish still
+shows up, and scrupulously clean elsewhere.
+
+The vile notion that a coat of rosin does good, and may be left with
+advantage like a festering mass on the belly underneath the strings,
+is a most grievous delusion!
+
+Why suffer the corrosion of the varnish with a foreign substance to
+remain there more than on any other part of the wood?
+
+Rosin is for the strings, not for the belly, and the strings are for
+friction, and are intended to be scraped through and worn out and
+replaced, but the belly is for vibration and is never intended to
+wear out.
+
+Your rosin is life to the strings, enabling them to speak, but ’tis
+death to the wood, stifling its pores and striking it dumb!
+
+Never touch your violin with oil, or spirit, or colouring. Only a
+skilled repairer can venture to do that, and even he will not always
+be wise.
+
+I have seen really good old instruments too much cleaned or daubed
+over ruthlessly with muddy brown varnish, much, as Ruskin says,
+he saw men with knives and mops of paint at Venice scraping away
+and splashing over with raw blue the vast old faded skies of Paul
+Veronese!
+
+A spick and span mania seizes at times upon restorers of all schools.
+
+A relative of mine had a Spagnoletti restored to him by a cleaner,
+but so repainted as to be worthless.
+
+Have not half the cathedrals in the land been disfigured by
+whitewash, starched and bleached just like so much dirty linen, and
+the old frescoes obliterated like so many disfiguring stains; and
+even now, in these more enlightened days, how many old carvings have
+been replaced by modern routine-work sculpture, whilst the walls,
+façade, and floor of grand old St Mark’s at Venice have been smeared
+over with Salviati’s modern mosaic. Thus have I seen a Maggini
+botched and browned over so completely with bad German varnish as to
+leave only faint traces here and there of the original coating.
+
+Never in the matter of varnish dare to _replace_ what time has
+stolen; that loss of old varnish is a tribute paid not ungrudgingly
+to “the Vandal years,” who have spared the life and been unable
+materially to injure the fabric of the rare old instrument. Above
+all, thou favoured guardian of a Cremona, never let it get near damp,
+or suffer from any other mouldering or corrosive influence.
+
+A friend of mine, finding that the worm had got into his violin
+_case_, which contained a Guadagnini, proceeded to saturate his case
+with benzoin, and before it was properly dry replaced the precious
+instrument, with the result that the old varnish was brought up in
+blisters all over the back, which is now one crinkled mass, as rough
+to the touch as a nutmeg-grater. The varnish was completely ruined,
+and what is worse, the violin has never sounded like itself since; a
+clear proof to my mind that the varnish affects the tone, or at least
+that damaged varnish impairs it.
+
+It is not at all an uncommon thing to find a violin, which has been
+left unplayed upon for some months, sulky when first taken out.
+
+Do not be rash or fidget with the bridge or soundpost. Warm the
+fiddle up gently; rub it lightly with all due care, and play on
+it without taking any notice of its temper; go on for a couple of
+hours; you will find, to your surprise, that it has recovered all
+its own sweetness and charm, and will be ready to charm you with
+the delightful sensitiveness of its response. All that was really
+wanted was for the temporarily disused channels of vibration to be
+again filled with sound--the pores--the desiccated hollows to be
+once more shaken up in the old way. The instrument has really gone
+to sleep--some of its nerve currents have got sluggish--that is, the
+desiccated powder molecules have stuck in the pores and must be set
+rolling again. But, like one just awakened, the fiddle takes a little
+time to be “all there,” as the idiom runs.
+
+Something similar may be observed in a large hall. When, after the
+atmosphere has been quiescent for some time, speaking first begins,
+the speaker will not be heard well; the atmosphere is stiff, and only
+when the whole of it has been set in vibration--and that takes a
+little time--does it become sensitive and sufficiently elastic to be
+capable of transmitting the slightest inflections of sound.
+
+There is, again, an electric as well as an atmospheric and molecular
+state of the air and all other vibratory substances, but this is
+a side of acoustics extremely little understood, and can only be
+dealt with empirically by speakers, singers, players, and especially
+handlers of violins, who will instinctively make use of some laws
+which they do not understand, and which indeed do not yet seem to
+have been correctly formulated.
+
+I feel that something ought to be said about the position of the
+sound-post, though frankly I would rather not say anything.
+
+Whatever advice one gives is certain to be wrongly and mischievously
+applied.
+
+Technically, the sound-post should be a little behind the right foot
+of the bridge, if you look from head to neck, which is of course
+the left foot if you look from neck to head. It ought also to be
+straight--if it is aslant--unless the surface of the ends be cut on
+a slope. Of course it clings but partially to back and belly, whose
+throbs it is intended to blend; a little too near the bridge will
+often produce a light hard tone; a little too far will tend to a
+loose, muffled, or tubby quality; a little to the right will brighten
+the right string at the expense of the left, and _vice versâ_. Get
+it exactly in the fit place, and you attain the utmost sensibility
+and equal sonority of which your violin is capable. But so capricious
+are the vibrational laws, and so subtle are the peculiarities of
+each violin’s nervous system, that the position which at first has
+failed to yield good results will ultimately be found to have won its
+way to the heart of your violin, the instrument adjusting itself to
+what was at first an uncongenial treatment of its nerves, until the
+nerves learn to sympathise, and even rejoice, in special directions
+of pressure and tension induced by the sound-post. When this happens,
+better let well alone and don’t attend to outside advice of experts.
+
+It is seldom wise to encourage an amateur, or any but a skilful hand,
+to trifle with the position of the sound-post. If it _must_ be moved
+or has fallen down, why then by all means take the advice of an
+expert; go to the doctor.
+
+The same sort of advice may be given about the position of the
+bridge. Granted that you have a bridge which suits your instrument
+(and the importance of this I have elsewhere dwelt upon), then
+consider whether ’tis worth while to move your bridge at all. The two
+little side slits in the ∫ ∫ indicate approximately the position of
+the bridge; let a violin-doctor determine the right height, which,
+remember, must be modified according to its position, and the slope
+and elevation of the finger-board. But here again there is a vague
+and subtle margin for readjustment; the importance of the bridge’s
+position is of course directly related to the whereabouts of the
+sound-post, as the bridge is a prime factor in dealing first with the
+vibrations transmitted by the sound-post from belly to back.
+
+There are violins which gain brilliancy by the bridge leaning a
+little forward, but this is of course dangerous, as a little more,
+and down comes the bridge. The theory of course is for the feet
+of the bridge to grip equally at all points the surface of the
+belly--flat and close, and with equal pressure. Now, if the bridge
+leans forward, the grip of the back part of the feet is slightly
+lifted, whilst the pressure of the front part is accentuated, and
+if it leans backwards, precisely the reverse takes place. Yet so
+capricious are fiddles, that some do not seem to like to have their
+bridges quite straight, and so they have got to be humoured.
+
+Without grave cause I should advise not meddling with bridge or
+sound-post after they have been readjusted by a good repairer. He
+may not have been quite right; he may not have had the time or
+patience to deal with your _malade imaginaire_ of a fiddle--for
+amongst fiddles as amongst people, there are _malades imaginaires_
+which baffle the profession--but your fiddle-doctor will be probably
+more right than you--fussy, irritable, discontented, inexperienced
+amateur, and, if you leave off tampering with the works, the fiddle
+will very probably adjust itself and get all right.
+
+Then of course you must remember that whenever you touch the bridge
+you touch the elevation of the strings above finger-board. Put bridge
+back, you slacken the touch for the player by bringing the strings
+close down on the finger-board; put it forward or tilt it, and you
+lighten the touch; make it harder for the fingers by lifting the
+strings higher from the finger-board.
+
+And now a word about your finger-board. This is generally made
+of ebony; the old masters used various brownish woods, choosing,
+of course, the harder ones, which they often inlaid beautifully.
+Sometimes even they used ivory; you may perhaps have noticed that on
+some violins you have a difficulty in stopping fifths, or indeed any
+chords, in tune. This, unless you are a mere blunderer, comes from
+the state of your finger-board. You may not have noticed it, but you
+will observe that the strings, by constantly being squeezed by the
+fingers against the smoothly-arched surface of the ebony, have worn
+channels in the wood, but channels of unequal depths; the consequence
+is that the same pressure, forcing two strings down on unequally
+raised surfaces, fails to produce that relatively equal pressure
+necessary for producing your true fifth; the string also being
+sunk, it does not get the full benefit of the finger’s pressure,
+as the shock of impact will be broken by the higher level of the
+finger-board on either side of the sunken string.
+
+In this way the tone _quality_ as well as the _intonation_ suffers
+from what so constantly eludes observation--a worn finger-board.
+
+Of course a new finger-board, or the restoration of an old one, is a
+very easy matter, and can in no way affect, except for the better,
+any violin.
+
+It may safely be said that no violin now in use has either its
+original finger-board or, for the matter of that, its original neck.
+Strings of very ill-assorted thickness are also responsible for
+imperfect fifths.
+
+The management of the pegs sometimes presents difficulties to the
+novice. Rosewood, ivory, and boxwood have been tried, but ebony
+seems to be the favourite, though many incline, as I do personally,
+to rosewood, which is less dense, and thus, in contact with the
+maple-head (which is again less dense in fibre than the rosewood),
+offers a less hard and violent contrast than does the iron ebony to
+the porous maple.
+
+But the all-essential thing is for the pegs to be nicely fitted, and
+it is a vile practice to rosin the pegs to make them stiffer, or to
+rub them with lead-pencil or whitening to make them turn more easily.
+
+If your peg sticks, it is either because it does not fit the hole,
+is not smooth, or because you have rammed it in too far in order to
+resist the pull of a string, probably coiled round and round the pegs
+in a tangled, twisted mess.
+
+There never should be a need for this over-ramming in of the screw,
+nor would there be if, when you pulled up your new string to pitch,
+you immediately let it down, drew the stretched part tight, and then
+screwed up again, when you would find, instead of ever so many coils,
+you had reduced the number to one or two, which would at once lift
+the strain from your screw, and make it needless for you to force it
+in till it stuck and almost refused to move at all.
+
+You should be able, when your fiddle is at your chin, to nip the
+peghead between the first and third joint of your forefinger, and
+adjust the pitch to a nicety and in a moment; but then the resistance
+of the screw must be so nicely balanced with the tension of the
+string as to allow of its moving easily when gripped, and keeping in
+its exact place when left.
+
+It is a very strange thing that, whilst all sorts of mechanical
+contrivances for moving violin screws have been suggested, and even
+tried and adopted for guitars and double basses, the violin retains
+its simple and primitive screw; nor would any one who lays claim to a
+decent position in the trade dream of advising a departure in this,
+or indeed in any other respect from the custom of the Cremona school
+and its successors.
+
+Concerning the stringing of your violin, beyond the hints I have
+given with regard to the accumulation of evils round the peg, there
+is not very much to be said.
+
+The quality, manufacture, preservation, and price of strings has
+already been dealt with; and here, as in everything connected with
+violins, there must be fine and sympathetic adaptation of strings
+both to the performer and to his instrument.
+
+A young girl will naturally incline to thinner strings than a strong
+man, just as she will usually prefer a lower bridge, which will
+reduce the resistance because of the reduced distance between the
+strings and the finger-board.
+
+Some players will prefer a thick first or third string, according to
+the quality of tone they are able to elicit; some a smooth or rather
+thin patent fourth in preference to the usual more roughly-coiled
+and thicker G string, which, however, is preferable for orchestral
+playing; but, as a rule, buy your strings according to gauge, if
+you can’t trust your eye, in a good shop, and you will not be
+disappointed.
+
+Remember, as I have previously intimated, that any great inequality
+in the relative thickness of your strings may be quite as much
+responsible for your imperfect fifths as an old channelled
+finger-board. Use plenty of rosin, and let the string be seasoned
+with it right up to the bridge, but not much, if at _all_, below the
+top of the finger-board. The rosin must be well rubbed in before you
+attempt solo work, as any excess of what I may call raw undigested
+powder will produce a most vile screeching.
+
+The tone of a fine violinist never reminds you of the cat-gut and
+rosin. In the pure disembodied tone of Piatti, Joachim, or Sarasate
+we entirely lose the sense of all beggarly elements; they have
+suffered a change into “something rare and strange.”
+
+The rough-and-ready way of testing false strings by setting them
+in vibration, holding by each end, and twitching till the double
+line is seen, and if a third line appears condemning the string as
+false, is a method often, not _always_, reliable. You can never be
+quite sure till you have put the string on. If false, you _may_ get
+a true length out of it by trying another part; but, as a rule, if
+one length of a string is false, it is bad all through. A player,
+especially a soloist, should always have a length or two of stretched
+and tested firsts in his case, or, better still, in his waistcoat
+pocket, before he goes on the platform, unless he can ensure the
+presence of a second reliable instrument at hand in case of a sudden
+breakage.
+
+Strings have every kind of vice short of downright falseness. You
+need not put up with wheezy or dull, or any sort of impure vibration,
+and beware of laying the blame on the violin when the string is the
+offender.
+
+Of course, if the sound-bar or the back or belly of the violin is
+loose, or the sound-bar askew, that will account for a good deal. By
+tapping all round the front and the back, just where these join the
+ribs, you can easily discover by a certain jar or rattle whether and
+where something is loose; it may be one of the blocks or linings.
+
+Test the fiddle and you may acquit the strings; test the strings and
+you may acquit the fiddle.
+
+You may sometimes experience a difficulty in playing the A or D
+string without striking the E or G; this may be due to your own
+clumsiness, but it may also be due to the curve of your bridge being
+too flat, or someone or more of the strings having eaten too deeply
+into the bridge.
+
+If your hand perspire much--and all hands perspire--your strings,
+especially your E string, will rag out. It is difficult to say
+exactly at what stage in the ragging process it is advisable to
+change your string. It is strange, but true, that the tone of an old
+ragged string is not materially impaired. I have sometimes fancied
+that such thorough tough and seasoned strings are even improved in
+spite of age and infirmity. Certain it is that the smoothest string
+will go without warning, and the raggedest will sometimes hang on
+down to a mere thread.
+
+Paganini perspired frightfully, so much so that he always carried a
+dry shirt in his violin case, and a gentleman noticed that when he
+opened his case to take out his violin for a public solo, his strings
+were in rags.
+
+I have sometimes observed that, oddly enough, a second or third
+string is less durable after it has ragged than a first; the wearing
+of the threads which compose the thick strings seems less hard and
+tight than those of the thin chanterelle, or the resultant material
+is softer and gets soaked and cheesy, and like cheese is readily cut
+through by the nails.
+
+Lastly, the amateurish and falsely-assumed economical habit of
+slackening all the strings each time the violin is replaced in its
+case is a delusion and a snare; it only worries your instrument’s
+nervous system.
+
+Slacken your _bow_, not your strings.
+
+The violin gets accustomed to the normal strain, and adjusts itself
+to it, and resents being deprived of its due tension as much as an
+athlete would resent his dumb-bells being removed.
+
+The strings are quite as likely to break by being constantly fidgeted
+up and down, and the violin is much more likely to get demoralised by
+the wearing action and reaction of a varying strain, than if you let
+it alone with all its strings at their accustomed pitch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+VIOLIN DEALERS, COLLECTORS, AND AMATEURS
+
+
+I Have come to the conclusion, “after long years,” that there are
+three things about which your averagely honest man has no conscience
+whatever--the first is a horse, the second is an umbrella, and the
+last, but not least, is a fiddle.
+
+He will buy from some needy ignoramus a fiddle worth £100 for a £5
+note, if he can. He will sell a fiddle which cost him £5 for £100,
+if he can. Truly, the _caveat emptor_ of the ancient Romans covers a
+multitude of sins.
+
+On the other hand, the extreme ignorance of many persons who have
+violins to sell offers singular temptations to dealers, who are a
+class of people constitutionally on the make.
+
+In bygone days, people who did not play the violin used to be
+criminally careless about the instruments that happened to be in
+their possession. Cremonas might lie for years in damp attics, or
+hung up in disused cupboards on rusty nails, or away in the dust of
+ages on the top of old beds and cabinets. Even if the fiddle was
+ultimately stolen--borrowed and not returned--it was thought hardly
+worth a serious inquiry; it “was all to pieces” or “only an old
+fiddle”; and, indeed, I have before now seen such with the belly off
+converted into serviceable dustpans.
+
+Credulity has succeeded to ignorance, and now any one who has any
+sort of shabby-looking fiddle fancies he has got a rare Cremona!
+
+He will advertise it unblushingly in the halfpenny papers, bring it
+gravely to supposed judges, and make a favour of even showing it to a
+dealer.
+
+Nothing will shake the confidence of these simple folk in their
+spurious wares; they will bring out a common brown German _dated_
+Maggini, and you point out that Maggini never dated his instruments;
+they suppose you to be envious. Or they show you a Stainer rashly
+dated fifty years after that maker’s death (such an one was lately
+brought to me), with a label so recent that you wonder at the
+brazen fraud. As to the good and tolerably deceptive French copies
+of Strad, their name is legion, and for a moment a person fairly
+conversant with fiddles may be deceived by such a subtle and withal
+honest copyist as Lupôt, but to the eye of the experienced dealer
+the varnish is quite enough. The varnish that chips off instead of
+rubbing away, thus leaving the raw wood more exposed than permeated,
+is not Cremona varnish.
+
+Of course as to the new labels in modern type I have nothing to say.
+No one but a complete fool in fiddles could be taken in by them.
+
+Still, when all gross cases are put aside, there is an excusable
+margin left for honest error, especially when personal interest is on
+the side of error.
+
+I have very little doubt that my old friend, the late Mr Cox, well
+known as an acute picture dealer, really believed in a certain violin
+which he called the Red Knight. He bought it at the great sale of
+Gillott’s fiddles as a rare Joseph Guarnerius.
+
+I would never tell the old man to his face that his Joseph was a very
+plausible red Landolpho copy of Joseph, and I was even weak enough
+to allow it to lie on the table of the Royal Institution side by
+side with the “Dolphin,” Enthoven’s Maggini, the Emperor of Russia’s
+Strad, a genuine Nicolas, a Joseph and a Jacob Stainer; in short, the
+Red Knight lay by favour for one evening in company with some twenty
+gems of worldwide reputation.
+
+In the course of my lecture, to please my old friend, I took up the
+Red Knight, remarking, “Here is a fine violin _labelled_ Joseph
+Guarnerius, once the property of Mr Gillott, now owned by Mr Cox.” I
+said no more.
+
+A few weeks afterwards the Red Knight was sold for £300, partly on
+the strength of my having vouched for it at the Royal Institution.
+
+Meanwhile the Jupiter of judges, William Ebsworth Hill, had been
+consulted by the purchaser, who, on finding that he had only got hold
+of a Landolpho, wanted his money back.
+
+I think they would have gone to law if they could have counted on me
+as a witness; but when I was threatened with a subpœna, I replied,
+“I would certainly go into the box, but should have utterly to deny
+that I had vouched for the genuineness of the Red Knight or expressed
+any opinion whatever about it except that it was ‘a good fiddle
+_labelled_ Guarnerius,’ worth perhaps £60 but not £300.”
+
+The upshot was that I was not subpœnaed. Mr Cox refunded the money
+and the buyer restored the fiddle.
+
+No one doubts but what Mr Gillott, of steel-pen celebrity, did
+obtain, chiefly through Charles Reade of “Never Too Late to Mend”
+fame, a great many very fine fiddles, but I am afraid that Mr C.
+Reade was also responsible for some comparative rubbish like the
+Red Knight. Certainly I find a very dubious Strad tenor (one of
+Gillott’s) labelled 140 in the South Kensington collection. As to
+this particular collector’s specimen, if I grant him his belly and
+his sound-holes, it is about all that I can do--for Strad never threw
+that scroll nor touched with plane or chisel that back and ribs.
+
+I brought home from Australia a so-called Peter Guarnerius--really an
+excellent violin--but it was no more a Guarnerius than a Strad, and
+was sold far under its value as a Camillo Camilli, which it probably
+was. But what will you? After all, a fiddle at any given time is
+worth what it will fetch.
+
+The most impudent fraud or the most blatant delusion which has ever
+come under my notice was the so-called Maggini exhibited by Mr J. W.
+Joyce (110, South Kensington Exhibition, 1872).
+
+It was made by Bernhardt Fendt, and I gave in the _Pall Mall Gazette_
+of the period its history and the names of its chief owners; but it
+was not removed, neither was the Amati tenor (No. 147), labelled and
+hung as Maggini, ever re-labelled, nor was a Klotz fiddle which bore
+a Stainer label ever corrected.
+
+The only fraud I succeeded in dislodging was a spurious
+Bergonzi--also sent up by Mr J. W. Joyce--which after my attack on
+the South Kensington collection of 1872 disappeared.
+
+The poor thing, no worse than the Bernhardt Fendt which brazened it
+out like a false claimant, was merely made a scapegoat of.
+
+These be among the humours of your loan collections!
+
+But we must be indulgent. Some mistakes are sure to be made, but it
+is only fair to remember that the fiddle world is vastly indebted to
+these grand fiddle exhibitions all the same. The exhibition of 1885
+at South Kensington was not one whit less important than the 1872
+show.
+
+The 1885 specimens were more discreetly selected than those of 1872.
+They had the advantage of being largely controlled by Mr Hill.
+
+Besides the usual supply of leading Italian makers, the English
+school was remarkably well represented. There was found a capital
+Ford, a maker who has not received due credit for his excellent work.
+A good Duke and Walmsley, and a yellow fiddle by Tobin, a man quite
+noticeable for the cut of his scrolls, which are always full of
+character.
+
+There was an interesting John Lott, richly varnished. A romantic
+interest must always attach itself to this fine maker on account of
+his early Bohemian life, recorded by Charles Reade in a memoir called
+“Jack of All Trades.”
+
+Charles Reade, who knew Lott intimately, tells us how at one time he
+travelled through Europe with a menagerie and became famous as the
+keeper of a most clever but vicious elephant called Djek, who, after
+killing ever so many men, had to be demolished herself with a cannon,
+and was then cut up for elephant steaks to feed the town.
+
+It was only after the loss of Djek that John Lott came again to
+London and took up the fiddle trade, which he had learned in boyhood.
+
+Joseph Hill, Lockey Hill, and Banks, were also well seen at South
+Kensington in 1885. There was also a matchless Urquhart, very
+venerable--Anno 1666--the date of the great fire of London, which
+happily spared it!
+
+The Stradivarius case contained Mr Hill’s interesting 1732 Strad (now
+Ysaÿe’s violin), which, although made so late in his life, was signed
+by the old man, who after 1730, as a rule, had left off signing his
+instruments.
+
+A truly serio-comic chapter might be written on the huge prices given
+for frauds. A friend of mine gave £200 forty years ago for a supposed
+Strad (which was only a Lupôt) at a time when £40 was a long price
+for the clever Frenchman.
+
+A violin professor I know sold a very poor Strad the other day, but
+made a very good thing out of it. When the lady showed it me, I took
+a liberal view, and said that £300 would have been a long price. Her
+countenance fell.
+
+“Good gracious! I gave £600!”
+
+“Keep it long enough, and _anything_ by Strad will fetch that; but
+probably not,” I added, “in your lifetime or mine.” This was some
+years ago.
+
+On the other hand, bargains in Strads and Josephs, Bergonzis and
+Stainers, are still no doubt to be got, but only about as often as
+bargains in Raphaels, Rubens, Rembrandts, or Tintorets; but amateurs
+of pictures and fiddles are mostly wrecked on school-pictures and
+school-fiddles, often getting fair money’s worth, but _not_ what they
+_pay for_.
+
+Betts purchased one of the finest Stradivari in the world for 20s.
+When John Lott opened it in Vuillaume’s presence, he found the
+original bass-bar. The bar--so Charles Reade tells us--was low and
+short, and quite incapable of bearing the strain of concert pitch,
+and John Lott replaced it with one stronger. The Betts Strad was sold
+to George Hart for 800 guineas--a heavy price fifty years ago.
+
+Mr John Hart, father of George Hart, picked up a violoncello in
+Oxford Street for a sovereign or two. The timbre caught his ear as he
+passed three street-musicians--violin, cornet, and ’cello.
+
+Lindley, the great player, came into his shop and bought a fine
+Forster ’cello for a round sum. This was the Oxford Street ’cello.
+
+The destiny of violins has ever been one full of ups and downs, and,
+like human beings, they have been literally kidnapped, as in the case
+of Spohr’s, which was lifted from behind his travelling carriage;
+shipwrecked, like the Peter and Paul, _vide_ page 96; murdered by
+those Vandals who patch stray bits of slaughtered Cremonas into
+modern fabrics, and sold for slaves, as in last century, to be
+scraped in dim churches or ancient orchestras, until found out to be
+royalties in disguise by the Chanôts and Vuillaumes of the nineteenth
+century.
+
+One would suppose that the stealing of a first-class instrument would
+be next to impossible. Hardly a fiddle of mark now exists which is
+not known to one or other of the great dealers in Paris, London, or
+Berlin; and whenever it changes hands, it is likely to come before
+them again for inspection and verification. Yet some of the famous
+Spanish Court Strads have vanished no one knows where, and another
+famous Strad from the Plowden Collection, whilst in possession of one
+of our diplomats at St Petersburg, disappeared, and has never since
+been traced.
+
+Many years ago I left a Vuillaume, labelled Albani, in a railway
+carriage when I got out to take refreshment. I was not gone five
+minutes, but in that five minutes my Vuillaume had gone.
+
+After the death of a well-known nobleman, a certain so-called Strad
+in an elaborate case, with finely-mounted bows, was submitted to
+Mr Hill for inspection. It was nothing but a common German fiddle;
+but Mr Hill told me he had no doubt that the original occupant
+of the noble case had been stolen. Probably many such thefts have
+been committed by dishonest servants. Nothing could be easier
+than to substitute one fiddle for another in houses--and they are
+legion--where people do not know one fiddle from another, and where
+fiddles lie unused and unvisited in lofts and cupboards, I might
+almost say from generation to generation. No soloist who travels
+should fail to insure his treasure. Sarasate had a heavy insurance on
+his violin when he went to America.
+
+But worse than theft is mutilation. The chances are that what is
+stolen, unless it be stolen deliberately to cut up, will some
+day reappear intact; but the chances are small that a mutilated
+instrument will ever collect its _disjecta membra_.
+
+Still, as in the case of Tarisio’s Spanish bass, that too is
+possible, just as the recovery of the Hercules Farnese statue, before
+alluded to, was possible.
+
+A well-known amateur whose Strad had been taken to pieces for repair
+and the pieces wrapped in bits of paper, on unfolding the fragments
+found the head missing. The loss seemed irreparable, but a day or
+two afterwards an old apple-woman picked it up in the gutter, and
+happened to take it to the very fiddle-shop charged with the repair
+of the Strad. That Strad head was worth just 2s.--to the old woman!
+
+Nothing is easier than the perpetration of a fraud by a clever
+copyist if he chooses to attempt it. Incredible as it may appear,
+Paganini was shown by Vuillaume two fiddles, one of which was his own
+and the other a counterfeit, and was quite unable at the moment to
+decide which was which.
+
+Chanôt’s copy of the Carlino or Kerlino 1454 viol, No. 14, South
+Kensington 1872 Exhibition, completely deceived me until I had the
+opportunity of handling both instruments at leisure.
+
+These frauds extend to bows. The Tourte and Dodd bows in existence
+that know not Dodd or Tourte are legion.
+
+I should recommend my readers never to leave a valuable bow in their
+case when they send their violins for repair.
+
+I lost a good Dodd myself in that way. Fine bows are not safe even
+in the orchestra anteroom; they get “changed.” It seems so simple to
+some people, when a bow, a crush-hat, or an umbrella happens to be
+lying about, to mistake it for their own and leave theirs behind,
+especially if it is inferior in quality to the one they chance to
+catch up by mistake! As luck will have it, ’tis seldom a worse one
+that gets caught up!
+
+A friend of mine happened to leave a fine Tourte bow in his case,
+and then he sent his fiddle for repairs to a smart dealer who shall
+be nameless here. When the case returned, it had a bow in it, but it
+was a copy, and a very good copy, of a Tourte. In this instance the
+dealer restored the original under pressure.
+
+In everything connected with a fiddle and a bow I say, Beware!
+Beware! Further, let me say to amateurs, not one in a thousand
+of you, even with practice and opportunity, is fit to judge of a
+violin; you may easily know what _suits_ you, and that no doubt for
+practical purposes is the essential. You can hardly know what is
+_genuine_.
+
+Over and above culture and wide observation and experience, a certain
+instinct is required, and few are they that have it. Why, my friend,
+if William Ebsworth Hill, from whose judgment there was no appeal,
+got “his eye out” when only for a few weeks he left off looking at
+fiddles, or distrusted his own judgment on certain days, as to my
+knowledge was the case--for he was at once the most diffident and
+absolute of men--what chance have you? Why, none at all!
+
+I will go further than this, and declare that half the violinists now
+before the public are no more judges of a _genuine_ fiddle than my
+cook. A man may be a judge without being able to play, and a man may
+play divinely and not be a judge. At the same time Charles Reade’s
+opinion would have been even more valuable than it was had he played
+himself. He never would have written those foolish paragraphs about
+modern-made fiddles sounding as well as old Cremonas had he played
+himself. It is all the difference between a man who looks at another
+man on horseback and one who has got to ride the horse himself; the
+first may not see much difference in two horses, but the second soon
+finds it out!
+
+Playing the fiddle won’t make you a judge, but you will be a better
+judge if you can play the fiddle. I remember showing Remenyi a very
+fine copy of Strad which had deceived many. He walked up and down my
+room playing upon it with delight, and pronounced it a genuine Strad
+beyond a question. It was a Lupôt for all that.
+
+As for your ordinary amateur, he will judge by an old-looking label,
+being unaware that forgers keep old battered counterfeit type in
+stock, or he will note the place of the little buttons which fasten
+the inner blocks, supposing that each maker had his favourite
+position for these buttons from which he never deviated. Others will
+prate about Strad’s wasp sting purfle running counter to the angle
+of his corners, or declare that one maker never made his back in two
+pieces, whilst another never made it otherwise.
+
+But there is one mark occasionally found in old Italian violins which
+I do not remember to have seen forged or imitated, or indeed even so
+much as alluded to by any writer.
+
+If the amateur happens to have an instrument with a little round
+hole in the back of his fiddle a few inches below the nut, filled up
+skilfully so as to be almost imperceptible, he may be quite sure he
+has got an old violin, probably one of the oldest, as the practice
+of falling suddenly on the knees and letting the violin hang, in
+processions in which the singers went before and the minstrels
+followed after, has long been abandoned.
+
+That little hole, so cunningly plugged, shows the place where a
+slight chain connected the instrument to a button-screw or hook, so
+that at the elevation of the Host, the minstrel might suddenly fall
+on his knees without the fear of dropping his fiddle. I have an old
+Andrew Guarnerius so plugged, and the violinist Oury first pointed
+this out to me and explained the reason of the plugged hole!
+
+Scores have sent me descriptions of their fiddles, and expected me
+to pronounce on the genuineness of them, or are sure that they own
+a real Strad or Amati, because theirs (in their opinion) exactly
+corresponds to my description of Strad or Amati in “Music and
+Morals.” All this shows that the outside public have not the faintest
+inkling of true violin lore.
+
+Oliver Wendell Holmes felt this when he wrote to me in 1885.
+
+He had himself written very charmingly on the violin, and the passage
+is quoted with approval even by so redoubtable a critic as Mr George
+Hart in his admirable book “The Violin” (1887).
+
+Oliver Wendell Holmes had the acuteness to see that all _mere_
+picturesque writing was valueless from a technical point of view, and
+he thus expresses himself to me in a letter dated December 5, 1885:--
+
+“I never knew until I read what you say of the instrument what
+profanation I had been guilty of to touch one, much more to write
+about it!” and he was kind enough to add: “You have given a life
+to the fiddle such as nothing but its own music ever gave it
+before!”--words which, coming so spontaneously from the author of the
+“Autocrat of the Breakfast-table,” I think I may be allowed to quote
+with pardonable pleasure.
+
+There is a point interesting alike to collectors, amateurs, dealers,
+and players, which I feel somewhat strongly about in view of much
+recent, and, as it seems to me, ignorantly conducted controversy.
+
+It is whether, as far as tone and sensibility are concerned, the
+best modern fiddles are not quite as good as the best old ones. We
+hear repeatedly stories of Strads and Josephs being played side by
+side with modern fiddles, whilst the best judges have failed to
+detect the superiority of the old over the new. This test is most
+unsatisfactory. The ear is as easily confused as the palate. It is
+currently reported that if you taste alternately port wine, cream,
+and sherry, you will not, after a few sips with your eyes shut, be
+able to tell the difference; but no one argues from this that _there
+is no difference_. The ear is not only easily confused about the
+quality, but even about the direction of sound.
+
+Let one man shut his eyes and another snap his fingers on the right,
+left, and above the other’s head several times running, and this one
+shall be utterly unable to tell after a few turns where the fingers
+are being snapped. No one is a real judge of the distance from which
+a sound comes. If, then, we can be easily puzzled when plied with
+such tests about the direction and the distance, no wonder if tests
+expressly designed to confuse us about timbre should be equally
+successful. But the question is practically settled by soloists
+invariably preferring a fine old fiddle to a fine new one, not as
+connoisseurs, but as _players_, and there must be a reason for this.
+
+Therefore, I will hear of no talk, even from the lips of a Charles
+Reade, about the varnish, the finish, the artistic beauty in form
+or colour of the old violins being largely responsible for this
+avowed preference. It is tonal power--quality, sensibility, volume,
+timbre--a something _personal_, as it were, to the old fiddles, which
+points to certain real qualities in their makers which have not since
+been rivalled, and this is quite apart from the item of age.
+
+Age will make a good fiddle better, but it won’t make a bad fiddle
+good; it may also be possible to prematurely age a new fiddle, not
+with heat or acids, but quite legitimately, by incessantly and for
+long periods of time grinding it through every semitone of its
+compass, and well-made modern fiddles will doubtless improve every
+year, like good wine, up to a certain point. They will then probably
+deteriorate. But the age at which the old Cremonas are bound to
+deteriorate has happily not yet been reached.
+
+The root of the matter lies here.
+
+A listener behind the door may not know the difference between a
+Strad or Joseph or some other, but the _player does_. A spectator in
+the Park may see no great difference between the pet horse ridden by
+the lady and the even more handsome quadruped upon which her groom
+follows; but _she_ knows. So the hunter knows his horse, and values
+him above another horse which looks better; the beast he rides will
+answer to his will, go anywhere with him, and rise to every occasion.
+
+This is what your Strad fiddle does.
+
+All violinists will tell you that there is a _reserve_ of force about
+a Strad; you can “pull out,” and you will never be disappointed.
+
+All lovers of Amati will tell you that they find in Nicolo a
+trembling sighing sensitiveness, a tenderness, and a tone delicate to
+the point of vanishing, which endears Amati to the women, and still
+leaves his finest instruments unapproachable for cabinet-playing.
+
+And all players will tell you that for domination and downright
+big-battalion power, Joseph Guarnerius del Gesù has not his equal.
+
+And the reason for this real, not fancied, supremacy of the great
+makers and their best pupils?
+
+The reason is complex, no doubt--so complex that, when all
+precautions have been taken to imitate wood, proportions, varnish,
+workmanship, so as thoroughly to deceive the eye, the modern
+_chef-d’œuvre_ is, in spite of puzzled auditors, still not identical
+in quality with the old Cremona gems.
+
+I was called the other day to judge a set of English bells, cast with
+the same proportions of tin and copper, of exactly the same size,
+weight, and model as a suite of Belgian bells cast by Severin Van
+Aerschodt; but the sound?
+
+Ye gods! No silver clang and tin-kettle parody could be further apart
+than were those English and Belgian bells.
+
+But to return to our fiddles. The reasons of Cremona supremacy remain
+to be tackled.
+
+I hazard the following points:--
+
+_1st._ Selection of wood. No doubt the old Lombardian forests, with
+their salt-impregnated roots, provided rare planks. The vaunted
+American woods fail technically to satisfy the Cremona requirements.
+
+_2nd._ The knowledge, at first empirical, then intuitive, born of a
+lifelong study of the relative density of woods fitted to vibrate
+together. Nothing can teach this, no rule or measurements; for every
+plank varies in porousness, density of fibre, age, and seasoning.
+
+Charles Reade was napping when he expressed a hope that a certain
+Stradivari back, mated with a new belly, might some day be united to
+_some_ Stradivari back of which he knew; but unless it happened to be
+_the_ belly Strad had selected for that particular back, what reason
+is there to suppose that the result would be satisfactory?
+
+_3rd._ I am of opinion that the old method of careful oil-sizing and
+the subsequent application of gum materially affected the tone.
+
+Think for a moment only of what is implied in the saturation--too
+much or too little of the wood--with oils, spirit, gum of this or
+that quality.
+
+Necessarily some vibratory capacities must be affected--for better,
+for worse--by the filling in, one way or another, of the wood
+pores; and do not the commonest of modern artificers admit that the
+Cremona varnish, and the exact mode of its application, is as yet
+undiscovered; and when they speak otherwise, do they not laugh in
+their sleeves?
+
+_4th._ Admit that the _proportions_ are exactly equal, the column
+of air almost identical in cubic measure, about 512 to the second;
+still remains the vibratory qualities of infinite varieties of
+grain--coarse or close, loose or serried--in wood fibre acting upon
+that air column.
+
+The old makers varied their models, but, no doubt, had regard to the
+thicknesses and the subtle relations between the hard and soft woods
+which would produce the power or quickness of reply, or sweetness, or
+penetratingness aimed at.
+
+It _may_ be that the secret for the production of these is quite
+incommunicable, just as a painter, an actor, a singer, a sculptor
+will do a thing before you, which you cannot do, which he cannot
+teach you how to do, though he place his brush, his chisel, his
+music, his toga and footlights at your disposal.
+
+_5th._ We have no time for failures; they had. Endless experiment,
+endless comparison, observation, meditation, unlimited leisure:
+one and the same man made each part, and knew the interpenetrative
+qualities and the mutual adaptation of the sundry parts.
+
+We now have subdivision of labour; each man makes one of the parts,
+and some one else puts them together. How can such backs accord
+with such bellies? How can such ribs cotton with such strange and
+fortuitous planks? Truly a scratch company brought together like
+strangers, yet expected to accept their arbitrary assortment, and
+make sweet harmony together. But they were not fastened together, in
+view of one another, by one and the same master-mind, who knew what
+was good for them, and what they were good for!
+
+_6th._ But given the possibility of favourable conditions--time,
+absorption, infinite experience, and all the accumulated knowledge of
+the past--and given a modern Nicolo, Strad, Joseph, or even Bergonzi,
+and given climate, and given wood galore, and might not we expect
+Cremona results?
+
+Why, yes, with Cremona conditions, certainly, or at least a very fair
+approximation; and I am far from saying that we are not on the road
+to it.
+
+Until lately it has not been worth while for makers like the Hills,
+the Gands, or the Chanôt firms to do aught seriously but repair or
+parody closely for the eye the old fiddles.
+
+But such of Vuillaume’s fiddles as have not been aged with heat and
+acids, and the fine £10 to £30 violins now being made conscientiously
+by Messrs Hill, in proportion as old fiddles become rare and
+inaccessible, must come to the fore. Anyhow, players will, it is
+hoped, give up the idiotic folly of paying large sums for indifferent
+old fiddles, even with respectable names, when they can get really
+fine new ones for half the money with twice the tone--a good tone,
+too, which a very few years will suffice to mellow.
+
+We write these words in the interest of dealers, collectors, players,
+and artificers alike--indeed, it would be well worth while for
+collectors even now to get hold of the finest attainable specimens
+of new work. As a mere speculation it would be at least as sound an
+investment as laying down good vintages of port or sherry.
+
+A good Hill recently made, price £30 or £40, _e.g._ the fine copy
+of the Tuscan Strad, only requires age to mellow it into a price of
+three figures.
+
+These new and garish-looking instruments, which, after all, do not
+look more gaudy than the Messie Strad, are exceedingly loud in tone,
+and withal very sensitive.
+
+A certain tartness of timbre merely calls aloud for another ten or
+twenty years to soften and refine it into the Cremona tone.
+
+Meanwhile, the aspirants to Cremona excellence are entertainingly
+numerous. From time to time I get letters accompanied with samples
+from people who claim to have discovered the secret of the Cremona
+varnish.
+
+Here and there some enterprising maker will get a literary friend to
+extol him as the successor of Stradiuarius.
+
+I came across a pamphlet the other day assigning Cremona rank to
+a worthy musician who makes fiddles _en amateur_, and a certain
+German working in America, whose violins present all the usual
+characteristics of instruments made in Germany. I actually got half
+through this remarkable document, written _au grand serieux_, before
+I discovered that it belonged to the liver pill, patent syrup, and
+soap class.
+
+Rumours may reach you from America of the wonderful Californian wood.
+Well, European experts tell me that, fine as is the marking, it does
+not yield the required timbre, and that the planks now coming over
+from the old forests of Herzgovina and Bosnia are far superior for
+fiddle-making purposes.
+
+Then think of the care and study in selection made by those old
+Italian artificers who frequented the Brescian and Cremonese markets,
+and haggled over special bits of timber. They knew exactly where it
+came from--the peculiarities of the soil, iron or salt impregnated
+from whence it came; whether it was cut as it should be, in autumn,
+with the sap out of it, and exactly how long it had been cut, and
+to what conditions it had been exposed before it came to be worked
+up. The subtleties were endless. Who troubles their heads about such
+things now?
+
+No! The fact about modern fiddles you, my anxious inquirer, may take
+it for granted is what I have stated. Take good new fiddles by Hill,
+Chanôt, Bernardel, Gand, and, according to the time and individual
+or one-man power and skill spent upon them, they will rank high, and
+higher by-and-by; and if ever the genius and the conditions which
+obtained at Cremona, anno 1700, are again found, then, and not till
+then, will the peers and rivals of the Cremona masterpieces be seen
+and heard--and paid for.
+
+It may be rash to attempt a scale of prices, when the experience of
+the last fifty years proves that we have to deal with a _sliding_
+scale. Forty years ago my father bought a rather small Andrea
+Guarnerius at Puttick & Simpson’s for £4, which could not now be
+picked up under £20. No Cremona from 1660 to 1760 can be got for much
+less, though many better fiddles can be got for half that price.
+Of course the rise in the Strads is quite phenomenal. Stainer, on
+the other hand, is not valued as highly by comparison as he was last
+century; whilst, owing to the rarity of real Stainers, the demand for
+Klotz and Albani, more easily attainable, has somewhat increased, and
+generally all the second and third class makers are being hunted up
+and command good figures now, just as a man who can’t get Charles II.
+silver will put up with William and Mary, Queen Anne, and even the
+early Georges.
+
+It is quite safe to buy Urquhart, Ford, Banks, Forster, Furber
+(Henry, David, or John), and Pamphilion; but the once popular “Duke”
+days are pretty well over.
+
+Lupôt should be _always_ secured, and Vuillaumes that have not been
+cooked with acids and heat; and no collector will go far wrong with
+Pique.
+
+Venetian fiddles, and especially violoncellos, near akin to Cremona,
+will be sure to rise; and, as a rule, the Northern fiddles will
+command a better figure than the Southerners--Rome and Naples.
+
+But all such hints are general, and must be taken for what they are
+worth, for stray specimens will often turn up belonging to almost any
+school, which will have rare merits and can hardly be accounted for
+by any systematic classification.
+
+The following up-to-date (1898) scale of prices may be a useful but
+rough guide to the collector with money that burns his pocket:--
+
+
+PRICES
+
+[1898]
+
+  Stradivari                     £2000 to £200
+  Joseph Guarnerius               1000  ”  100
+  Other Guarnerii                  300  ”   30
+  Nicolo Amati, and the brothers
+    Anthony, and Gerome            500  ”   80 or £50
+  Stainer                          200  ”   30
+  C. Bergonzi                      600  ”   40
+  Maggini                          500  ”   50
+  J. B. Vuillaume                   60  ”   20
+  Lupôt                            200  ”   50
+  Pique                             60  ”   10
+  Forster (’cellos)                100  ”   20
+  Duke                              40  ”    5
+  Banks                            100  ”   20
+
+There are two general rules, which, like all rules, may have some
+exceptions--not many:--
+
+I. Never buy a fiddle simply at the owner’s valuation; judge it by
+your own knowledge if you have any, or that of an expert if you have
+none.
+
+II. If you buy at auction, always go a few pounds better than the
+highest bid offered by a _dealer_, and if you win, you will be in
+luck.
+
+III. Before sending a valuable violin to be “done up,” select your
+repairer carefully. A fiddle maker is not necessarily a fiddle
+restorer, and may be quite ignorant of the traditions which should
+regulate this branch of the luthier’s art.
+
+IV. Get your violin’s pedigree _as far as you can_ in detail, with
+names and dates. Had this been always done, exhibitions would have
+been spared many a delusion and collectors many a fraud.
+
+
+
+
+POSTLUDE
+
+
+My task is ended.
+
+The shades of the great melodious dead still seem to hover around
+me--as their echoes
+
+                      “Roll from Pole to Pole,”
+
+and from
+
+                    “Soul to soul,
+      And grow for ever and for ever.”
+
+Violins may be made hereafter, copies may deceive the eye, sounds
+bewilder the ear, but there will never again be an Amati or a
+Stradivari, any more than a Phidias or a Raphael.
+
+The age of discovery comes but once.
+
+It is big with the future up to the moment when it resumes in itself
+the golden heritage of the past. We may imitate, but we cannot
+reproduce; nor will that thrill of perfection--that emotion of
+eternal novelty which we experience in contemplating and sounding
+the Cremona masterpieces--ever electrify those who handle their pale
+effigies, uninformed by that secret magic which only appertains to
+absorbing things done for the first time.
+
+Hail! to the mighty dead, whose incommunicable touch is still felt by
+millions upon millions from generation to generation!
+
+Hail! to the mystic life, which still circulates throughout the
+arteries of ten thousand orchestral organisms!
+
+Hail! to the undying names of those who first imprisoned (in order
+to set free) the passionate longings and divine aspirations of
+humanity--in the
+
+                          SOUL OF A CREMONA!
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Nicolaus Amatus Cremonen. Hieronymi Fil., ac Antonij Nepos Fecit.
+
+ Gasparo da Salo, In Brescia.
+
+ Andres Guarnerius fecit Cremonæ sub titulo Sanctæ Teresiæ 1696
+
+ Joseph Guarnerius fecit ✠ Cremona anno 1793 IHS
+
+ Gio Paolo Maggini in Brescia.
+
+ Anno 1733 Carlo Bergonzi fece in Cremona
+
+ Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis Faciebat Anno 1709
+]
+
+
+
+
+DICTIONARY OF VIOLIN MAKERS
+
+
+  AACHNER, Philipp. A Mittenwalder, 1772; ordinary German characteristics.
+
+  ABBATI, Giuseppe. He worked at Modena, according to Forster,
+  1775-93.
+
+  ABSAM, Thomas. Lived at Wakefield, in Yorkshire; but his name,
+  identical with the birthplace of Stainer, suggests a German origin.
+  Employed by Pickard, of Leeds; his labels run: “Made by Thomas
+  Absam, Wakefield.” Date 1810-49.
+
+  ACEVO. Doubtful whether he ever existed. Fétis saw a bass viol
+  which he connected with his name. It was signed at the back, “Marin
+  Marais,” but it is all very shadowy.
+
+  ADAM, Jean Dominique, son of Jean Adam. Both worked at Mirecourt,
+  according to Vidal; both made bows, and the son made the best, and
+  signed all he sold himself, 1823-69.
+
+  ADAMS, C. Takes rank merely as a local maker at Garmouth, Scotland,
+  1800.
+
+  AGLIO, Giuseppe dall’, of Mantua; varnish bright yellow, 1800-40.
+
+  AIRETON (Airton), Edmund, of London. Made good fiddles on the Amati
+  and Steiner models; he varnished yellow, 1727-1807.
+
+  ALBANESI, Sebastiano, is said to have lived at Cremona; his work is
+  almost unknown, 1720-44.
+
+  ALBANI, Mathias, b. about 1621, Botzen (Tyrol); d. there 1673.
+  (_See_ p. 102.)
+
+  ALBERTI, Ferdinando. Milanese; yellow varnish. Label: “Ferdinando
+  Alberti, fece in Milano, nella contrada delle pesce al segno della
+  Corona, nel anno 1740-60.”
+
+  ALDRIC. Maker and great repairer. Labels: “Fait par Aldric,” or
+  “Rue de Seine, 71, près celle de Bussy, Aldric, luthier, Paris, an.
+  18--.” (_See_ p. 174.)
+
+  ALESSANDRO. A Venetian maker, 1540.
+
+  ALETZIE, Paul. Worked at Munich; good tenors and violoncellos,
+  German type, 1710-20.
+
+  ALLARD, François. Successor of Maubert, 9 rue du Petit-Pont,
+  1788-89.
+
+  ALVANI. A Cremonese maker, 1750.
+
+  AMATI, Andrea. The father of the Cremona school, 1525. (_See_ Chap.
+  V.)
+
+  AMATI, Antonio, elder son of Andrea Amati; b. Cremona about 1560.
+  (_See_ Chap. V.)
+
+  AMATI, Girolamo, second son of Andrea Amati; b. about 1562. (_See_
+  Chap. V.)
+
+  AMATI, Girolamo, third son and successor of Nicola Amati; b. Feb.
+  26, 1649. (_See_ Chap. V.)
+
+  AMATI, Giuseppe. Said to have lived in Bologna, seventeenth
+  century. (_See_ Chap. V.)
+
+  AMATI, Nicola, younger brother of Andrea Amati, is said to have
+  worked with him, 1568-80. (_See_ Chap. V.)
+
+  AMATI, Nicola, son of Girolamo Amati; b. Dec. 3, 1596; d. April
+  12, 1684, aged eighty-eight, according to the registers of Cremona
+  Cathedral. (_See_ Chap. V.)
+
+  AMBROGI, Pietro. Cremona and Rome. “Petrus Ambrogi, Crem. fecit
+  Romæ, an. 17--.”
+
+  AMBROSI, Pietro. A Brescian maker; very mediocre, 1712.
+
+  AMBROSIO, Antonio d’. Neapolitan, 1820.
+
+  AMELOT. French maker in Lorient; yellow varnish; mediocre, 1812-29.
+
+  ANCIAUME. Existence doubtful.
+
+  ANSELMO, Pietro. Cremona and Venice; small pattern; deep yellow
+  varnish; fair maker, 1700.
+
+  ANTONIAZZI, Gregorio. Bergamo, 1738; labels bear: “in Colle, 1738.”
+
+  ANTONIO, Cypriano.
+
+  ANTONY, Girolamo. Cremonese pattern; yellow varnish, 1751.
+
+  ARDENOIS, Johannes. Ghent, 1731.
+
+  ARTMANN. Weimar, cir. 1760; pupil of Ernst of Gotha; Amati pattern;
+  yellow varnish.
+
+  ASKEY, Samuel. Pupil of John Morrison; employed by Corsby, cir.
+  1825.
+
+  ASSALONE, Gaspare. Roman; Amati pattern; over-arched; poor yellow
+  varnish.
+
+  AUBRY. Paris; a nephew of Aldric (who dealt with Tarisio); inferior
+  to his uncle, 1840.
+
+  AUDINOT, Nestor Dominique, b. at Mirecourt 1842; worked under
+  Sébastien Vuillaume; took up his business in 1875 at the age of
+  seventeen; is very industrious, and makes excellent instruments.
+  Labels: “N. Audinot, luthier, élève de Vuillaume, Paris.”
+
+  AUGIÈRE. Pupil of Clément, Paris; good maker; red and brown
+  varnish, 1830.
+
+
+  BAADER, J. A., & Co. Mittenwald; wholesale producers on cheapest
+  terms; their Stainer copies are good, 1854.
+
+  BACHELIER. Inferior French maker, 1777-89.
+
+  BACHMANN, Carl Ludwig. An excellent maker of Berlin, 1716-1800;
+  violins, violas, and ’cellos often mistaken for Cremonas; a viola
+  player; maker to the Prussian Court; founder of the Berlin Amateur
+  Concerts; inventor of screw pegs for double-basses.
+
+  BACHMANN, O. Good maker, of Halberstadt; first-rate repairer; wrote
+  on violin construction, 1835.
+
+  BAGATELLA (Bagattella), Antonio. Padua; good restorer; much
+  employed by German princes; made few good instruments, but wrote
+  learnedly on violin construction, 1750-82.
+
+  BAGATELLA (Bagattella), Pietro. Padua, 1760-66.
+
+  BAILLY, Paul. Mirecourt; fair maker; Chicago Exhibitor, 1893.
+
+  BAINES. London; pupil of Furber, 1780.
+
+  BAIRHOF, Giorgio. Naples; Gagliano school.
+
+  BAJONI, Luigi. Milanese, 1840-76.
+
+  BAKER, Francis. London, 1696.
+
+  BAKER, John. Oxford, 1688-1720; excellent tone; yellow varnish;
+  transition maker.
+
+  BALESTRIERI (Balestieri), Pietro, brother of Tommaso. (_See_ p. 88.)
+
+  BALESTRIERI (Balestieri). Tommaso, brother of Pietro. (_See_ p. 88.)
+
+  BALLANTINE. Scotch, 1850-56.
+
+  BANKS, Benjamin, son of George and Barbary Banks, 1727-95. (_See_
+  pp. 130-132.)
+
+  BANKS, Benjamin, second son of Benjamin Banks (1727-95), b. Sept.
+  13, 1754; d. Jan. 22, 1820. (_See_ pp. 130-132.)
+
+  BANKS, James and Henry, fourth and sixth sons of B. Banks
+  (1727-95). (_See_ pp. 130-132.)
+
+  BARBANTI, Silva Francesco. A maker at Correggio, 1850.
+
+  BARBIERI, Francesco. Veronese; early Guarnerian pattern, 1695.
+
+  BARNES, Robert Pupil of Thomas Smith; set up with John Norris,
+  1765; employed Aireton, but used their own trade label.
+
+  BARNIA, Fedele. Milanese, 1716-51.
+
+  BAROUX. Paris; very good bow-maker, 1830.
+
+  BARRETT, John. London; a contemporary of Barak Norman and Nathaniel
+  Cross; long and arched pattern; yellow varnish; sweet tone;
+  labelled: “John Barrett, at the Harp and Crown in Pickadilly,
+  London, 1731.”
+
+  BARTON, George. London; d. cir. 1810.
+
+  BASSOT, Joseph. Paris; fine maker; brown and reddish varnish;
+  earlier yellow and inferior; label: “Joseph Bassot, luthier, Paris,
+  1802.”
+
+  BAUD. Versailles; experimented omitting sound-bar, but not a
+  success.
+
+  BAUSCH, Ludwig Christian. Good bow-maker; Naumburg and Leipsic,
+  1805-71.
+
+  BAUSCH, Excellent bow-maker; silver medallist, Dresden; friend of
+  Spohr, 1840.
+
+  BECKMANN (Bekman), Sweno. Stockholm; rough maker, 1700-6.
+
+  BEDLER, Norbert. Würzburg, 1723.
+
+  BELA, Szepessy. Good contemporary maker; worked at Budapest and
+  Munich, and is now in London; copies Strad and N. Amati.
+
+  BELLONE, Pietro Antonio, known as Il Pescorino, Milanese, 1694.
+
+  BELLOSIO, Anselmo. Venetian; pupil of Serafino and master of M. A.
+  Cerin, 1720-80.
+
+  BELVIGLIERI, Gregorio. Fairly good Bolognese maker, 1742.
+
+  BENEDICT, Jose. Cadiz, 1738.
+
+  BENEDICTI, Donate de. Cremona, 1674.
+
+  BENTI, Matteo, b. 1579. Brescia; contemporary of Maggini.
+
+  BERETTA, Felice. Como; Guadagnini school; bow-maker, 1760-85.
+
+  BERGÉ. Toulouse, 1771.
+
+  BERGONZI, Benedetto, d. 1840. (_See_ p. 86.)
+
+  BERGONZI, Carlo. Cremona; the first of the great Bergonzi family of
+  makers; b. (?); d. 1747.
+
+  BERGONZI, Carlo, third son of Michel Angelo. (_See_ p. 86.)
+
+  BERGONZI (Baganzi), Francesco. Named as early as 1687.
+
+  BERGONZI, Michel Angelo, son of Carlo; b. 1722; d. after 1765.
+
+  BERGONZI, Nicola, eldest son of Michel Angelo.
+
+  BERGONZI, Zosimo, brother of Nicola.
+
+  BERNARDEL, Auguste Sébastien Philippe. An excellent maker who
+  worked under Lupôt and Gand. Firm: “Bernardel et fils,” then “Gand
+  et Bernardel”; Paris (1849) gold medal, London (1855) gold medal.
+
+  BERNARDEL Frères. Ernst Auguste and Gustave Adolphe, sons of
+  Sébastien Philippe.
+
+  BERTASIO, Luigi. Piadena, 17--.
+
+  BERTASSI, Ambrogio. Piadena, 1730.
+
+  BERTET, Joseph R. French maker; little known, 1754.
+
+  BERTRAND, Nicolas. Paris; a few early fiddles, 1686-1735.
+
+  BETTS, John Edward, known as “Old John Betts”; b. 1755, at
+  Stamford, Lincolnshire; d. March 1823; was buried at Cripplegate
+  Church; pupil of Richard Duke, senior. (_See_ p. 132.)
+
+  BETTS (Ned), Edward, nephew of John Betts; like him a pupil of
+  Richard Duke. He died between 1815 and 1820.
+
+  BIANCHI, Nicola. Pupil of Guadagnini, 1800 to 1875; Genoa, Cremona,
+  and Paris; fair maker.
+
+  BINDERNAGEL. Gotha, 1745-1804; inferior maker.
+
+  BITTNER, David. Viennese, 1862-80; made chiefly for America.
+
+  BLAIR, John. Edinburgh, 1820.
+
+  BLAISE, Mirecourt. 1820; indifferent.
+
+  BLANCHARD, Paul François, 1865-94; worked with J. B. Vuillaume;
+  very good violins; his workmen turn out good cheap ones; follows
+  Strad; Mirecourt and Lyons.
+
+  BODIO, Giambattista. Venice, 1792-1832.
+
+  BOIVIN, Claude. Paris, 1735-53; fair maker.
+
+  BOMBERGHI, Lorenzo. Florentine, seventeenth century.
+
+  BOMÉ, Thomas. Inferior; French.
+
+  BOOTH, William. English; 1779-1858; good repairer.
+
+  BOOTH, William, son of W. Booth, senior; b. 1816, Leeds; d. 1856; a
+  clever workman.
+
+  BOQUAY (Bocquay), Jacques, b. at Lyons. 1700-30. (_See_ p. 105.)
+
+  BORBON (Bourbon), Gaspar. End of sixteenth century; Brussels;
+  Gaspar model.
+
+  BORELLI, Andreas, 1730-47; Parma; Guadagnini model.
+
+  BORLON, François. Antwerp maker, 1680-1710.
+
+  BOUCHER. London, 1764.
+
+  BOULLANGIER, Charles, b. 1823, Mirecourt; d. October, 1888. Learnt
+  his trade in Mirecourt till 1843; worked with Vuillaume and Gand
+  and Bernardel, also for Edward Withers, London; good copyist of
+  Strad.
+
+  BOUMEESTER (Baumeester). Amsterdam maker, 1637-68.
+
+  BOURDET, Jacques. Fair French maker, 1751.
+
+  BOURGARD, Jean. Worked in Nancy about 1780-87.
+
+  BOUSSU. Bruxelles about 1750-80; fairly good Amati pattern.
+
+  BRAGLIA, Antonio. Modena, eighteenth century.
+
+  BRANDIGLIONI. Brescia; copied Maggini.
+
+  BRANDL, Karl. Budapest; exhibited in London Exhibition, 1862.
+
+  BRANZO, Barbaro Francesco. Padua, 1660.
+
+  BREMEISTER, Jan. Amsterdam, 1707.
+
+  BRETON, J. F. Paris, 1740-80.
+
+  BRETON, Le, b. 1780, at Mirecourt. No great value; 1812 to 1830.
+
+  BROSCHI, Carlo. Parma, 1730-44.
+
+  BROWN, James, b. 1755, d. Sept. 1830. Silk weaver in Shoreditch,
+  London; pupil of Thomas Kennedy; chiefly a repairer of instruments.
+
+  BROWN, James, jun., son of the above; both father and son fair
+  workmen; b. Nov. 1786; d. 1860, at White Lion Street, Norton
+  Folgate; apprenticed to his father, but was principally employed to
+  make bows.
+
+  BROWN, son and pupil of James Brown, jun. When about twenty years
+  old, ceased to make instruments.
+
+  BROWNE, John. Cornhill, London, 1743; copied Nicholas Amati.
+
+  BRUBACH, Antoine, b. Jan. 22, 1847, Mirecourt; head of “Klein et
+  Cie.,” Rouen.
+
+  BRUGÈRE, Charles Georges, b. Nov. 10, 1865, at Mirecourt; excellent
+  maker; only labels what he makes himself.
+
+  BRUGÈRE, Charles Malakoff, d. 1894. Son of above; made about 100
+  good fiddles; the family still work at Mirecourt.
+
+  BRUGÈRE, François, brother of Charles Joseph Brugère. Had three
+  sons, all makers.
+
+  BUCHSTADTER (Buchstetter), Gabriel David. Ratisbon, 1752; Cremona
+  flat pattern; good orchestral instruments.
+
+  BUDIANI, Giavetta. Some of his large bass viols adapted for
+  double-basses with four strings; contemporary of G. P. Maggini.
+
+  BUONFIGLIUOLI, Pier Francesco. Florentine, seventeenth century.
+
+  BURGLE, Johann. A maker in Griezbach, 1828.
+
+  BUSAS, Domenico. Vicenza, 1740.
+
+  BUSSETO (Buseto), Giammaria del. Cremonese viol-maker, 1540-80;
+  said to have taught Andrea Amati.
+
+  BUSSOT. Paris, 1788.
+
+  BUTHOD. Cheap Mirecourt maker; good strong fiddles fit for
+  orchestral use; turned out about 900 instruments a year;
+  contemporary of Vuillaume.
+
+
+  CABROLI, Lorenzo. Milan about 1716; indifferent.
+
+  CABROLY. Toulouse about 1740-47; fair.
+
+  CAESTE, Gaetano. Cremona in 1677.
+
+  CAESTO (Caesta), Pietro Antonio della. Treviso, 1660-80; copied
+  Strad.
+
+  CAHUSAC. London about 1788. Worked with Banks’s sons.
+
+  CALCANI (Calcagni), Bernardo. In Genoa, 1710-50; copied Strad
+  carefully and with good effect.
+
+  CALONARDI, Marco. Cremona, seventeenth century.
+
+  CALOT (Callot), b. 1810. Paris and Mirecourt; fine workman: good
+  tone.
+
+  CALVAROLLA, Bartolommeo, of Torre Baldone (Bergamo). About 1753-67,
+  Bologna and Bergamo; fair.
+
+  CAMILLI, Camillus (Camilus di Camila). Mantua about 1739-50; copied
+  Strad; resembles also Landolfi; excellent tone.
+
+  CAMILLIO, Davido. Cremona, 1755.
+
+  CAPPA, Giofredo (Goffredo), 1590-1640. Worked with the Amatis;
+  unequal in work; his instruments have often been cut down.
+
+  CAPPA, Giachimo (Gioacchino) and Giuseppe. Working in Saluzzio, and
+  in Turin about 1661-1712; indifferent.
+
+  CARCASSI, Lorenzo Francesco and Tommaso. Florence, about 1735-58;
+  not first-rate.
+
+  CARLO, Giuseppe. Milan, 1769.
+
+  CARLOMORDI, Carlo. Verona in 1654.
+
+  CARON. Versailles, 1775-85. Maker to the Queen; not remarkable.
+
+  CARTER, John. Worked in London, 1780-90, for John Betts. Good;
+  often sold for Betts’.
+
+  CASINI (Cassini), Antonio. Modena about 1660 to 1700. Made large
+  violoncellos; fair.
+
+  CASPAN, Giampietro. Venice about 1650; Amati pattern; violins
+  small, yellow varnish.
+
+  CASSANELLI, Giovanni. Ciano in 1777.
+
+  CASSINEAU. Paris; maker of all sorts.
+
+  CASTAGNERY (Castagneri), Andrea. Worked in Paris, 1732-57; he made
+  good instruments.
+
+  CASTAGNERY (Castagneri), Gian Paolo. A maker from Cremona, who
+  worked in Paris about 1630-62; very good and sweet tone.
+
+  CASTELLANI, Luigi, son of Pietro Castellani. Florence, 1809-84;
+  good restorer of fiddles, but made none.
+
+  CASTELLANI, Pietro, b. Florence, second half of the eighteenth
+  century. Made only a few violins.
+
+  CASTELLO, Paolo. Genoa about 1750-80; fair.
+
+  CASTRO. Worked in Venice, 1680-1720; indifferent appearance, but
+  good wood.
+
+  CATENAR (Catenari), Enrico. Turin about 1670; fair; a follower of
+  Cappa.
+
+  CATI, Pier Antonio. Florence, 1741; famous for his “kits.”
+
+  CAVALORIO. Geneva, 1725.
+
+  CELLINI, Giovanni, the father of Benvenuto Cellini, b. in Florence;
+  d. there of the pest, 1527 or 1528. Architect; lute and viol maker.
+  His viols, made about 1500-5, had a great reputation.
+
+  CELONIATI (Celionati), Giam Francesco, 1732. Good maker; Amati
+  pattern; yellow varnish. “Joannes Franciscus Taurini, anno 1732.”
+
+  CERIN, Marc Antonio. A maker in Venice, 1780-93; pupil of Anselmo
+  Bellosio; fair maker.
+
+  CERUTI, Enrico, son of Giuseppe Ceruti; b. 1808; d. Oct. 20, 1883.
+  Cremona, at 14 Via Borgo Spera; made about 365 instruments; much
+  esteemed in Italy.
+
+  CERUTI, Giovanni Battista, 1755, Cremona; d. 1817. Pupil of Lorenzo
+  Storioni; good; made about 500 instruments; varnish yellow.
+
+  CERUTI, Giuseppe, son and successor of Giovanni Battista, 1787; d.
+  1860, Mantua. Fair maker; chiefly repairer.
+
+  CHALLONER, Thomas. Worked in London in the eighteenth century.
+
+  CHAMPION, Jean Baptiste. Paris in 1783.
+
+  CHAMPION, René. Paris, 1731; finished and graceful; varnished like
+  Boquay.
+
+  CHANOT, François, son of a musical instrument maker in Mirecourt;
+  b. 1787, d. 1828. (_See_ p. 112.)
+
+  CHANOT, Georges, a brother of François; b. March 26, 1801; d. Jan.
+  10, 1883.
+
+  CHANOT, Georges, son of Georges Chanot.
+
+  CHANOT, G. A. Manchester.
+
+  CHAPPUY (Chapuy), Nicolas Augustin. Paris about 1732-76; fairly
+  good; badly varnished. Fr. Habeneck played on one of his violins
+  for many years.
+
+  CHARDON, Marie Joseph, son-in-law and pupil of Georges Chanot,
+  sen.; b. May 22, 1843, Paris. He succeeded his father-in-law in
+  1872; good maker; better restorer.
+
+  CHARDON, Marie Joseph Antoine Georges. Worked under his father.
+
+  CHARLE. Paris in 1748.
+
+  CHARLES, Theress. From Mirecourt, but settled in London, in King
+  Street, Soho.
+
+  CHAROTTE. Mirecourt; d. 1836; settled in Rouen in 1830; indifferent.
+
+  CHATELAIN, François. About 1777-91; good maker; collaborated
+  sometimes with Renault.
+
+  CHÉRON, Nicolas. Paris, 1658-91.
+
+  CHERPITEL, Nicolas Emile. Mirecourt, 1841-93; worked with the Gands
+  at Paris; very good workman.
+
+  CHEVRIER, André Augustin, b. in Mirecourt. Paris, and then in
+  Brussels, 1838.
+
+  CHIAVELLATI, Domenico. Lonigo in 1796.
+
+  CHIBON, Jean Robert. Paris, 1775-85; indifferent.
+
+  CHIOCCHI (Chiocci), Gaetano. In Padua nineteenth century; good
+  maker and repairer.
+
+  CHRÉTIEN, Hippolyte, 1845-89. Lyons; excellent maker and restorer.
+
+  CHRISTA, Joseph Paul. About 1730-40.
+
+  CHRISTOPHLE, Jean. Avignon, 1655.
+
+  CLARK. London, living at Clerkenwell. A pupil of Matthew Furber.
+
+  CLAUDOT, Augustin. Paris, beginning of eighteenth century; large
+  pattern, yellow varnish; wood good, work carefully finished;
+  branded his instruments with his name, “Augustin Claudot.”
+
+  CLAUDOT, Charles. Paris; but probably came from Mirecourt;
+  indifferent.
+
+  CLÉMENT. Paris, about 1815-40, in the rue des Bonnes-Enfants; a
+  good deal sought after.
+
+  COFFE-GOGUETTE. Mirecourt, 1834; excellent maker; fine tone.
+
+  COLE, James. Manchester; pupil of Tarr and George Crask, 1858.
+
+  COLE, Thomas. London about 1672-90; good tenor maker.
+
+  COLLIER, Samuel. London, at “Corelli’s Head” on London Bridge,
+  about 1750-55.
+
+  COLLIER, Thomas. London, 1775.
+
+  COLLIN, Claude Nicolas. Mirecourt; d. 1864; pupil of N. F.
+  Vuillaume, Brussels.
+
+  COLLIN-MÉZIN, Charles Jean Baptiste, son of C. N. Collin.
+  Mirecourt, 1841-89; excellent maker and restorer; good Strad and
+  Amati copyist.
+
+  COLLINGWOOD, Joseph. Worked in London about 1760, at the “Golden
+  Spectacles” on London Bridge.
+
+  CONTRERAS, Joseph, 1710-80. Madrid or “Granadino”; beautiful Strad
+  copyist; has passed for Strad.
+
+  CONTRERAS, son of Joseph Contreras.
+
+  CONWAY, William. London about 1745-50.
+
+  CORDANO, Jacopo Filippo. Genoa about 1774.
+
+  CORNELLI, Carlo. Cremona, 1702.
+
+  CORSBY, George. London; believed to be a brother of Corsby of
+  Northampton.
+
+  CORSBY. Northampton about 1780; chiefly made double-basses.
+
+  COSTA, Agostino. Brescia and Venice in the seventeenth century.
+
+  COSTA, Marco della. Treviso, 1660-80.
+
+  COSTA, Pietro Antonio della. Worked in Treviso about 1740-65; fair
+  Amati model.
+
+  COUSINEAU, Georges, 1753-1824. In 1788 was entitled “Luthier de la
+  reine”; made all sorts of instruments.
+
+  CRAMOND, Charles. A maker in Aberdeen, 1821-34.
+
+  CRASK, George. Worked in various places, Salford, Manchester, etc.;
+  prolific worker; Italian pattern.
+
+  CROSS, Nathaniel. London about 1700-51. (_See_ p. 125.)
+
+  CROWTHER, John, 1755-1810. He worked occasionally for John Kennedy.
+
+  CUCHET, Gaspard, 1729.
+
+  CUNAULT, Georges, b. 1856, Paris; Miremont, 1874-82; a good workman.
+
+  CUNY. Paris about 1740.
+
+  CUTHBERT. Maker of viols and violins in London, seventeenth
+  century; fair.
+
+  CUYPERS, Johannes. The Hague about 1779.
+
+
+  DANIEL. Antwerp about 1636-56; two specimens in Antwerp Cathedral.
+
+  DANIEL, Charles. Marseilles in 1762.
+
+  DARCHE, C. F. Brussels; was a pupil of N. F. Vuillaume (a brother
+  of the Parisian maker); better restorer than maker.
+
+  DARCHE, Nicholas. Aix-la-Chapelle.
+
+  DAVID. A contemporary of Pierray; Paris about 1730; indifferent.
+
+  DAVIDSON, Hay. Huntly, 1870.
+
+  DAVIS, Richard. London; employed by Norris and Barnes; but when
+  Norris died in 1818, he succeeded to the business. He knew little
+  of violin-making, and always remained more of a dealer in, than a
+  maker of, instruments.
+
+  DAVIS, William. London (in 1846 sold business to Edward Withers);
+  restored violins; Maucotel worked for him.
+
+  DAY, John. Ingenious amateur maker, devoted to reproduction of
+  Cremonas, nineteenth century.
+
+  DEARLOVE, Mark. Leeds, 1812-20.
+
+  DEARLOVE, Mark William, son of Mark Dearlove. Leeds, 1828-62;
+  employed good workmen--Absam, Gough, Fryer.
+
+  DECOMBE (not De Comble). Paris, eighteenth century.
+
+  DE COMBLE, Ambroise, b. at Tournai, Belgium, end of the seventeenth
+  century; worked till 1760; said to have been a pupil of Antonio
+  Stradivari at Cremona; instruments scarce, well made, of excellent
+  wood, and have a rich tone.
+
+  DECONET, Michele. Venice about 1742-79; Cremona school.
+
+  DEFRESNE, Pierre. Rouen, 1730.
+
+  DEHAYE (Deshayes), nephew and only pupil of Salomon, 1775-1825,
+  Paris; more dealer than maker; sold all sorts.
+
+  DEHOMMAIS, 1870. Successful amateur maker.
+
+  DE LANNOY, N.J. Lille about 1740-75; fair maker.
+
+  DELANOE, Pierre Jean. Paris, 1754.
+
+  DELANOIX. Brussels about 1760; good maker.
+
+  DELANY (Delaney), John. Dublin in 1808; an original egotist, 1808.
+  Label bears: “Made by John Delany, in order to perpetuate his
+  memory in future ages. Dublin, 1808. Liberty to all the world,
+  black and white.”
+
+  DELAU, Lucien, 1836-48. On the death of Charotte he joined Jeandel
+  in violin-making, and they continued the business at Rouen.
+
+  DENNIS, Jesse, 1795-1855. London; apprenticed to John Crowther,
+  1805; worked under Matthew Furber.
+
+  DERAZEY, J. Mirecourt; successor to J. Nicolas, jun.; sold his
+  fiddles; made good cheap ones, from 5 to 150 francs; a prolific
+  firm.
+
+  DEROUX, Sébastien. Mirecourt and Paris; b. 1848; making in 1898;
+  good restorer; best Cremona models. Signs: “A. S. D.”
+
+  DESCHAMPS, Claude. Paris, 1783-85.
+
+  DESJARDINS. Caen, 1763.
+
+  DESPONS, Antoine. Paris about 1610; rare, but not very good.
+
+  DESROUSSEAU. Eighteenth century.
+
+  DEVEREUX, John. He worked with B. Simon Fendt in London; migrated
+  to Melbourne.
+
+  DICKENSON (Dickinson), Edward. Strand, London, about 1750-90;
+  Stainer model; inferior.
+
+  DICKESON (Dickson), John, b. in Stirling. London and Cambridge,
+  about 1750-80; excellent.
+
+  DIDELIN, Joseph. Nancy, 1765-75; poor maker.
+
+  DIDION, Gabriel. Mirecourt; d. 1881.
+
+  DIEHL (or Diel, as it was originally spelt). Friedrich, son of
+  Nicolaus Diehl; 1814-67; Darmstadt; fair.
+
+  DIEHL (Diel), Heinrich, a son of Johann Diehl.
+
+  DIEHL (Diel), Jacob, son of Nicolaus Diehl; d. 1873; Bremen in
+  1834, then Hamburg.
+
+  DIEHL (Diel), Johann, a brother of Nicolaus Diehl. Mayence.
+
+  DIEHL, Martin. Mayence, eighteenth century; work poor.
+
+  DIEHL (Diel), Nicolaus, b. 1779, d. 1851. Son of Martin Diehl, to
+  whose business he succeeded.
+
+  DIEHL (Diel), Nicolaus Louis, d. 1876. Was a son of Jacob Diehl;
+  worked in Hamburg; he published a work on Italian violin-makers.
+
+  DIEULAFAIT. A viol-maker; Paris in 1720.
+
+  DINI, Giambattista. Lucignano in 1707.
+
+  DITTON. London about 1700. In Thomas Britton’s Collection was a
+  “good violin by Ditton.”
+
+  DODD, Edward, b. 1705, Sheffield; d. 1810, London, at the age of
+  105. First bow-maker of this name. He lived in Salisbury Court,
+  Fleet Street; buried in St Bride’s Church.
+
+  DODD, James, second son of Edward. Also made bows.
+
+  DODD, James, son of James Dodd, sen.; was a good bow-maker.
+
+  DODD, John, eldest son of Edward Dodd; b. 1752. (_See_ p. 116.)
+
+  DODD, Thomas, third son of Edward Dodd. Employed Bernhard Fendt and
+  Lott; proud of his varnish; an all-round man, and dealer in all
+  sorts of instruments; violoncellos fetch £50.
+
+  DODD, Edward and Thomas, sons of Thomas Dodd, sen. Both learnt from
+  Bernhard Fendt, and carried on the business at St Martin’s Lane.
+
+  DOMINICELLI (Domincelli). Ferrara, 1695-1715; studied in Brescia;
+  copied the Amati pattern; varnish of a golden colour.
+
+  DOMINICHINO, Giuseppe. Verona, 1700; Amati pattern.
+
+  DONATO, Serafino. Venice, 1410-11.
+
+  DONI, Rocco. A priest in Florence, 1600-60; made lutes and violins.
+
+  DOPFER (Döpfer), Nicolaus. Mayence (?) about 1768; instruments well
+  made, slightly arched; sound-holes small but well cut, varnish
+  brown.
+
+  DORANT, William. Spitalfields, 1814.
+
+  DORFFEL (Dörffel), Johann Andreas. A violin and lute maker in
+  Klingenthal, Saxony, in 1743.
+
+  DRINDA, Giacomo. Pianzo, eighteenth century.
+
+  DRÖGMEYER, Hermann August. Bremen; wrote a book on violins, 1891.
+
+  DROULEAU or Droulot. Paris, 1788-1800.
+
+  DROUYN, Dimanche. Paris.
+
+  DUCHÉRON, Mathurin. Contemporary of Boquay, working in Paris in
+  1714.
+
+  DUIFFOPRUGCAR (Duiffoproucart), Gaspard, 1514. (_See_ p. 18).
+
+  DUKE, Richard. London about 1750-80. (_See_ p. 132.)
+
+  DUKE, Richard, son of Richard Duke.
+
+  DULFENN, Alexander. Leghorn in 1699.
+
+  DUMÉNIL, N. Paris, 1786.
+
+  DUMESNIL, Jacques. Paris about 1655-60.
+
+  DUNCAN. Aberdeen, 1762.
+
+  DUNCAN, George. Glasgow, 1887.
+
+  DURFEL (Dürfell), J. G. Altenburg, 1778; double-basses excellent;
+  violins very arched; muddy dark brown varnish.
+
+  DU RIEZ, Nicolas. A good French maker; Abbeville, 1663.
+
+
+  EBERLE, Johann Ulrich. Prague about 1730-60; good Cremona copyist.
+
+  EBERTI, Tommaso. Italian maker about 1730-50.
+
+  EDLINGER, Thomas, b. in Bohemia, and was living in Prague 1712-15.
+  Good.
+
+  EGLINGTON. London in 1802; fair tone.
+
+  ELÉMENT, Jean Laurent. Paris in 1783.
+
+  ELSLER (Esler), Johann Joseph. Mayence about 1715-30; bass viol
+  maker; transition on verge of the violin.
+
+  EMILIANI, Francesco de. Rome about 1715-20; fine workman; yellow
+  varnish.
+
+  ENGLEDER, Andreas, Munich, 1854; an original designer.
+
+  ENGLEDER, Ludwig. Bamberg, 1854; German pattern; fair tone.
+
+  ERNST, Franz Anton, b. Dec. 3, 1745, Georgenthal, Bohemia; player
+  and maker; Stradivari pattern, and some say approached Stradivari
+  tone.
+
+  EULRY-CLÉMENT. Mirecourt, 1800.
+
+  EURY. About 1810-30, Paris; an excellent bow-maker, 1820. He was
+  working at 20 rue des Lyonnais-Saint-Jacques in 1820. His bows are
+  justly celebrated, and are thought to rival even those of François
+  Tourte. He generally marked them with his name.
+
+  EVANGELISTI. Florence, eighteenth century.
+
+  EVANS, Richard. London about 1742-50.
+
+  EVE, Jacques. German model, arched; brown varnish; good workman.
+
+
+  FABRIS, Luigi. Venice in nineteenth century.
+
+  FACINI, Agostino. A monk at Bologna, 1732-42; delicate workman;
+  yellow varnish.
+
+  FALAISE. French follower of Pique; Cremona pattern; yellow varnish.
+
+  FARINATO, Paolo. Venice about 1700-30; fair maker, Serafino pattern.
+
+  FEBBRE. Amsterdam in 1762.
+
+  FENDT, Bernhard. (_See_ p. 132.)
+
+  FENDT, Bernhard Simon. (_See_ p. 132.)
+
+  FENDT, Francis, fourth son of Bernhard Fendt. (_See_ p. 132.)
+
+  FENDT, François, best known in France as Fent.
+
+  FENDT, Jacob, third son of Bernhard Fendt.
+
+  FENDT, Martin, second son of Bernhard Fendt.
+
+  FENDT, William, second son of Bernhard Simon.
+
+  FERATI, Pietro. Sienna, 1754-64; poor maker.
+
+  FÉRET. A pupil of Médard; Paris, 1708; good maker.
+
+  FERGUSON, Donald. Huntly, Aberdeenshire.
+
+  FERGUSON & SON. Edinburgh, beginning of the nineteenth century.
+
+  FERRARI, Agostino. Budrio (Italy), eighteenth century.
+
+  FERRARI, Alfonso. Carpi (Modena), 1738.
+
+  FERRARI, Carlo. Sienna in 1740.
+
+  FEURY or Ferry, François, son-in-law of Leclerc the violin-maker.
+  Paris about 1750-60; violins small pattern, the sound-holes small,
+  varnish red, work good.
+
+  FICHTL, Martin. Vienna, 1750-57; careful in wood and varnish.
+
+  FICKER, Johann Christian. Cremona, 1720-22; German style.
+
+  FICKER, Johann Gottlieb. Cremona about 1788-89.
+
+  FIKER, Johann Christian. Neukirchen (Saxony), eighteenth century.
+
+  FIORILLO, Giovanni. Ferrara, 1780; German and Italian patterns;
+  violoncellos are best.
+
+  FIORINI, Giuseppe, son of Raffaele Fiorini, b. 1867. Excellent
+  maker.
+
+  FIORINI, Raffaele, b. at Pianoro. Worked at Bologna.
+
+  FIRTH, G. Leeds, 1836; pupil of William Booth, sen.
+
+  FISCER, Carlo and Giuseppe, brothers. Milan about 1760-64; inclined
+  to German style, but good varnish.
+
+  FISCHER, Anton, b. 1794, d. 1879. Vienna.
+
+  FISCHER, Zacharie, b. Nov. 5, 1730, Würzburg; d. there Nov. 27,
+  1812; first began baking his wood to age it; his violins are still
+  liked.
+
+  FLEURI (Fleury), Jean François. Paris, 1783-85.
+
+  FLEURY, Benoist. Paris, 1751-91; fair maker.
+
+  FLORENUS (Florinus), Guidantus or Florentus. Bologna about
+  1700-60; far from first-class.
+
+  FONCLAUSE, Joseph (called “Le Mayeux”), b. 1800 à la Conté; d.
+  1865, Paris. Mirecourt, and employed by Vuillaume.
+
+  FORCHEVILLE, J. Baptiste. Early pochette-maker.
+
+  FORSTER (Foster or Forrester), John, b. Kirkandrews, on the Esk.
+
+  FORSTER, Simon Andrew, son of William Forster (1764-1824). (_See_
+  p. 126.)
+
+  FORSTER, William, son of John Forster; b. 1713-14; d. 1801. (_See_
+  p. 126.)
+
+  FORSTER, William (“Old Forster”), son of William Forster
+  (1713-1801). (_See_ p. 126.)
+
+  FORSTER, William (“Young Forster”), son of William Forster
+  (1739-1808). (_See_ p. 126.)
+
+  FORSTER, William, eldest son of William Forster, 1764-1824. (_See_
+  p. 126.)
+
+  FRAISER, Giorgio. Cremona, 1666; worked for Nicola Amati.
+
+  FRANCK. Ghent, 1800-30; chiefly a clever repairer.
+
+  FRANKLAND. London, 1785; employed by the William Forsters.
+
+  FREBRUNET, Jean. Paris 1750-60; good maker; yellow varnish.
+
+  FRITSCHE (Fritzche), Samuel. Leipzig, 1787; pupil of C. H. Hunger;
+  good maker (Cremona model) and fine repairer.
+
+  FRYER, Charles. London and Leeds, 1830-40.
+
+  FURBER, David. Pupil of John Johnson (1750-60), a maker in London.
+  (_See_ p. 234.)
+
+  FURBER, Henry John, son and pupil of John Furber.
+
+  FURBER, James, first son of Matthew Furber, sen.
+
+  FURBER, John, third son of Matthew Furber, sen.
+
+  FURBER, Matthew, sen., son of David Furber.
+
+  FURBER, Matthew, second son of Matthew Furber, sen.
+
+
+  GABRIELLI, Antonio. Florence, 1760; good violins.
+
+  GABRIELLI, Bartolommeo. Florence about 1730.
+
+  GABRIELLI, Cristoforo. Florence, 1730.
+
+  GABRIELLI, Giovanni Battista. Florence, 1740-70; good tone,
+  excellent wood, yellow varnish; his violoncellos and altos
+  considered best.
+
+  GAETANO, Antoniazzi, b. Aug. 7, 1825, Cremona; good maker, has
+  gained medals of honour; his sons, Ricardo and Romeo, work with him.
+
+  GAFFINO, Giuseppe. An Italian, worked in Paris, 1745-83; careful
+  maker.
+
+  GAGLIANO (Galiano), Alessandro, b. 1640. (_See_ p. 89.)
+
+  GAGLIANO, Antonio, son of Giovanni, grandson of Nicola. (_See_
+  “Raffaele Gagliano.”)
+
+  GAGLIANO, Ferdinando, eldest son of Nicola, grandson of Alessandro.
+  (_See_ p. 89.)
+
+  GAGLIANO, Gennaro, second son of Alessandro, brother of Nicola;
+  b. about 1680, at Naples; d. 1750. He was the best maker of this
+  family.
+
+  GAGLIANO, Giovanni, fourth son of Nicola, nephew of the great
+  Gennaro; d. 1806.
+
+  GAGLIANO, Giuseppe and Antonio, second and third sons of Nicola;
+  lived at Naples.
+
+  GAGLIANO, Nicola, eldest son of Alessandro; b. about 1675, at
+  Naples; d. there about 1745.
+
+  GAGLIANO, Raffaele and Antonio, sons of Giovanni, grandsons of
+  Nicola.
+
+  GAILLARD-LAJOUE, J. B. Mirecourt; d. about 1870; first an
+  apprentice and then first workman in the workshop of Gand; fair
+  maker.
+
+  GAIROUD, Louis. Nantes about 1740.
+
+  GALBANI, Piero. Florence in 1640.
+
+  GALBICELLIS, G. B. Florence, 1757.
+
+  GALBUSERA, Carlo Antonio. Follower of Chanot; made a guitar-shaped
+  model; violins much praised, but little known now.
+
+  GALERZENA. Piedmont, 1790.
+
+  GALLAND, Jean. Paris, rue St-Honoré, about 1744-50.
+
+  GALRAM, Joachim Joseph. Lisbon in 1769.
+
+  GAND, Charles Adolphe, eldest son of Charles François Gand; b. Dec.
+  11, 1812, Paris; d. Jan. 24, 1866.
+
+  GAND, Charles François, eldest son of Charles Michel Gand; b. Aug.
+  5, 1787, Versailles. (_See_ p. 108.)
+
+  GAND, Charles Michel, the head of the Gand family; b. 1748, at
+  Mirecourt; d. 1820, Versailles.
+
+  GAND, Charles Nicolas Eugène, second son of Charles François Gand;
+  b. June 5, 1825, at Paris; d. Feb. 5, 1892, Boulogne-sur-Seine.
+
+  GAND, Guillaume, second son of Charles Michel Gand, 1792-1858.
+
+  GARANI (Garana), Michelangelo. A maker in Bologna about 1680 to
+  1720; small value.
+
+  GARANI, Nicola. 1700. Fair instruments, Gagliano pattern; plain
+  wood, yellow varnish.
+
+  GARENGHI, Giuseppe. Brescia, 1857.
+
+  GASPARO DA SALÒ, son of Francesco Bertolotti, b. 1542. (_See_ p.
+  30.)
+
+  GATTANANI. Piedmont, 1785-90.
+
+  GATTINARI. Enrico. Turin, 1670-75.
+
+  GATTINARI, Francesco, son of Enrico Gattinari. Good maker, 1700-5;
+  red varnish.
+
+  GAUTROT. Mirecourt, 1855.
+
+  GAVINIÉS (Gavaniès), François. 1700-63, Bordeaux; 1730 Paris, and
+  was living in Rue St-Thomas-du-Louvre, 1734-63. Unequal maker of
+  violins, some cheap and poor, others very superior.
+
+  GEDLER, Johann Anthony and Johann Benedict. Fussen, Bavaria, about
+  1750-96. Poor violins.
+
+  GEISENHOF (Geiffenhof, Geigenhof), Franz, b. 1754; d. 1821. Fairly
+  good.
+
+  GEMÜNDER, August, b. 1814, Würtemberg; d. Sept., 1895, New York.
+  Excellent maker, fine copyist.
+
+  GEMÜNDER, George, brother of August Gemünder, b. 1816 in Würtemberg.
+
+  GERMAIN, Emile, son of Joseph Louis Germain. Turin, 1870-88.
+  Studied at Mirecourt. Prolific maker, good varnish, fair tone, fine
+  repairer.
+
+  GERMAIN, Joseph Louis, b. July 23, 1822, Mirecourt, 1868; worked
+  with F. Gand family and B. Vuillaume. Excellent maker and repairer.
+
+  GERONI, Domenico. Ostia, Italy, about 1800-20. Inferior.
+
+  GHERARDI, Giacomo. Bologna, 1677.
+
+  GHIDINI, Carlo. Parma, about 1746.
+
+  GIANOLI, Domenico. Milan, 1731.
+
+  GIBBS, James. London, 1800-45. Was employed by J. Morrison, George
+  Corsby, and Samuel Gilkes.
+
+  GIBERTINI, Antonio. Parma, 1830-33. Stradivari pattern. Employed by
+  Paganini as a repairer.
+
+  GIGLI, Julio Cesare. Rome, 1730-62.
+
+  GILBERT, Nicolas Louis. Metz, 1700.
+
+  GILBERT, Simon, son of Nicolas Louis Gilbert. Metz, about 1737.
+
+  GILKES, Samuel, 1787-1827. Morton Pinkney, Northamptonshire.
+  London. Worked for William Forster (1764-1824). Nicola Amati
+  pattern; clever maker.
+
+  GILKES, William, son of Samuel Gilkes, about 1811-75, in Grey
+  Coat Street, Tothill Fields, Westminster, London. Prolific maker;
+  chiefly double basses.
+
+  GIOFFREDA, B. Turin, in 1860.
+
+  GIORDANO (Giordane), Alberto. Cremona, about 1735-40.
+
+  GIORGI, Nicola. Turin, 1745.
+
+  GIRANIANI. Leghorn, 1730.
+
+  GIRON. (_See_ “Villaume.”)
+
+  GIULIANI. Cremona, 1660. Pupil of Nicola Amati.
+
+  GOBETTI, Francesco. Venice, 1705. A pupil of Antonio Stradivari.
+  Alleged fine wood, varnish, and tone.
+
+  GOFFRILLER (Gofriler), Antonio. Venice, 18th century.
+
+  GOFFRILLER, Francesco. Venice. Fair maker; yellow-brown varnish.
+
+  GOFFRILLER, Matteo. Venice, 1690-1740. Careless in wood but careful
+  in work; yellow varnish; arched pattern violin excellent.
+
+  GONNET, Pierre Jean. Paris, 1775-83.
+
+  GOSSELIN. An amateur maker in Paris about 1814-30.
+
+  GOSSET. Rheims, 1769.
+
+  GOUVERNARI, Antonio. Cremona, 1600-10.
+
+  GRABENSEE, J. A. Düsseldorf, about 1850-55.
+
+  GRAGNANI, Antonio. Leghorn, about 1741-80. Rough workmanship;
+  inferior wood; sweet tone.
+
+  GRAGNANI, Gennaro. Leghorn, 1730.
+
+  GRAGNANI, son of Antonio Gragnani. Inferior to his father.
+
+  GRANCINO, Francesco and Giam Battista, sons of Giovanni and
+  grandsons of Paolo Grancino. 1710-60. (_See_ p. 90.)
+
+  GRANCINO, Giovanni, son of Paolo Grancino. Milan 1690-1730.
+
+  GRANCINO, Paolo. Worked at Milan, 1665-90. Pupil of Nicola Amati at
+  Cremona.
+
+  GRAND-GÉRARD. Vosges, 1790-1810. Also Paris. Prolific but inferior.
+
+  GRANDINI, Geronimo, sen. Mirecourt. Some merit.
+
+  GRANDJON, sen. Mirecourt.
+
+  GRANDJON, J., son of Grandjon, sen. Mirecourt. Fair maker.
+
+  GRAY, J. Fochabers, Banffshire, Scotland, in 1870.
+
+  GREFFTS, Johann. Fussen, Bavaria, in 1622.
+
+  GREGORI. Bologna, 1793.
+
+  GRIMM, Carl, b. about 1792; d. 1855, Berlin. One of the best German
+  makers.
+
+  GRIMM, Ludwig, son of Carl Grimm.
+
+  GRISERI, Filippo. Florence in 1650.
+
+  GROBITZ, A. Warsaw in 1750. Good violins on the Stainer pattern.
+
+  GROLL, Matthew. Meran, Tyrol, in 1800.
+
+  GROSSET, Paul François. Paris, 1747-59. Pupil of Claude Pierray.
+  Inferior.
+
+  GROSSI, Giuseppe. Bologna in 1803.
+
+  GROU. 1752.
+
+  GRULLI, Pietro. Cremona, 1883.
+
+  GUADAGNINI, Antonio, son of Gaetano, grandson of Carlo Guadagnini,
+  b. 1831; d. 1881 at Turin. (_See_ p. 86.)
+
+  GUADAGNINI, Felice, son of Carlo Guadagnini. Turin, 1835.
+
+  GUADAGNINI, Francesco and Giuseppe, sons of Antonio Guadagnini.
+  Turin.
+
+  GUADAGNINI, Gaetano, son of Giambattista, grandson of Lorenzo.
+  Turin about 1750.
+
+  GUADAGNINI, Gaetano. (_See_ “Carlo Guadagnini.”)
+
+  GUADAGNINI, Giambattista, son of Lorenzo, b. 1711 at Cremona; d.
+  Sept 18, 1786, at Turin.
+
+  GUADAGNINI, Giovanni Battista, brother of Lorenzo Guadagnini.
+  Milan, Piacenza, and Turin about 1695-1775.
+
+  GUADAGNINI, Giuseppe, second son of Giambattista, grandson of
+  Lorenzo, b. 1736; d. about 1805.
+
+  GUADAGNINI, Giuseppe. (_See_ “Carlo Guadagnini.”)
+
+  GUADAGNINI, Giuseppe. (_See_ “Francesco Guadagnini.”)
+
+  GUADAGNINI, Lorenzo. b. at Piacenza (?) about 1665. A pupil of
+  Antonio Stradivari at Cremona.
+
+  GUARINI, Joseph. Germigny, Vosges. Good violins, double purfle,
+  powerful tone.
+
+  GUARNERI, Andrea. b. about 1626 at Cremona; d. there Dec. 7, 1698.
+  (For the Guarneri family, see p. 51.)
+
+  GUARNERI, Caterina (?), daughter of Andrea.
+
+  GUARNERI, Gian Battista, son of Bernardo, younger brother of Andrea.
+
+  GUARNERI, Giuseppe, known as “del Gesù,” the greatest of the
+  family. (_See_ p. 51.)
+
+  GUARNERI, Giuseppe Giovan Battista, second son of Andrea. b. Nov.
+  25, 1666, Cremona; d. soon after 1738.
+
+  GUARNERI, Pietro, son of Giuseppe Giovan Battista Guarneri,
+  grandson of Andrea, b. April 14, 1695. 1760.
+
+  GUARNERI, Pietro Giovanni, eldest son of Andrea. b. Feb. 18, 1655,
+  at Cremona; d. about 1740.
+
+  GUÉDON, Jacques Antoine. Paris, 1775-77.
+
+  GUÉRIN, Alexandre Sauveur, 1834-88, Hyères. Pupil and successor of
+  Edmond Daniel; works at Marseilles; repairs old instruments and
+  makes new ones on the pattern of Stradivari; much admired.
+
+  GUERRA, Giacomo. Modena, 1810.
+
+  GUERSAN, Louis. A maker in Paris about 1730-69; one of the best
+  French makers; great experimentalist; used spirit varnish.
+
+  GUGEMMOS (Gugemos). Fussen, Bavaria. Eighteenth century; poor maker.
+
+  GUGLIELMI, Giobattista. Cremona, 1747.
+
+  GUIDANTUS, Joannes Florenus. Bologna, 1685-1728.
+
+  GUIDOMINI, Lorenzo. Milan, 1740.
+
+  GUILLAMI. A Spanish family, 1680-1780.
+
+  GUITON, R., of Cork. Good.
+
+  GUSETTO, Nicola. Florence, 1730.
+
+  GUTERMANN. Vienna, nineteenth century. Good.
+
+
+  HAENSEL, Johann Anton. Was maker and musician to the Duke of
+  Schönburg at Rochsburg, 1800-15.
+
+  HAFF. Augsburg, eighteenth century.
+
+  HAMBERGER, Joseph. Pressburg, Hungary. Firm still maker at Vienna.
+
+  HAMM, Johann Gottfried. A German who worked in Rome about 1810;
+  violins ivory edged.
+
+  HAMMIG, W. H. Leipzig, tenth century; good work.
+
+  HARBOUR or Harbur. A maker, London, 1785.
+
+  HARDANGER. Norway.
+
+  HARDIE, James & Sons. Edinburgh, 1837-90. Industrious makers and
+  exhibitors. Maggini, Stradivari, and Guarneri models.
+
+  HARDIE, Matthew, 1825, and Thomas, 1856. Good violins, violas, and
+  violoncellos on the Amati pattern.
+
+  HARDIE, Peter. Dunkeld, 1773-1863. Excellent violoncellos.
+
+  HARE, Joseph (or John), 1700-30. Reacted against Stainer pattern in
+  favour of Stradivari. London, 1726.
+
+  HARHAM. London, 1765-85.
+
+  HARMAND. Mirecourt in 1772.
+
+  HARRIS, Charles. London, 1780-1800. Seldom labelled; his work good,
+  especially ’cellos, Stradivari and Amati pattern; red varnish.
+
+  HARRIS, Charles, eldest son of Charles Harris. Worked for John
+  Hart, nineteenth century; yellow varnish.
+
+  HART, John Thomas, 1805-74, London. Pupil of Samuel Gilkes; made
+  few instruments; reputation for experience and skill in repairing.
+
+  HASSERT. Eisenach, eighteenth century. Good instruments, not much
+  arched, beautiful wood, amber-coloured varnish; good copyist.
+
+  HASSERT. A brother. Eisenach, 1790, in Rudolstadt. Instruments too
+  much arched; rather harsh tone.
+
+  HAYNES, Jacob. London, 1746. Stainer pattern.
+
+  HEBERLEIN, Heinrich, jun. Clever maker in Markneukirchen,
+  nineteenth century.
+
+  HEESOM, Edward. London, 1748-50. Stainer pattern.
+
+  HEIDEGGER. Passau.
+
+  HEL, Pierre Joseph, 1842-95. Seven years in Mirecourt, then
+  with Sébastien Vuillaume in Paris, and Nicolas Darche at
+  Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1865 he started his own business at 14 Rue
+  Nationale, Lille; full of ingenuity; peculiar methods of seasoning
+  wood without fire; has received much praise and many honours; a
+  beautiful maker.
+
+  HELD, J. J., b. July 17, 1823-89, Flamersheim, Rheinbach (Cologne).
+  Great repairer and careful maker of about sixteen instruments a
+  year; much esteemed.
+
+  HELL, Ferdinand. Vienna, 1854. Eccentric maker of a trumpet-violin.
+
+  HELMICH. Continued Carl Grimm’s business.
+
+  HENDERSON, D. Aberdeen.
+
+  HÉNOC (or Hénocq), François. Paris, 1775-89.
+
+  HÉNOC (Hénocq), Jean (?Georges Bienaimé). Maker, Paris, 1768 to
+  about 1790.
+
+  HENRY. Paris.
+
+  HENRY, Carolus, son of Jean Baptiste Henry, 1803-59; prolific
+  maker; inventor of a barytone fiddle (not a success); a good maker
+  otherwise.
+
+  HENRY, Eugène, son of Charles Henry, 1843-92; an excellent maker of
+  fine repairs; business continued by Charles Bruyère.
+
+  HENRY, Jean Baptiste, b. 1757-1831, Mataincourt, Mirecourt
+  (Vosges). He was the head of the present family of makers.
+
+  HENRY, Jean Baptiste Félix, eldest son of Jean Baptiste Henry.
+  1793-1858. Paris. Pupil of his father; in Bordeaux, 1822; in
+  Marseilles, 1825. In 1844 he returned to Paris. A prolific maker,
+  but never signed.
+
+  HENRY, Octave, son of Jean Baptiste Félix Henry. 1826-54. Paris. In
+  Grenoble in 1854; made a great many violins.
+
+  HENRY. A violin bow-maker; 1812 at Mirecourt; 1870, Paris; worked
+  with Chanot; made excellent bows.
+
+  HILDEBRANDT, Michael Christopher. Hamburg, 1765-1800; good work;
+  fine repairer.
+
+  HILL, Henry Lockey, son of Lockey Hill; grandson of Joseph Hill; b.
+  1774; d. Aug. 1835. (For Hill family see p. 133).
+
+  HILL, John. Red Lion Street, Holborn, 1794.
+
+  HILL, Joseph, b. 1715; d. 1784. He was a fellow-apprentice of
+  Banks, working at “Y^e Harp and Hautboy,” in Piccadilly, London,
+  under Peter Wamsley, about 1740-42. Worked till 1772. His sons,
+  William, Joseph, Lockey, and Benjamin, were all makers.
+
+  HILL, William, son of Joseph Hill. Worked in London about 1740-80.
+
+  HILL, William Ebsworth, son of Henry Lockey Hill, 1817-95. The
+  present members of the firm are his four eldest sons: William
+  Henry, b. June 3, 1857, followed the musical profession for
+  some years before joining his brothers in the business; Arthur
+  Frederick, b. Jan. 25, 1860; Alfred Ebsworth, b. Feb. 1862, who
+  worked for some time at Mirecourt (Vosges), and was the first
+  Englishman to go there to study; and Walter Edgar, b. Nov. 4,
+  1871, who also worked at Mirecourt. They employ a large staff of
+  assistants in their workshops at Hanwell. (_See_ p. 133.)
+
+  HIRCUTT. London about 1600.
+
+  HOCHBRÜCKER. Donauworth, Bavaria, 1699. Later at Augsburg. Made
+  some violins, but is chiefly known as the inventor of pedals for
+  the harp, about 1720.
+
+  HÖHNE. Dresden and Weimar.
+
+  HÖRLEIN, Carl Adam, b. 1829-75. Winkelhof, Würzburg; great
+  reputation both as maker and repairer.
+
+  HOFFMANN, Anton. Courtmaker in Vienna, 1850.
+
+  HOFFMANN, Martin. Leipzig, 1725; in Leipzig from about 1685;
+  violins and violoncellos of good tone, inelegant pattern; shows
+  well the transition period between viol and violin by recurrence to
+  older types of a five-stringed violoncello.
+
+  HOFMANS, Matthias. Antwerp, 1700-50; choice maker in the Cremona
+  style.
+
+  HOLLOWAY, John. London. 1794.
+
+  HOMOLKA, F. Kuttenberg, Bohemia, 1850; good maker, but wood rather
+  too thick.
+
+  HOPKINS. Worcester; exhibited a double-bass in London in 1862.
+
+  HORIL, Giacomo. Rome, 1720-50.
+
+  HORNSTEINER (Hornstainer), Joseph. Mittenwald, 1730; good
+  double-basses; mediocre.
+
+  HORNSTEINER (Hornstainer), Mathias. Maker in Mittenwald, 1770-1800;
+  better than Joseph.
+
+  HOSBORN, Thomas Alfred. London, 1629. A bass viol exhibited in
+  Paris, 1878.
+
+  HUET, Henri. Paris, 1775-90; good workmanship.
+
+  HULINSKI. Prague in 1760; instruments were well made; varnish
+  red-brown.
+
+  HULLER, August. Shœneck, 1735-76.
+
+  HULSKAMP, G. H., b. in Westphalia. Settled in New York, U.S.A.
+  In the 1862 London Exhibition he exhibited violins made on a new
+  pattern. Instead of the ordinary sound-holes, was one round hole in
+  the middle of the violin, just below where the bow sets the strings
+  in motion; his innovations ineffectual.
+
+  HUMEL, Christian. Nuremberg in 1709.
+
+  HUNGER, Christoph Friedrich, b. 1718, Dresden; d. 1787, Leipzig;
+  excellent instruments.
+
+  HUREL, Jean. Paris, living in 1686, Rue des Arcis, at the sign of
+  “A l’image de St Pierre”; from 1689 to 1717, Rue St Martin, near
+  the Fontaine Maubué. He was maker of instruments “pour la musique
+  du Roy.”
+
+  HUSSON. _See_ “Buthod.”
+
+
+  IVRONTIGNI, Wougelli. Turin.
+
+
+  JACOBS, Peeter. Amsterdam, about 1690-1740; prolific maker;
+  sometimes mistaken for Nicola Amati; grand pattern; whalebone
+  purfling; sweet tone.
+
+  JACOBS. Amsterdam; probably son of Peeter; used dark red varnish of
+  good quality.
+
+  JACOT, A., eldest son of Jean Charles. Paris, 19th century.
+
+  JACOT, Jean Charles. Metz, 1811-87.
+
+  JACQUOT (Jacquart), Charles, 1804-80. Mirecourt; much esteemed;
+  careful finish; a learned connoisseur and successful exhibitor.
+
+  JACQUOT, Etienne Charles Albert, eldest son of Pierre Charles
+  Jacquot, b. 1853-82, Nancy.
+
+  JACQUOT, Jules Victor, second son of Pierre Charles Jacquot, b.
+  Aug. 12, 1855.
+
+  JACQUOT, Pierre Charles, son of Charles Jacquot; b. March 10,
+  1828-94. Nancy; had a great reputation, and exhibited beautiful
+  instruments at various Exhibitions; his two sons worked with him.
+
+  JAIS, Johann. Botzen, 1775; varnished brown.
+
+  J’ANSON, Edward Popplewell. Manchester. Learnt from William Booth,
+  jun.
+
+  JAUCH, Johann, b. Gratz, Styria; in Dresden, 1765-74. Cremona
+  pattern; learned maker; tone rather harsh.
+
+  JAY, Henry. A maker of viols in London about 1615-67; justly
+  celebrated, and on the verge of the violin period.
+
+  JAY, Henry. Worked in London about 1746-68. He was best known
+  for the small violins or “kits” that he made, which were used by
+  dancing-masters; also made some violoncellos.
+
+  JAY, Thomas. Working in London from about 1690; made some excellent
+  violins.
+
+  JEANDEL, Pierre Napoleon, 1812-79. Courcelles-sous-Vaudémont
+  (Meurthe), Rouen, and Paris; red varnish; good tone.
+
+  JOHNSON, John. London, 1750-60. Stainer pattern.
+
+  JOMBAR, Paul, Paris. He worked for Gand and Bernardel; started his
+  own business in 1892.
+
+  JORIO, Vincenzo. Naples, 1847, Good.
+
+  JOSEPH, J. Vienna, 1764.
+
+  JULIANO, Francesco. Rome, 1620-70.
+
+
+  KEMBTER. Dibingen, 1725-30. Varnish yellow or reddish; neat maker.
+
+  KENNEDY, Alexander. Scotland, 1695-1785. Excellent maker; high
+  repute; spirit varnish, brown; Stainer pattern.
+
+  KENNEDY, John. London, 1816. Buried in Shoreditch Church. Pupil of
+  Alexander Kennedy. Violins and violas, all very arched; Stainer
+  pattern.
+
+  KENNEDY, Thomas, 1784-1870, London. Son of John Kennedy. Worked
+  sometimes for William Forster; made at least 300 violoncellos, as
+  well as other instruments. Good tone, fine finish.
+
+  KERLINO, Joann.
+
+  KIAPOSSE, Sawes. St Petersburg, 1748-50.
+
+  KIESGEN, Louis. Paris. Fine workman. Pattern of Gand; red varnish.
+
+  KIRSCHSCHLAG. Tyrol, 1780.
+
+  KLEIN, A. In 1884, Rouen. Important firm. Red varnish. High
+  Exhibition awards.
+
+  KLOSS, Ernst. Breslau.
+
+  KLOTZ (Kloz), Egidius. (_See_ p. 119.)
+
+  KLOTZ, George, son of Mathias and grandson of Egidius Klotz.
+  Mittenwald, 1750-70.
+
+  KLOTZ, Johann Carl. Mittenwald, about 1740-55. Excellent work; dark
+  varnish.
+
+  KLOTZ, Joseph, brother of George Klotz. Mittenwald, 1774. Also
+  followed the Stainer pattern.
+
+  KLOTZ, Mathias, son and pupil of Egidius. 1650. His three sons,
+  George, Sebastian, and Joseph, were all makers.
+
+  KLOTZ, Michael and Carl, two brothers. Mittenwald about 1770. A
+  great many of the violins with “Stainer” labels are made by members
+  of the Klotz family.
+
+  KLOTZ, Sebastian, a brother of Joseph and George Klotz. 1700-40.
+  The best maker in the family. Large pattern, not much arched;
+  varnish is excellent, the tone clear and full.
+
+  KLÜHER. Markneukirchen, Saxony.
+
+  KNITTING, Philipp. Mittenwald, 1760.
+
+  KNITTLE (Knitl), Joseph. Mittenwald, 1790.
+
+  KNOOP, Wilhelm. Meiningen. Stainer pattern; good.
+
+  KOEUPPERS, Jean. The Hague, 1755-80. Well-made fiddles; ugly yellow
+  varnish.
+
+  KOLB, Hans. Bavaria, 1666.
+
+  KOLDITZ, Johann. Rumburg, Bohemia, 1796. Good violins and violas.
+
+  KOLDITZ, Mathias Johann. Munich, 1720-55.
+
+  KOLIKER, Jean Gabriel. Paris, 1783-99. Clever repairer.
+
+  KRAMER, H. Vienna in 1717.
+
+  KRIGGE, Heinrich. Danzig, 1756-58. Maggini pattern, model large
+  size, neat edges and work, and double purfling in ink.
+
+  KRINER, Joseph. Mittenwald, 1785-95.
+
+  KRUPP, Pierre. Worked in Paris, Rue St Honoré, 1777-91; he also
+  made harps.
+
+  KÜHLEWEIN UND TETZNER. Makers in Markneukirchen. Exhibited in
+  Munich, 1854.
+
+  KÜNTZEL. Berlin. He exhibited a quintet of instruments in London,
+  1862; tone excellent.
+
+  KUNTZEL, Laurent. 1790. Hof Bavaria and Breslau, 1815-55. Excellent
+  violins on Italian model.
+
+
+  LACROIX, Salomon. Nineteenth century.
+
+  LAFLEUR. London, brother of the Parisian maker.
+
+  LAFLEUR, Jacques. A bow-maker in Paris. Excellent disciple of
+  Tourte.
+
+  LAFLEUR, Joseph René, son of Jacques. 1812-74. Excellent bow-maker.
+
+  LAFRANCHINI, Jacobo de. Worked for Maggini.
+
+  LAGETTO, Louis. An Italian maker; Paris, 1745-53; early Italian
+  model.
+
+  LAMBERT. Prolific but indifferent maker.
+
+  LAMBERT, Jean Nicolas. Paris, 1743-85. Not remarkable.
+
+  LAMBIN. Clever repairer in Ghent, 1800-30.
+
+  LAMY, N. Alfred Joseph. A bow-maker; 1850-89, Mirecourt; excellent.
+
+  LANDI, Pietro. Sienna, 1774.
+
+  LANDOLFI, Carlo Ferdinando. Milan, 1740-75. Unequal maker; at his
+  best often mistaken for Joseph or Peter Guarnerius; £50 outside
+  price, but rising in value.
+
+  LANTEZ, M. E., son-in-law of Grandjon, sen. Mirecourt.
+
+  LANZA (Lansa or Lausa), Antonio Maria. Brescia about 1675; followed
+  the patterns of Gasparo da Salò and Maggini; excellent maker.
+
+  LAPAIX, J. A. Lille (Nord, France), 1840-55. Tried many new shapes
+  with moderate success; industrious and ingenious.
+
+  LAPRÉVOTTE, Etienne. Mirecourt; 1856, Paris. Made good violins;
+  beautifully finished; also guitars.
+
+  LARCHE. Brussels, 1847. Dyed his fiddles with acids, with usual
+  result of impoverished tone.
+
+  LARCHER, Pierre. Tours, 1785. Pupil of Guersan, Paris, but work
+  dissimilar; brown varnish of poor quality.
+
+  LASKA, Joseph. 1738-1805, Prague. Pupil of J. Kolditz; worked for
+  best makers in Dresden, Berlin, Vienna, and Brünn; his violins
+  popular in Bohemia, Saxony, and Poland.
+
+  LAUTTEN, L. W. Tyrol. One “fine and handsome” violin known.
+
+  LAVAZZA (or Lacasso), Antonio Maria. Milan about 1700; Stradivari
+  pattern; good varnish, pale red.
+
+  LAVAZZA, Santino. Was working in Milan at the same time as Antonio
+  Maria Lavazza.
+
+  LEB. Pressburg, eighteenth century; one of the best German makers
+  of his time.
+
+  LE BLANC. Family of makers who, through four generations, worked in
+  Paris, eighteenth century.
+
+  LEBLANC, Claude. Mirecourt, eighteenth century.
+
+  LECLERC, J. N. Paris, 1760-80; good maker and repairer.
+
+  LECOMTE (or Fouquet-Lecomte), Antoine. Paris, 1775-1800.
+
+  LECUYER, Pierre. Paris, 1775-83.
+
+  LEDUC, Pierre. Paris, 1647; one of the oldest makers there.
+
+  LEEB, J. Carl. 1792-1819. Vienna.
+
+  LEFEBVRE (Lefebre), J. B. A Frenchman who worked in Amsterdam,
+  1735-70; Amati pattern; yellow varnish.
+
+  LEFÈVRE (Lefebvre). Toussaint Nicolas Germain. Paris, 1783-89.
+
+  LEGROS de la Neuville, Nicolas. French maker, eighteenth century;
+  guitars, violins, and violoncellos.
+
+  LE JEUNE. A family of makers who for several generations worked in
+  Paris; nineteenth century.
+
+  LE JEUNE, François. Paris, eighteenth century; violins and viols;
+  not remarkable.
+
+  LE JEUNE, Jean Baptiste. Made harps and violins in Paris;
+  eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
+
+  LE JEUNE, Jean Charles. Paris in 1776; succeeded by his nephew,
+  Guillaume Martin, in 1822.
+
+  LE JEUNE, Louis. Paris, 1783-89.
+
+  LE LIÈVRE. Paris, 1750-80.
+
+  LEMBÖCK, Gabriel. 1814-92. Budapest; worked with Fischer in Vienna;
+  copied Guarnerius; much esteemed.
+
+  L’EMPEREUR, Jean Baptiste. Paris, 1750; few instruments.
+
+  LENK, W., b. 1840; 1881, Schönbach bei Eger, Bohemia; worked under
+  Klüher in Markneukirchen; then Berlin, Breslau, Vienna; finally
+  settled at Frankfort; fair maker.
+
+  LENTZ (Lenz), Johann Nicolaus. Came from the Tyrol to London;
+  friend of Bernhard Fendt; varnished like Dodd and J. F. Lott.
+
+  LEONI, Carlo. Treviso, 1861.
+
+  LEONI. Parma in 1816.
+
+  LE PILEUR, Pierre. Paris, 1750-55. Not very good.
+
+  LÉTÉ, Simon, b. about 1768; 1828 made very cheap, good fiddles for
+  £1; at one time a partner of J. B. Vuillaume.
+
+  LEWIS, Edward. London about 1700. An excellent maker; yellow and
+  red varnish; in Thomas Britton’s collection was an “excellent tenor
+  by Mr Lewis” and a “rare good” bass-violin.
+
+  LIEBICH, Ernst, b. Oct. 27, 1796-1876; Stradivari and Guarneri
+  pattern; he was the father of
+
+  LIEBICH, Ernst. 1830-84, Breslau. Italian pattern. His son,
+
+  LIEBICH, Ernst. 1862-95, Breslau. Excellent repairer; makes few,
+  but good; best Italian patterns.
+
+  LIEBICH, Johann Gottfried. 1752-1813.
+
+  LIEDOLF, Joseph Ferdinand. Vienna eighteenth century.
+
+  LIGNOLI, Andrea. Florence, seventeenth century.
+
+  LILLY, James. An English maker, 1821.
+
+  LINAROLO (Linerolli), Francesco Giovanni. A family, seventeenth
+  century; on the verge of the violin period; some of their
+  instruments have been adapted for tenors.
+
+  LIPPETA, J. G. Neukirchen, Saxony, 1771.
+
+  LIPPOLD, Johann Georg. 1780. Fair maker; brown varnish.
+
+  LOLIO, Giambattista. 18th cent.
+
+  LOLY, Jacopo. Naples, 1627. Pattern of Grancino; yellow varnish;
+  made large-sized tenors.
+
+  LONGMAN AND BRODERIP, dealers who employed Jay or Benjamin Banks,
+  and labelled with their own names.
+
+  LORENZINI, Gaspare. Piacenza, eighteenth century.
+
+  LOTT, George Frederick. 1775-1853.
+
+  LOTT, George Frederick. 1800-1868.
+
+  LOTT, John Frederick, son of G. F. Lott. (_See_ p. 219.)
+
+  LOTZ, Theodor. Pressburg. 1730-40. Good violins.
+
+  LOUIS. Geneva.
+
+  LOUVET, Jean, brother of Pierre Louvet. Paris, 1730-60. Made bad
+  fiddles, but good hurdy-gurdys and harps.
+
+  LUDICI (Ludge), Geronimo Pietro. An amateur maker in Conegliano in
+  1709.
+
+  LUGLONI, Giuseppe. Venice in 1777.
+
+  LUPO, Pietro. Antwerp. In 1559 he is said to have sold to a
+  musician sent by the town of Utrecht, “five violins enclosed in
+  their case,” for the sum of £72.
+
+  LUPÔT, François, son of Laurent Lupôt.
+
+  LUPOT, Nicolas. The greatest of the family. (_See_ p. 106.)
+
+
+  MACGEORGE. Edinburgh, 1800-20.
+
+  MACINTOSH. Dublin, 1830-40. Pupil of Thomas Perry.
+
+  MAFFEOTTO, Giuseppe. Rome, eighteenth century.
+
+  MAGGINI (Magino or Maglino), Gio Paolo. (_See_ p. 32.)
+
+  MAIRE, Nicolas. A violin bow-maker in Paris; 1800, in Mirecourt;
+  1878, Paris; apprenticed to Jacques Lafleur; he made excellent bows.
+
+  MALDONNER. Füssen, Bavaria, 1760.
+
+  MANN, Hans. Naples, 1720-50. His instruments are rare; Stradivari
+  and Guarneri patterns.
+
+  MANTEGAZZA (or Mantegatia), Pietro and Giovanni. Two brothers
+  working in Milan about 1750-1800; they made many good altos.
+
+  MANTOVANI. Parma, eighteenth century.
+
+  MARATTI, Giambattista. Verona about 1690-1700. Good tone.
+
+  MARCELLI, Giovanni. Cremona in 1696.
+
+  MARCHETTI, Enrico. Turin, nineteenth century. Good maker.
+
+  MARCHI, Giovanni Antonio. Bologna, 1740-95. Good violoncellos and
+  violins; violins high model; beautiful maple-wood back and sides;
+  varnish golden yellow.
+
+  MARCO, Antonio. Venice, 1700.
+
+  MARCONCINI, Giuseppe. Pupil of Storioni; Ferrara, where he died at
+  a great age, 1841; unequal maker; very good sometimes.
+
+  MARCONCINI, Luigi. A pupil of Omobono Stradivari, 1760; Ferrara and
+  Bologna; good workmanship; pale red varnish.
+
+  MARIANI, Antonio. Pesaro, 1640 to 1700; not of much value; reminds
+  of Maggini, but rough, purfling double.
+
+  MARINO, Bernardino. Rome. Worked up to 1805.
+
+  MARQUIS DE LAIR. Mirecourt, 1800. Violins and violoncellos of
+  Stradivari pattern; work poor, the wood not good; varnish ugly
+  brown; tone bad.
+
+  MARSHALL, John. London about 1750-60. Stainer pattern; work good.
+
+  MARTIN. A family of makers in Paris, chiefly repairers.
+
+  MARTIN, Jules. Germigny, Vosges.
+
+  MARTIN. London, 1790-95, who lived at Hermitage Bridge, Wapping.
+
+  MAST, Jean Laurent. Paris, 1750. His instruments are well made;
+  violins; blackish varnish.
+
+  MAST, Josephus Laurent, son of Jean Laurent Mast. Mirecourt; still
+  there in 1820; better than his father, but not very noteworthy.
+
+  MAUCOTEL, Charles, brother of Charles Adolphe Maucotel. 1807-60,
+  Mirecourt. Studied under Gand; went to London; excellent tone.
+
+  MAUCOTEL, Charles Adolphe, brother of Charles. 1820-58, Mirecourt.
+  Apprenticed in Mirecourt; went to Paris; worked under J. B.
+  Vuillaume; excellent copyist of Stradivari.
+
+  MAUSSIELL (or Mansiedl), Leonhardt. Nuremberg, 1720-50. Stainer
+  pattern; very good.
+
+  MAYR (Maier), Andreas Ferdinand. Salzburg, about 1740-80. Is said
+  to have made the small violin on which Mozart learned to play.
+
+  MAYSON, Walter H. A maker in Manchester who began as an amateur,
+  but soon adopted violin-making as a profession. His instruments are
+  excellent.
+
+  MEARES, Richard. A maker of lutes. London in 1677; lute and
+  viol-maker on verge of the violin.
+
+  MÉDARD, Antoine, b. 1621. (_See_ p. 187.)
+
+  MÉDARD, François.
+
+  MÉDARD, Henri.
+
+  MÉDARD, Jean.
+
+  MÉDARD, Nicolas.
+
+  MÉDARD, Sébastien.
+
+  MEIBERI, Francesco. Leghorn, 1745-50.
+
+  MELLING. Paris, 1753-71.
+
+  MELLINI, Giovanni. Guastalla, Italy, 1768.
+
+  MELONI, Antonio. Milan, about 1670-95. Followed the Amati pattern;
+  his instruments are small, but good tone.
+
+  MENNÉGAND, Charles. Nancy, 1885. Apprenticed at Mirecourt; went
+  to Paris and Amsterdam; worked with Rambaux; returned to Turin;
+  consummate repairer.
+
+  MENNESSON, Emile. 1842-98, Rheims. Has made 2380 violins; fine
+  copyist of Stradivari’s “Messiah” period; gold medallist.
+
+  MÉRIOTTE, Charles. Lyons about 1730-60. Made on the Stradivari
+  pattern; yellow-brown varnish; good workmanship.
+
+  MERLIN, Joseph. London, 1770-80. His violins and his mechanical
+  pegs for violins and violoncellos at first the vogue, but have
+  not maintained their place; he followed the high Stainer model;
+  instruments were well made, but tone not good.
+
+  MESSEGUER. A Spanish maker, 1646.
+
+  METTE, François. A maker in the South of France.
+
+  MEZADRI (Mezzadie), Alessandro. Ferrara, 1690-1720. Amati school,
+  but failed to rival their grace; inferior tone.
+
+  MEZADRI (Mezzadie), Francesco. A maker at Milan about 1700-20; his
+  altos were of small pattern.
+
+  MIALFI, Joannes. A Spanish maker about 1769; nothing remarkable.
+
+  MICHAUD. Paris about 1788.
+
+  MICHELIS, Pelegrino (or Peregrino) di Zanetto, son of Zanetto de
+  Michelis, b. 1520. Made lutes and other instruments in Brescia; on
+  the verge of the violin; a fine tenor known.
+
+  MICHELOT, Jacques Pierre. Paris about 1780-95, at the sign of “A la
+  Mélodie.” He made five-stringed viols and violins.
+
+  MIER. London, 1786.
+
+  MIGGÉ, Otto, b. June 16, 1857, Coblenz; made 80 violins and 14
+  violoncellos; good tone.
+
+  MILANI, Francesco. Milan about 1740-60. School of Lorenzo
+  Guadagnini.
+
+  MILHET. Bayonne, 1820.
+
+  MILLE. Aix-la-Chapelle. A small pocket-violin is known.
+
+  MILLER. London, 1750.
+
+  MILLER, A. St. Andrews, Scotland.
+
+  MINOZZI, Matteo. Bologna, eighteenth century.
+
+  MIRAUCOURT, Ludovic (or Joseph). On verge of violin; still made
+  viols in 1743.
+
+  MIREMONT, Claude Augustin, son of Sébastien Miremont. 1827,
+  Mirecourt; d. 1887, Pontorson (Manche); in 1844 to Paris, and
+  worked first with Lafleur, then with Bernardel until 1852, when
+  he left France for America, and settled in New York; returned to
+  France; made chiefly violoncellos; excellent tone; Stradivari
+  pattern.
+
+  MIREMONT, Sébastien. Mirecourt, 1810.
+
+  MODESSIER. Paris in 1810. His instruments a large pattern;
+  excellent wood.
+
+  MOERS, Jean Henri. Paris, 1771.
+
+  MOHR, Philipp. Hamburg, 1650.
+
+  MOINEL, Charles, nephew of N. E. Cherpitel. Paris, 1893. Continued
+  Cherpitel’s business.
+
+  MOITESSIER, Louis. Mirecourt, 1780 to 1825. He made a large number
+  of instruments; many violins; rather common; fair tone.
+
+  MOLDONNER. Fussen, Bavaria, 1756-98.
+
+  MOLINARI, Antonio. Venice, 1672-1703.
+
+  MONGENOT. Rouen, 1763.
+
+  MONTADE (Montani or Montaldi), Gregorio. Cremona, 1690-1735. Pupil
+  or imitator of Omobono Stradivari; fairly good.
+
+  MONTAGNANA, Domenico. A celebrated maker in Venice about 1720-50.
+  (_See_ p. 87.)
+
+  MONTRON. Paris, 1780-90.
+
+  MORELLA, Morglato. A maker of lutes, rebecs, and viols, 1510-50;
+  has lasted into the violin epoch on account of his viols having
+  been cut down for violas.
+
+  MORONA, Antonio. Istria (Istrien) in 1731.
+
+  MORRISON, John. 1760-1830. Poor maker; did job work for the trade.
+
+  MOTTENHAVER, Edward. New York, U.S.A., who has taken out a great
+  many patents for inventions.
+
+  MOUGENOT, Georges. 1843-98, Mirecourt (Vosges). Worked in Brussels
+  for N. F. Vuillaume, and succeeded him; uses “hands,” but plans
+  and finishes himself; gold medallist.
+
+
+  NADOTTI, Giuseppe. Piacenza, 1760-70.
+
+  NAMY, Jean Théodore. Paris, 1755-1807; fine restorer; worked for
+  Salomon’s widow in Paris.
+
+  NAYLOR, Isaac. A pupil of Richard Duke; worked at Headingly, near
+  Leeds, 1778-92.
+
+  NERMEL, J. M. Paris, 1777-89.
+
+  NEUNER, Ludwig. 1840, Mittenwald (Bavaria). Grandson of Mathias
+  Neuner, also a clever maker of violins, who worked for some time
+  in London; worked for J. B. Vuillaume, Paris; settled in Berlin;
+  accomplished maker; sends out from his firm 20,000 instruments a
+  year; very cheap and good money’s worth; can do better quality when
+  he chooses.
+
+  NEWTON, Isaac. London about 1775-1825. He made fairly good
+  instruments, but used a dingy yellow varnish. Sometimes made
+  violins and violoncellos for Betts, but these were always varnished
+  by the latter.
+
+  NEZOT. Paris, 1730-60; transition maker from viols to violins; only
+  a few violins.
+
+  NICOLAS, Didier, l’aîné (known as “deaf Nicolas”), 1757-1833,
+  Mirecourt; clever workman and large employer; large pattern, loud
+  tone; suitable for orchestra.
+
+  NICOLAS, François Nicolas Fourrier (was known simply as “Nicolas”),
+  b. Oct. 5, 1758. 1816, Paris. Made all the instruments used in the
+  private orchestra of Napoleon I.; careful choice of wood; good
+  proportions; closely copied from beautiful specimens of Cremona;
+  not much in fashion now, but good violins of his still about.
+
+  NICOLAS, Joseph, son of Didier Nicolas. 1796-1864. Mirecourt;
+  eccentric maker; after his death his stamp and his father’s sold
+  off with stock, and used for violins made by neither. Pupil and
+  successor of his father.
+
+  NICOLAS, Mathieu. Mirecourt. His instruments of ordinary
+  workmanship, some yellow or red varnish.
+
+  NIGGELL, Simpertus. A maker of viols and violins. Fussen, 1743-66;
+  transition maker of viols and violins; flat pattern.
+
+  NORBORN, John. London, 1723.
+
+  NORMAN, Barak, b. 1688; d. 1740. (_See_ p. 125.)
+
+  NORRIS, John, b. 1739, London; d. March 10, 1818; pupil of Thomas
+  Smith; went into partnership with Robert Barnes in 1765.
+
+  NOVELLO, Pietro Valentino, brother of Marco Antonio Novello.
+  Venice, eighteenth century.
+
+  NOVELLO, Marco Antonio, a brother of Pietro Valentino Novello; in
+  Venice at the same time; good work.
+
+  NOVERSI, Cosimo. Florence, seventeenth century.
+
+
+  OBBO, Marco. Naples, 1712; ordinary work.
+
+  OBICI (Obue), Bartolommeo. Verona in 1684.
+
+  ODANI, Giuseppe Morello. Naples, 1738.
+
+  ODOARDI, Giuseppe. Working until 1675, Ascoli, Italy; some
+  confusion about his date, 1675-1740; died at 28; self-taught; an
+  original genius; about two hundred violins; much valued when can be
+  found.
+
+  OHBERG, Johann. Stockholm in 1773; fairly good; a yellow varnish.
+
+  ONEDA, Gio. Battista, b. 1529. A maker of cithers and violins (?)
+  in Brescia about 1562.
+
+  ONGARO, Ignazio. Venice, 1783.
+
+  ORLANDELLI, Paolo. Codogno, Italy, eighteenth century.
+
+  ORTEGA. 1840; maker and repairer. Madrid.
+
+  OSTLER, Andreas. Breslau, 1730; chiefly viols.
+
+  OTTO, Carl August, fourth son of J. A. Otto; b. 1801, Jena; d.
+  1883, Ludwigslust; maker to the Mecklenberg-Schwerin Court.
+
+  OTTO, Carl Christian, second son of J. A. Otto, 1792; Halle;
+  repairs old instruments.
+
+  OTTO, C. W. F. Louis, fifth son of J. A. Otto, 1805-84, Stockholm.
+
+  OTTO, Georg August Gottfried, eldest son of J. A. Otto; 1789,
+  Weimar; 1857, Jena; good maker.
+
+  OTTO, Heinrich Wilhelm, third son of J. A. Otto; b. 1796. Amsterdam
+  and Berlin.
+
+  OTTO, Hermann, son of Ludwig Otto, 1859-84. Cologne, St Petersburg.
+
+  OTTO, Jacob August; b. 1764, Gotha; d. 1830, Jena. Pupil of Franz
+  Anton Ernst at Gotha; settled in Weimar; maker to the Court; worked
+  also in Halle, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Berlin, and Jena; fine repairer,
+  but made excellent violins and violoncellos. His five sons all
+  became violin makers.
+
+  OTTO, Ludwig, son of Georg August Gottfried Otto; b. 1821, Jena;
+  1887, St Petersburg, Cologne, St Petersburg. He exhibited three
+  violins, a viola, violoncello, and double-bass, in London, 1862.
+  They were all well made, and were moderately priced.
+
+  OTTO, Louis, son of Carl August Otto; b. July 15, 1844,
+  Ludwigslust. Pupil of his father in Ludwigslust, 1860-65; in
+  Cologne, 1865-66, then went to Hanover, 1872; then still there
+  (1898); careful in selection of wood; large Stradivari pattern;
+  excellent work; has made 238 violins, and many tenors and ’cellos.
+  First prizeman, Chicago and Melbourne.
+
+  OUVRARD, Jean. 1725-46; pupil of Claude Pierray. Transition maker,
+  but true violoncello pattern, though continued to make viols.
+
+
+  PACHERELE, Michel. A maker in Paris in 1779; followed Guersan;
+  slightly arched; yellow varnish.
+
+  PACHERELE, Pierre. 1803, Mirecourt; 1871, Nice; fellow-apprentice
+  of J. B. Vuillaume at Mirecourt; worked at Genoa, and with
+  Pressenda, Turin; made a great many violins, altos, and
+  violoncellos, all of good workmanship; varnish too thick; took
+  Stradivari for his model; a clever repairer.
+
+  PACQUET. From Aix; working in Marseilles in 1785.
+
+  PADEWET, Johann. A good maker; d. about 1874; started at Basle,
+  1844, but moved to Carlsruhe.
+
+  PADEWET, Johann, son of Johann Padewet; b. Aug. 23, 1851-95,
+  Carlsruhe. Hanover, Berlin, under Aug. Riechers till 1874. Assisted
+  by two workmen, he makes forty to fifty instruments (violins,
+  violas, and violoncellos) a year, on the Stradivari pattern, using
+  oil varnish of reddish-yellow or golden-brown colour; good repairer.
+
+  PAGANI, Gian Battista. Cremona, 1747.
+
+  PAGANONI, Antonio. Working in Venice in eighteenth century.
+
+  PAGEOT (Pajeot), son of Louis Simon Pageot; b. Jan. 25, 1791,
+  Mirecourt; d. there Aug. 24, 1849. A maker of bows. In his
+  workshops about 8000 dozens of bows were turned out at prices
+  varying from 6d. to 14s.
+
+  PALATE. Liège, 1710; Italian pattern; excellent instruments.
+
+  PALMA, Paolo. Lucca, 1760.
+
+  PAMPHILON, Edward. A maker in London, on London Bridge, about
+  1680-90. (_See_ p. 124.)
+
+  PANDOLFI, Antonio. Venice, 1700-20; good; yellow-brown varnish.
+
+  PANORMO, Edward, either a son or a grandson of Vincenzo Panormo; he
+  worked both in London and in Ireland.
+
+  PANORMO, George. London. Probably a grandson of Vincenzo Panormo.
+
+  PANORMO, George Lewis, second son of Vincenzo Panormo. Very good
+  bows; fine guitars and a few good fiddles.
+
+  PANORMO, Joseph, eldest son of Vincenzo Panormo. London. Died in
+  great poverty; good workman; violoncellos excellent.
+
+  PANORMO, Vincenzo (known as “old Panormo”), b. Nov. 30, 1734,
+  Monreale, a village near Palermo, Sicily; d. 1813, London. Began
+  at sixteen; worked in England, Ireland, and Paris; perhaps with
+  Bergonzi in Cremona; excellent maker; powerful tone; Stradivari
+  pattern; clear yellow varnish; also guitars.
+
+  PANZANI (Pansani), Antonio. Rome, 1735-85; good maker.
+
+  PAQUOTTE Frères. Henri Félix, 1857, and Placide, 1864, sons of Jean
+  Baptiste Paquotte, to whose business they succeeded in July 1888.
+  Paris; a few violins; excellent in tone, but firm chiefly repaired.
+
+  PAQUOTTE, Jean Baptiste. Nephew of Sébastien Paquotte; one of the
+  best Paris makers of the day, 1860-88.
+
+  PAQUOTTE, Sébastien. Mirecourt, 1800-63, Paris. In 1830 he founded
+  the business in Paris.
+
+  PARALDIC. 1722.
+
+  PARDI. Paris, 1788.
+
+  PARDINI, Bastiano. 1700.
+
+  PARIS, Claude. Paris, 1775. In 1816 was joined by his nephew;
+  spirit varnish, a red-yellow colour.
+
+  PARKER, Daniel. London, 1740-85. A very clever workman, possibly a
+  pupil of Urquhart or Pamphilon. Red varnish, wood excellent, tone
+  clear and powerful. He made largely for the trade; his instruments
+  are often sold under other names; no viola or violoncello of his
+  known. About 1793 instruments valued at five guineas each; about
+  1805 they realised as much as fifteen.
+
+  PARTH (or Perth), Andreas Nicolas. Vienna about 1790.
+
+  PASTA, Domenico and Gaetano. Brescia about 1700-30; followed the
+  Amati instead of the Maggini pattern; poor tone; varnish brown.
+
+  PATZELT, Johann Ferdinand. Vienna.
+
+  PAZZINI, Gian Gaetano. Florence, 1630-70. According to label a
+  pupil of Maggini; instruments are not common.
+
+  PEARCE, George; b. Nov. 16, 1820, Warminster; d. 1856, London. In
+  the workshop of S. A. Forster as errand-boy, taught violin-making,
+  and became an excellent workman.
+
+  PEARCE, James and Thomas. Brothers working in London, 1780-1800;
+  work poor.
+
+  PEARCE, William. London.
+
+  PECCATE, Charles. Maker of bows in Paris, 1889.
+
+  PECCATE, Dominique. 1810, Mirecourt; d. there, Jan. 13, 1874. In
+  1826 was apprenticed to J. B. Vuillaume at Paris, and worked with
+  him until 1837; then François Lupot died, and Dominique succeeded
+  to his business at 18 Rue d’Angivilliers; returned to Mirecourt;
+  ranks next to François Tourte as a bow-maker; at first sold for
+  16s., now price quadrupled.
+
+  PECCATE, jeune. A brother of Dominique; also made bows; worked for
+  J. B. Vuillaume; work is inferior to that of his brother, 1856.
+
+  PEDRAZZI, Fra Pietro. A Dominican friar; working in Bologna in 1784.
+
+  PEMBERTON, Edward. London in 1660; instruments ugly, but tone good
+  and the varnish fine. It has been suggested that a Pemberton was
+  the maker of the instrument presented to the Earl of Leicester
+  by Queen Elizabeth which has “J. 15/78 P.” engraved on the
+  tail-pin--supposed to be the initials of the maker and the date of
+  the year (1578) in which it was made. If so, he was the earliest
+  English maker of the four-stringed violin.
+
+  PERAULT. A maker in Paris, 1775-77.
+
+  PÉRON (or Perou), Nicolas. Paris, 1775-90; appointed maker to the
+  Duchess of Orléans; instruments well made; yellow-brown varnish;
+  Gagliano pattern.
+
+  PERRY, Thomas. A maker in Dublin, 1767-1827. He was in partnership
+  with William Wilkinson; they made good violins.
+
+  PERSOIT. Maker of excellent bows in Paris. He made for J. B.
+  Vuillaume, 1823-41; but then started a business of his own. He
+  marked his bows “P. R. S.”
+
+  PETERS, Michael. Weyberg in 1801, judging from two labels in a
+  bass-viol of seven strings; the first runs: “Dieses Instrument ist
+  gemacht, anno 1627,” the second is “Arranschirt von Michael Peters
+  in Weyberg, anno 1801.”
+
+  PETZ. Fussen, Bavaria, 1770.
+
+  PEZZARDI. Brescia, 1580-1610; violins similar to those of Maggini;
+  sometimes sold as Maggini.
+
+  PFAB. Hamburg.
+
+  PFRETZSCHNER, Carl Friedrich, son of Johann Gottlob Pfretzschner.
+  Worked in Cremona; no great merit.
+
+  PFRETZSCHNER, Johann Gottlob. Cremona, 1794; not good.
+
+  PFRETZSCHNER. Neukirchen.
+
+  PICHOL. Paris.
+
+  PICINO. Padua, 1712; instruments arched; dark varnish.
+
+  PIERRARD, Louis, 1890. A maker of excellent violins, with red-brown
+  varnish, and of good tone, Brussels; pupil of Mougenot, but started
+  his own business in 1883; wrote “Traité de lutherie.”
+
+  PIERRAY (or Pierret), Claude. A contemporary of Boquay; he worked
+  in Paris about 1700-30.
+
+  PIETE (PICTE), Noel. Paris, 1760-1810; beautifully finished
+  workmanship.
+
+  PILLEMENT, F. Paris, 1790-1820; capricious maker; dark varnish.
+
+  PILOSIO, Francesco. Gorizia in 1748.
+
+  PIQUE, François Louis; b. 1758 at Rorei, near Mirecourt; d. 1822,
+  Charenton St Maurice. Went to Paris in 1777.
+
+  PIROT, Claude. Paris, 1800-20; good violins, Italian pattern;
+  bellies slightly arched, backs hardly at all; the sound-holes well
+  cut; varnish thick, red-brown or pale yellow colour.
+
+  PITET (or Pilet). A maker in Paris latter part of the seventeenth
+  century; no great value.
+
+  PIZZURMUS (Pozzurnus), David. Genoa, 1760.
+
+  PLACK (Plach), Francis. Schœnbock, Bohemia, 1740-80; good violins.
+
+  PLANE, W. Glasgow, 1860.
+
+  PLANI, Agostino de. Genoa in 1778; commonplace.
+
+  PLATNER, Michele. A Swiss; working in Rome in 1747; fair
+  workmanship; rather arched; scroll well cut; varnish golden-red.
+
+  PLUMEREL. Was working in Paris in 1740.
+
+  PLUMEREL, Charles. Angers, France, in 1822.
+
+  POIROS, Louis. French maker.
+
+  POIRSON, Eloph. Paris, 1875-89; first an amateur, afterwards made
+  for the trade; good work.
+
+  POLIS. Luca de. Cremona in 1751.
+
+  POLLUSCA (Pollusha), Antonio. Rome in 1751.
+
+  PONS, César. Grenoble, 1780-1820; violins large size, arched; work
+  not good.
+
+  POLRON, Peeter. A double-bass used in the Cathedral of Antwerp is
+  dated 1647.
+
+  POSTACCHINI, Andrea. Firmo, 1824; excellent maker, and good
+  repairer of instruments.
+
+  POSTIGLIONE, Vincenzo. 1835 at Naples; good maker, and made many
+  instruments, which rise every year in value.
+
+  POWELL, Royal and Thomas. Two brothers who worked in London,
+  1770-1800; employed by William Forster, and his son, William
+  Forster; work neat and good.
+
+  PRESSENDA, Giovanni Francesco; b. 1777, Turin; d. there, 1854.
+  Was the son of a strolling fiddler, Raffaele Pressenda; went to
+  Cremona; there studied violin-making under Lorenzo Storioni; learnt
+  there to make the varnish for which his violins were afterwards
+  noted; Stradivari pattern, not much arched, sound-holes well
+  cut, proportions correct, wood good, but scrolls rather roughly
+  finished; red-brown varnish of excellent quality.
+
+  PRESTON, John. York, 1785-95.
+
+  PREVÔT (or Prevost), P. Charles. Paris from 1775-89.
+
+  PRIEUR, Claude Edme Jean. Paris, 1775-89.
+
+
+  QUINOT, Jacques. Paris, 1660. Mentioned in 1680 as being “one of
+  the most clever of the honourable luthiers of Paris.”
+
+
+  RACCERIS. Mantua, 1670; similar to the Gagliano family, with one of
+  whom he is said to have been in partnership.
+
+  RAFFAELLE, Nella (or Della). Brescia, 18th century; pattern
+  of Maggini; his instruments have the sides ornamented with
+  inscriptions; brown varnish; no great merit.
+
+  RAMBAUX, Claude Victor, 1806-71; at Darney in the Vosges; d. at
+  Mirecourt. Went to Caen and worked under Thibout, 1824-27; then to
+  Paris, where he worked with Gand; great repairer and adapter of old
+  instruments by cutting down.
+
+  RAMFPLER, Franz, 1834-90, Munich; pupil of Andreas Engleder,
+  Munich; used his own invented varnish; made good fiddles.
+
+  RANCE, Thomas. Brussels, about 1680-85.
+
+  RANTA, Pietro. Brescia, 1733; Amati pattern.
+
+  RASURA, Vincenzo. Lugo, 1785.
+
+  RAU, J. F. Nuremberg; exhibited at Munich in 1854 a violin of good
+  though rather coarse tone.
+
+  RAUCH, Breslau, and Rauch of Würzburg, two brothers, 1730-60; good
+  violins; used their own models; varnish red; tone sound.
+
+  RAUCH, Jacob. Mannheim, 1720-50; good work; violins Stainer tone;
+  excellent altos, violoncellos, and double-basses.
+
+  RAUCH, Sebastian, 1725-90 Hamburg, and Leitmeritz in Bohemia;
+  violins arched, not remarkable.
+
+  RAUT, Jean. Bretagne; who worked in Rennes till about 1790; pattern
+  of Guarneri; red varnish.
+
+  RAUTMANN. Brunswick.
+
+  RAWLINS. London in 1779.
+
+  RAYMAN, Jacob; b. in the Tyrol, but settled in London about 1620-48.
+
+  RAZENZO, Carole. Barcelona, 1690.
+
+  REALLI, Cosmo Battista. Parma, 1667.
+
+  RECHIARDINI, Giovanni (called “Zuano”). Venice, 18th century.
+
+  REGNAUT (Renault), Jacques. Paris, 1665-85; a little pocket-violin,
+  with silver purfling, was dated 1682; maker to the King.
+
+  REICHEL, Johann Conrad, brother of Johann Gottfried. Neukirchen in
+  1779.
+
+  REICHEL, Johann Gottfried, brother of Johann Conrad. Absam; pupil
+  of Stainer; work rough; red-brown varnish of poor quality.
+
+  REMY. A French maker; 1840, Paris and London; Italian pattern; wood
+  artificially aged.
+
+  REMY, Hippolyte, eldest son of Jean Mathurin Remy. 1835-70 in
+  Paris; no great merit.
+
+  REMY, Jean Mathurin, son of Mathurin François Remy; b. 1770, Paris;
+  d. 1854; his work same as father’s; oil varnish.
+
+  REMY, Jules Hippolyte, second son of Jean Mathurin Remy; b. 1813,
+  Paris; d. 1876.
+
+  REMY, Mathurin François, 1775-91, Paris; yellow-brown varnish.
+
+  RENAUDIN, Léopold; b. 1749, at Mirecourt; guillotined, May 7,
+  1795. He settled in Paris, living in the Rue St Honoré from 1776
+  till his death at the sign of “Aux amateurs”; fairly good violins,
+  but too much arched; varnish almost black in colour; excellent
+  double-basses.
+
+  RENAULT, Nicolas. A French maker, 16th century.
+
+  RENAULT, Sébastien. Paris, 1775-1805. Cithers of his are known
+  dated 1779, 1786, and 1804; a violin is described as made on a
+  good pattern, with yellow varnish of fair quality; worked with F.
+  Chatelain. Advt.: “Renault et Chatelain, luthiers, font et vendent
+  louent, achètent et raccommodent toutes sortes d’instruments de
+  musique, etc., à Paris.”
+
+  RENISTO. Cremona, 1735-40; pupil of Carlo Bergonzi, whose work he
+  copied closely.
+
+  RESLE, Andrea. Fiesso in 1740; good.
+
+  REYNAUD, André. Tarascon, 1754-66; good violoncellos.
+
+  RICHARDS. London.
+
+  RICHELME, A. Marius. Marseilles; curves of the upper and lower
+  bouts almost returning to the ancient viol-shape. He published in
+  Marseilles, 1868: “Etudes et observations sur la lutherie ancienne
+  et moderne.”
+
+  RICOLAZZI, Lodovico, 1729.
+
+  RIECHERS, 1836, Hanover; d. 1893, Berlin. Was first a pupil
+  of L. Bausch at Leipzig, then moved to Berlin in 1872, at the
+  special request of the violinist, Joseph Joachim; made excellent
+  instruments on the Stradivari and Guarneri patterns; about 1000
+  violins and over 200 violoncellos were made in his workshop.
+
+  RIESS. A maker, Bamberg, about 1740-60; fair maker; Stainer pattern.
+
+  RINALDI, Benedetto Gioffredo, Pupil of Pressenda; d. 1890. Turin.
+
+  RIVOLTA, Giacomo. Milan, 1822. Good work.
+
+  ROCCA, Giuseppe Antonio. Turin, 1835-55; worked at one time for
+  Pressenda; Stradivari pattern; varnish is poor quality.
+
+  RÖSCHER, C. H. W. Bremen, 1871.
+
+  ROGER, G. Montpellier, 1820.
+
+  ROGERI, Gian Battista; b. Bologna, 1650. Cremona, under Nicolo
+  Amati; Stradivari was a fellow-pupil of his.
+
+  ROISMANN, Johann. Breslau, 1680.
+
+  ROL. Paris, 1753.
+
+  ROMANO, Pietro. Pavia, 18th century.
+
+  ROMARINI, Antonio. Cremona, 18th century.
+
+  ROMBOUTS, Pieter. Amsterdam, 1705-35; he made violins, violas, and
+  violoncellos, much arched; bright but thick varnish.
+
+  ROOK, Joseph. London, about 1777-1830; good work; Forster pattern.
+
+  ROPIQUET. Paris, 1810-30; he was an orchestral player; made some
+  violins of no great value.
+
+  ROSIERO, Rocco. Cremona, early part of 18th century.
+
+  ROSIO, Paolo. 1857, Verolanuova; Brescia.
+
+  ROTA, Giovanni. Cremona, 1800-10; rough work; varnish yellow.
+
+  ROTA, Giuseppe Antonio. Turin, 1825; his work similar to that of
+  Pressenda; varnish is red-brown.
+
+  ROTH, Johann and Christian. Both about 1675, the former at
+  Darmstadt and the latter at Augsburg.
+
+  ROTTENBROUCK. Brussels, 1700-25; pattern of Amati; red-brown
+  varnish.
+
+  ROVETTA, Antonio. Bergamo, 1840-70.
+
+  ROZE. Orléans, 1755-65; good workmanship; varnish yellow.
+
+  RUGGERI (Rugieri), Francesco. 1668-1720. Was the first of a family
+  of makers in Cremona, very often confused with Rogeri of Brescia.
+  (_See_ p. 50.)
+
+  RUGGERI (Rugieri), Giacinto, son of Francesco Ruggeri; b. in
+  Cremona.
+
+  RUGGERI (Rugieri), Guido. Cremona about 1720.
+
+  RUGGERI (Rugieri), Pietro Giacomo and Giovanni Battista. Both
+  working in Brescia about 1700-25.
+
+  RUGGERI (Rugieri), Vincenzo, son of Francesco Ruggeri. Cremona
+  about 1700-30, is also said to have worked in Brescia. He made many
+  altos and violoncellos; work rough; last member of this family to
+  make violins. He also used “il Per” on his labels, for the same
+  reason, probably, viz., to distinguish his work from that of the
+  Rogeri of Brescia.
+
+  RUGGERI, Gianbattista. Cremona, _cir._ 1693.
+
+  RUPPERT, Johann Heinrich. Erfurt about 1720. His violins, altos,
+  and violoncellos were of a flat model, without linings, corner
+  blocks, or purfling; loud tone, and dark brown varnish.
+
+
+  SACCHINI, Sabattino. Pesaro in 1686.
+
+  SACQUIN. Paris about 1830-60; instruments well made, especially the
+  double basses; followed the Stradivari pattern.
+
+  SAINT-PAUL, Antoine. Paris, about 1765-90. He was son-in-law and
+  successor of Louis Guersan; his advertisement says, “Il fait
+  et vend toutes sortes d’instruments de musique sçavoir; violons
+  de Cremone, violons de sa façon et de toutes sortes d’auteurs;
+  alto-violas, basses et contrebasses.”
+
+  SAINT-PAUL, Pierre. Paris, 1740.
+
+  SAJOT. Paris, 1730-35; instruments with flat backs; varnish
+  yellow-brown; the work poor.
+
+  SALINO, J. B. Rome in 1760; very arched; varnish bad, brown.
+
+  SALLE, le Père. Paris about 1825-53. He made a few violins;
+  beautiful copies of Guarneri; fine repairer and great connoisseur.
+
+  SALOMON, Jean Baptist Deshayes. Rheims, 1747-70 (?); went to
+  Paris, where his widow carried on the firm, employing Namy; later
+  he settled in the Rue de l’Arbre-sec (about 1769). He died before
+  1772, for in that year Namy is mentioned as working for the
+  widowed Madame Salomon. He made few violins, but they show good
+  work, and are on a similar pattern to those of Louis Guersan, his
+  contemporary; they have yellow-brown varnish; unequal maker; some
+  good violoncellos and bass viols.
+
+  SALZARD, F. Paris.
+
+  SANONI, Giovanni Battista. Verona, 1740; instruments much arched;
+  rose-coloured varnish; good work.
+
+  SANTAGIULIANA, Giacinto. Venice, 1830.
+
+  SANTE, Pesaro. 1670.
+
+  SANTE, Giuseppe. Rome, 1778.
+
+  SANTO, Giovanni. Naples, 1700-30; copied Amati; small pattern; well
+  made; varnish poor.
+
+  SANTO SERAFINO; b. at Udine; worked in Venice about 1710-48. (_See_
+  p. 90.)
+
+  SANZO SANTINO (Santo Sentino). Milan, 18th century; good; resembles
+  Grancino.
+
+  SARACENI, Domenico. Florence, 17th century.
+
+  SARAILLAC, François. Lyons, 1678-1712.
+
+  SASSANO. Fine Italian maker; rarely met with; yellow varnish;
+  beautiful free tone.
+
+  SAUNIER, Edmond. 1754-80, Bordeaux and Paris. Was a pupil of
+  Lambert of Nancy, the “Carpenter,” but did superior work.
+
+  SAVANI, Giuseppe. Carpi, 1809.
+
+  SAWITZKI (Sawicki), Nicolaus; b. 1792, Poland; d. 1850; settled in
+  Vienna; good.
+
+  SCARAMPELLA, Giuseppe, son of Paolo Scarampella; 1838-80 (?),
+  Brescia, Paris, Florence. He restored the viola and the famous
+  violoncello of Stradivari kept in the Istituto Musicale of
+  Florence, and in 1884 succeeded Castellani as keeper of the
+  collection of instruments there; makes new instruments, following
+  the Stradivari or Guarneri del Gesù patterns; tone clear and
+  strong; the work carefully done; reddish oil varnish.
+
+  SCARAMPELLA, Paolo; b. Sept. 25, 1803, Brescia; d. April 7, 1870. A
+  carpenter by trade, but made many violins, violoncellos, guitars,
+  and mandolines.
+
+  SCARAMPELLA, Stefano, son of Paolo Scarampella. Brescia, 1843;
+  settled in Mantua; made many good violins.
+
+  SCHAENDL, Anton. Mittenwald, 1753.
+
+  SCHEINLEIN, Johann Michael, son and pupil of Matthäus Friedrich
+  Scheinlein; 1751, Langenfeld; large Stainer pattern, but avoided
+  the arching; full and pleasant tone; but wood not being thick
+  enough, so not durable.
+
+  SCHEINLEIN, Matthäus Friedrich, 1710, Langenfeld in Franken
+  (Franconia); d. there, 1771. A violinist, but taking great interest
+  in violin-making, began by repairing old instruments and finished
+  by making new ones; much arched; dark brown varnish; work careful.
+
+  SCHELMAYER, Christian. Cologne.
+
+  SCHLICK, Leipzig.
+
+  SCHMIDT. Cassel, 1817; Stradivari pattern, but edges are larger and
+  purfling not so close to the sides; spirit varnish; wood of bad
+  quality.
+
+  SCHMIED. Vienna, 18th century.
+
+  SCHÖNFELDER, Johann Adam. Neukirchen in 1743.
+
+  SCHONGER, Franz. Erfurt, 18th century; fairly good.
+
+  SCHONGER, Georg, son of Franz Schonger. Erfurt; better than his
+  father, and left some good violins; Italian pattern; good repairer.
+
+  SCHORN, Johann Paul; 1680-1716, Innsbrück; made excellent violins;
+  much arched; good varnish.
+
+  SCHÜNEMANN, Otto. German; appointed Director of the School of
+  Violin-Making at Schwerin.
+
+  SCHULZ, Peter. Ratisbon, 1854; German school; good.
+
+  SCHUSTER, Gebrüder. Brothers who make cheap fiddles, 75s., good
+  tone, at Markneukirchen.
+
+  SCHUSTER, Michael. Also connected with the business in
+  Markneukirchen, Saxony.
+
+  SCHWARTZ, Bernard. French maker who settled at Strasburg,
+  1795-1822; two sons, both makers.
+
+  SCHWARTZ, Georges Frédéric; 1785-1849; and Théophile Guillaume,
+  1787; Strasburg, 1861, sons of Bernard Schwartz. Pupils of
+  their father, and at his death succeeded to his business, which
+  became “Frères Schwartz.” Théophile was chiefly concerned in the
+  instrument-making, Georges gave his time to making bows; he gained
+  a well-merited reputation. His bows are generally marked near the
+  nut with “Schwartz, Strasbourg.”
+
+  SCHWARTZ, Théophile Guillaume, son of Théophile Guillaume Schwartz;
+  b. Sept. 3, 1821. In 1852 he succeeded to the business in Strasburg
+  at 2 Place Saint-Thomas; chiefly repairer.
+
+  SCHWEIZER, Johann Baptist. Budapest, 1798-1875; pupil of Geisenhof
+  in Vienna; his violins not arched; work neat.
+
+  SEGHER, Girolamo; b. 1646. Was a pupil of Nicola Amati, and was
+  working under him, 1680-82.
+
+  SENI, Francesco. Florence in 1634.
+
+  SERASATI, Domenico. Naples, 1710-50; fair.
+
+  SICILIANO (Ciciliano), Antonio. Venice about 1600. A tenor and a
+  bass viola da gamba in the Modena Museum, Vienna.
+
+  SICILIANO, Gioacchino, son of Antonio Siciliano. Venice about 1680.
+
+  SILVESTRE, Hippolyte; 1808, Saint-Nicolas-du-Port (Meurthe); 1879,
+  Sommerviller, near Nancy. Was first a pupil of Blaise at Mirecourt,
+  then of J. B. Vuillaume at Paris.
+
+  SILVESTRE, Pierre, brother of Hippolyte; b. Aug. 9, 1801, at
+  Sommerviller, near Nancy; d. 1859, Lyons. Was also a pupil of
+  Blaise at Mirecourt, then went to Paris; worked with Lupot;
+  excellent violins; made about 350 instruments, bearing his label:
+  “Pierre Silvestre à Lyon, 185--.” When working with his brother,
+  the label used was: “Petrus et Hippolytus Silvestre fratres
+  fecerunt Lugdun.”
+
+  SIMON. Salzburg, 1722.
+
+  SIMON, Claude. Paris, 1733-88.
+
+  SIMON, P.; b. 1808, Mirecourt. Went to Paris in 1838, where he
+  worked for some months under D. Peccate; then to J. B. Vuillaume;
+  made most excellent bows, and generally marked them with “Simon,
+  Paris,” near the nut.
+
+  SIMONIN, Charles. Mirecourt. Was apprenticed to J. B. Vuillaume at
+  Paris, and became one of his most able workmen. In 1841 he settled
+  in Geneva, then went to Toulouse; excellent maker.
+
+  SIMOUTRE, Nicolas. 1788, Mirecourt; d. 1870, at Metz. His son,
+  Nicolas Eugène, was also a maker.
+
+  SIMOUTRE, Nicolas Eugène, son of Nicolas Simoutre. 1834-89,
+  Mirecourt. Was first a pupil of his father, then of Darche in
+  1852 at Paris; then of Ch. Roth in 1856 at Strasburg; worked in
+  Strasburg, Mulhausen, Basle, and Paris; a prolific writer on his
+  art.
+
+  SIMPSON, James, and Son. Were musical instrument makers in London
+  in 1794.
+
+  SIRJEAN. Maker of bows in Paris, 1818.
+
+  SITT, A. Prague, 1854. Stradivari pattern, which improve with age.
+
+  SLAGHMEULEN, Jan Baptist van der. Antwerp, 1672. The varnish a pale
+  brown.
+
+  SMITH, Thomas. London, 1740-90. Pupil and successor of Peter
+  Wamsley; fine violoncellos; Stainer pattern; rising in price. John
+  Norris was a pupil of his. Label: “Made by Thos. Smith at the harp
+  and hautboy in Pickadilly. London, 1756;” similar labels were used
+  until 1766.
+
+  SMITH, William. Hedon, Yorkshire, in 1786.
+
+  SNEIDER, Giuseppe. Pavia, 1700-25. A pupil of Nicola Amati. Violins
+  slightly arched; varnish is a rich yellow colour; instruments made
+  by Girolamo, son of Nicola Amati, have often been attributed to
+  Sneider.
+
+  SNOECK (Schnoeck), Egidius. Brussels, 1731. Amati pattern; dark
+  reddish varnish.
+
+  SNOECK, Marc. Brussels, 1744. Clever repairer.
+
+  SOCCHI, Vincenzo. Bologna, 1661.
+
+  SOCQUET, Louis. Paris, 1750-80. Not good.
+
+  SOLIANI, Angelo. Modena, 1752-1810.
+
+  SOMER, Nicolas. Paris, 1725-50.
+
+  SPEILER. A German maker, 18th century.
+
+  SPRENGER, Anton. 1834, Mittenwald. Makes violins and violoncellos
+  on the Stradivari and Guarneri patterns; oil varnish of good
+  quality.
+
+  STADELMANN (Statelmann), Daniel Achatius. 1680-1744, Vienna, who
+  showed great ability in imitating the Stainer pattern; he used thin
+  varnish of a deep amber colour; the work is well finished.
+
+  STADELMANN (Statelmann), Johann Joseph, son of Daniel A.
+  Stadelmann; good copyist of Stainer, 1764.
+
+  STADL, Michael Ignatius. Vienna in 1770. Fair.
+
+  STAINER, Andreas. Was working in Absam about 1660; made few violins.
+
+  STAINER, Jacob, son of Martin Stainer and Sabina Grafinger. (_See_
+  p. 93.)
+
+  STAINER, Marcus, brother and pupil of Jacob Stainer; he worked in
+  Laufen, Austria.
+
+  STANZA, Giuseppe, b. 1663 in Venice. Pupil of Nicola Amati at
+  Cremona.
+
+  STATLEE, Anderl. Genoa, 1714. Pupil of Girolamo, son of Nicola
+  Amati.
+
+  STEININGER, François. Paris, 1827. Excellent maker.
+
+  STEININGER, Jacob. Frankfort, 1775. Nicholas Diehl was a pupil of
+  his.
+
+  STIRBAT (Stirrat), David. Edinburgh, 1810-15; good.
+
+  STORIONI, Lorenzo. 1751-80, Cremona. Worked at 3 Contrada
+  Coltellai; he was one of the latest, if not the last of the
+  celebrated makers of Cremona, and his instruments, though of great
+  merit, show signs of decadence in the art. (_See_ p. 88.)
+
+  STOSS, Bernard and Martin. Fussen, Bavaria; worked in Vienna; fair
+  makers.
+
+  STOSS, Franz. Fussen, Bavaria, 1750-98.
+
+  STRADIVARI (Stradiuarius), Antonio, son of Alessandro Stradivari
+  and Anna Moroni. (_See_ p. 61.)
+
+  STRADIVARI, Francesco, son of Antonio Stradivari. 1671-1743.
+
+  STRADIVARI, Omobono, son of Antonio. 1679-1742.
+
+  STRAUBE (Staube). Berlin about 1770-75. Few known, but good;
+  excellent repairer.
+
+  STRAUS, Joseph. Neustadt, 1745-50.
+
+  STRNAD, Caspar. 1750. He settled in Prague and worked there,
+  1781-95; good maker.
+
+  STROBL, Johann. Hallein in 18th century.
+
+  STURGE, H. 1811-53, Bristol; repairer, Huddersfield.
+
+  SULOT, Nicolas. Dijon, 1825-40. Eccentric maker.
+
+  SURSANO (Sorsano), Spiritus. Cuneo, 1714-35; inferior.
+
+
+  TACHINARDI. Cremona, 1690.
+
+  TADOLINI. Modena, 19th century.
+
+  TANEGIA, Carlo Antonio. Milan, 1725-30.
+
+  TANIGARDI (Taningard), Georgio. Rome, 1735.
+
+  TARR, William. Manchester, 1829-55; made some fair double-basses.
+
+  TASSINI, Bartolommeo. Venice, 1754; followed Testore.
+
+  TAYLOR, 1750, London; supposed pupil of Panormo; good instruments,
+  principally double-basses, and clever at repairing old ones.
+
+  TECHLER (Tecchler), David; 1666-1743. (_See_ p. 102.)
+
+  TEDESCO (Todesco), Leopoldo, 1625-58; pupil of Nicola Amati in
+  Cremona, 1653-54.
+
+  TEODITI (Teoditti), Giovanni. Rome, 17th century.
+
+  TERNYANINI, Pietro. Modena, 1755.
+
+  TESTATOR, “Il Vecchio.” Milan, 1520; reputed transition maker from
+  viol to violin.
+
+  TESTORE, Carlo Antonio, eldest son of Carlo Giuseppe Testore.
+  Milan, 1735-65; followed the Guarneri model; violoncellos and
+  tenors very good; varnish golden-yellow.
+
+  TESTORE, Carlo Giuseppe; b. at Novarra; settled at Milan about
+  1687, and worked there till about 1720; pupil of Giovanni Grancino,
+  for whose work his instruments are often mistaken; best workman in
+  this family, but made few instruments. When the well-known Lindley
+  “Grancino” violoncello was repaired in 1884, the removal of the
+  Cremona label exposed the original label in good preservation,
+  as follows: “Carlo Giuseppe Testore allievo di Gio. Grancino in
+  Contrada Larga di Milano, 1690.” A double-bass of his was played on
+  by the celebrated Bottesini at concerts; it had a splendid tone.
+  Label: “Carlo Giuseppe Testore in Contrada larga di Milano al segno
+  dell aquila, 1700.” He had two sons, Carlo Antonio and Paolo
+  Antonio, both violin-makers.
+
+  TESTORE, Giovanni, son of Carlo Testore, _q.v._
+
+  TESTORE, Paolo Antonio, second son of Carlo Giuseppe Testore and
+  the last maker of this name.
+
+  THÉRIOT, J. B. Paris, 1783.
+
+  THIBOUT, Aimé Justin. 1808-62, Caen.
+
+  THIBOUT, Albert, son of Gabriel Adolphe Thibout. 1839-65, Paris;
+  succeeded his uncle, Gabriel Eugène, as “luthier de l’Opéra,” and
+  was succeeded in his turn by the brothers Gand.
+
+  THIBOUT, Gabriel Adolphe, son of Jacques Pierre Thibout, 1804;
+  Paris, 1858; not as good as his father.
+
+  THIBOUT, Gabriel Eugène, son of Jacques Pierre Thibout. 1825 at
+  Paris; succeeded his brother, Gabriel Adolphe, as “luthier de
+  l’Opéra” in Paris; 1861, Boulogne-sur-Mer.
+
+  THIBOUT, Jacques Pierre. 1777-1856, Caen. First worked at
+  Caen, then under Koliker at Paris; fine maker; excellent tone;
+  workmanship rivals best Cremona style; varnish red on amber ground.
+  Advt.: “Nouveau procédé approuvé par l’Institut. Thibout, luthier
+  du roi, rue Rameau, no. 8, à Paris, 1825.”
+
+  THIBOUVILLE-LAMY, Jérôme. A little before 1867 he became sole
+  proprietor of the various factories at Mirecourt; he gradually
+  substituted mechanical for manual labour, and while increasing the
+  number of instruments made, at the same time reduced their price,
+  so that at last he was able to exhibit at Vienna in 1873 his famous
+  violins at 4s., 8s., and 16s. each. By 1887, 35,000 instruments had
+  been made by this firm. He was awarded a medal, Vienna, 1873; medal
+  of honour, Santiago, 1875; prize medal, Philadelphia, 1876; and
+  gold medal, London, 1885. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of
+  Honour, April 10, 1877, and Officer, Jan. 15, 1892.
+
+  THIN, Mathias and Georg. Vienna, 18th century; good.
+
+  THIR, Johann Georg. Vienna, 1791.
+
+  THOMASSIN. Worked under Clément at Paris, 1825-45; good.
+
+  THOMPSON (Thomson), Robert. London, at the sign of the
+  “Bass-Violin,” in St. Paul’s Churchyard, 1749-64; Stainer pattern.
+  He was succeeded by his sons, Charles and Samuel, who worked about
+  1775-85.
+
+  THOROWGOOD, Henry. London, 18th century. Label: “Made and sold by
+  Henry Thorowgood at the Violin and Guitar under the North Piazza of
+  the Royal Exchange, 17--, London.”
+
+  THUMHARDT, Munich and Straubing in the 18th century; German style.
+
+  TIELKE, Joachim. One of a family of makers. Hamburg, 1539-1701. He
+  was celebrated for the lutes, theorbos, guitars, and especially the
+  viols of all kinds which he made, of very fine tone, ornamented
+  with the richest and most varied inlaid work; one violin of his is
+  also mentioned.
+
+  TILLEY, Thomas. London, 1774.
+
+  TIPHANON (Thiphanon), Jean François. Paris, 1775-1800.
+
+  TIRLER, Carlo. Bologna, 18th century.
+
+  TOBIN, Richard. London, 1790-1840; pupil of Perry, Dublin; worked
+  for John Betts; followed the Stradivari or Guarneri patterns; good
+  maker. A son of his was also a maker.
+
+  TODINI, Michele, 1625. Lived in Rome; made a few violins.
+
+  TOLBECQUE, Auguste, son of Auguste Joseph Tolbecque; 1830-51,
+  Paris. He was a violoncellist; also worked at violin-making under
+  Rambaux in Paris; made a small number of new instruments; extremely
+  clever at restoring old ones.
+
+  TONONI, Antonio. Bologna, 17th century.
+
+  TONONI, Carlo, son of Felice. First worked, 1698-1739, Bologna;
+  settled in Venice. His instruments vary; they are generally of
+  a large pattern, not so highly arched as those of his brother
+  Giovanni; varnish similar to that of Santo Serafino; yellow-brown
+  colour. He often branded his monogram near the button of the
+  tailpiece.
+
+  TONONI, Felice. Bologna, 1670-90. He worked with his son Giovanni;
+  their violoncellos have a great reputation in Italy.
+
+  TONONI, Giovanni, son of Felice. Worked in Bologna till about 1705;
+  few instruments of his are to be found.
+
+  TOPPANI, Angelo de. Rome, 1720-40. His instruments are rarely
+  seen, are similar to those of Techler, but more arched; varnish
+  golden-yellow; sound-holes are cut large.
+
+  TORELLI. Verona, 1625.
+
+  TORING (Torring). Maker and repairer of violins; London, 1800.
+
+  TORTOBELLO, Francesco. Rome, 1680; Maggini pattern.
+
+  TOULY, Jean. Nancy, 1730-47. Label: “Fait par moy Jean Touly à
+  Nancy, 1747.”
+
+  TOURTE, François (“le jeune”); b. 1747, Paris; d. there, April
+  1835. Was a younger brother of Xaver Tourte. (_See_ p. 163.)
+
+  TOURTE, le Père. Settled in Paris about 1740.
+
+  TOURTE, Xaver (l’aîné), eldest son of Tourte père.
+
+  TRAPANI, Raffaele. Naples, 1810; workmanship is good; violins large
+  patterns, with prominent edges and heavy purfling; the scroll
+  Brescian type; varnish thick and of a red-brown colour.
+
+  TRÉVILLOT, Claude. Mirecourt, 1698.
+
+  TRINELLI, Giovanni. Italian.
+
+  TRUNCO. Cremona, 1660.
+
+  TRUSKA, Simon Joseph, 1734-1809, Raudnitz, Bohemia. Entered Strahow
+  Monastery, Dec. 8, 1758, taking the vows, Jan. 1, 1761. Became
+  proficient as a musician and composer, and then began to construct
+  instruments, making violins, altos, violas d’amore, and bass-viols.
+
+  TUBBS, James. A maker of excellent bows, Wardour Street, London.
+
+  TURNER, William. London in 1650; splendid wood. Label: “William
+  Turner, at ye hand and crown in gravelle lane neere Aldgate,
+  London, 1650.”
+
+  TYWERSUS. Instruments are similar to those of Andrea Amati. Nicolas
+  Renault was a pupil of his. (_See_ p. 187.)
+
+
+  UGAR, Crescenzio. Rome in 1790; work is German in character; brown
+  varnish.
+
+  UNGARINI, Antonio. Fabriano, 1762.
+
+  URQUHART, Thomas. A maker in London about 1650-80; he was probably
+  a Scotchman. His work resembles that of Jacob Rayman, with whom
+  he may have worked, and shows great merit. His violins are of two
+  sizes, some on a small, others on a large pattern, very arched, the
+  corners not very prominent, the purfling narrow and placed close to
+  the edge; the oil varnish, of a yellowish-brown or sometimes red
+  colour, is of excellent quality, and is similar to Italian varnish;
+  the tone is clear and silvery. His violins and violas are rare, and
+  no violoncello of his has been seen. Urquhart is sure to rise in
+  value, and some of his work is splendid in finish.
+
+
+  VAILLANT (Vaillot or Vaillaut), François. Paris, 1736-83; good
+  workmanship; varnish poor.
+
+  VALENTINE, William. London, died about 1877; made good
+  double-basses.
+
+  VALLER. Marseilles, 1683.
+
+  VANDELLI, Giovanni. Modena, 1796-1839; fair work.
+
+  VANDERLIST. Paris, 1788-89. Guadagnini pattern and varnish. He
+  branded his name on his instruments. Label: “Luthier, rue des
+  Vieux-Augustins, près de l’égout de la rue Montmartre, Paris.”
+
+  VAROTTI, Giovanni. Bologna, 1813.
+
+  VARQUAIN. Paris, 1742.
+
+  VAUCHEL, Joseph. Damm about 1840. He exhibited two violins at
+  Munich in 1854, which had a fine tone, and was awarded the medal of
+  honour. Hörlein was a pupil of his.
+
+  VENZI, Andrea. Florence, 1636.
+
+  VERBRUGGEN, Theodor. Is known as one of the makers in Antwerp in
+  1641 by a double-bass which he made for use in the Cathedral.
+
+  VERINI, Andrea. 1884.
+
+  VERLE, Francesco. Padua about 1590. Label: “In Padova Francesco
+  Verle.”
+
+  VERMESCH, le Père. Beaumont-sur-Oise in 1781.
+
+  VÉRON, Pierre André. Paris about 1720-50; good work; pattern
+  Italian.
+
+  VETRINI, Battista. Brescia about 1629; small pattern; wood is
+  excellent; good yellow varnish.
+
+  VETTER, Jeane Christophe. Strasburg in 1744.
+
+  VIARD, Nicolas. Versailles, 1790.
+
+  VIBERT, J. B. Paris, 1775.
+
+  VIBRECHT, Gysbert. Amsterdam, 1700-10.
+
+  VILLAUME ET GIRON. In a violin of fairly good workmanship was the
+  printed label: “Villaume et Giron, Troyes, 170--.”
+
+  VIMERCATI, Pietro. Do not confound with Gaspar, a lute-maker. A
+  maker in Brescia in the 17th century; is thought to have been
+  a pupil of Carlo Tononi in Venice; instruments arched; Maggini
+  pattern.
+
+  VINACCIA, Antonio. The head of a family of makers; worked in
+  Naples, 1766-74; pattern of Gagliano. Two sons, Gennaro and
+  Gaetano, were also makers, but chiefly of mandolines.
+
+  VINACCIA, Pasquale, son of Gaetano, 1806-81.
+
+  VINCENZI, Luigi. Carpi in 1775.
+
+  VIORILLO, Giovanni. Ferrara, 1780; followed Stainer pattern.
+
+  VIR, Hieronimo di. Bresa, Silesia.
+
+  VITOR, de. A maker in Brescia in 1740; instruments similar in
+  appearance to those of Maggini; large pattern; fine workmanship.
+
+  VITUS DE ANGELIS. Bologna, 1609.
+
+  VIVOLI, Giovanni. Florence, 1642.
+
+  VOEL, E. Mayence, 1840; his instruments follow the Stradivari more
+  than the German pattern; general workmanship good.
+
+  VOGEL, Wolfgang; d. Feb. 17, 1650, Nuremberg; instruments much
+  liked.
+
+  VOGLER, Johan Georg. Würzburg in 1749. Label: “Johann Georg Vogler,
+  Lauten und Geigenmacher in Würzburg, 17--.” His son was the
+  celebrated Abbé Georg Joseph Vogler.
+
+  VOGT. Good instruments, Vienna, in the Speigel-Gasse.
+
+  VOIGT, Martin. Hamburg, 1726. His work is similar to that of
+  Tielke. A bass-viol, the back inlaid in ivory, having Apollo,
+  Venus, Mercury, and Diana represented, was dated Hamburg, 1726, and
+  was exhibited at the South Kensington Museum, London, 1872.
+
+  VOIRIN, François Nicolas. 1833, at Mirecourt; 1885, Paris. After
+  working at Mirecourt, he went to Paris in 1855, and for fifteen
+  years made bows for J. B. Vuillaume; he obtained as “collaborateur”
+  a “mention honourable” at the 1867 Paris Exhibition; gold and
+  silver medalist, Paris, 1867 and 1878; followed the Tourte pattern,
+  but made the head of his bow less square; his workmanship shows
+  wonderful finish and elegance. He was awarded a silver medal at
+  the Paris Exhibition in 1878, the only prize given to bow-making;
+  and some of his bows exhibited after his death at the Antwerp
+  Exhibition were awarded a gold medal. He branded his bows with “F.
+  N. Voirin, à Paris”; to this was added, on those bows exhibited at
+  Paris, 1878, “Exposition, 1878.”
+
+  VUILLAUME, Claude; b. 1772, Mirecourt; d. 1834. He is the first
+  member known of this family of violin-makers.
+
+  VUILLAUME, Claude François, fourth son of Claude Vuillaume; b.
+  March 1807, Mirecourt. His son, Sébastien, was also a maker.
+
+  VUILLAUME, Jean; b. 1700; d. 1740. A maker in Mirecourt; is said to
+  have been a pupil of Stradivari, but his work shows no sign of it.
+
+  VUILLAUME, Jean Baptiste, eldest son of Claude Vuillaume. 1798,
+  Mirecourt; 1875, at Paris. (_See_ p. 110.)
+
+  VUILLAUME, Nicolas, second son of Claude Vuillaume. 1800-71,
+  Mirecourt. Worked with Jean Baptiste, his elder brother, for ten
+  years at Paris.
+
+  VUILLAUME, Nicolas François, third son of Claude Vuillaume.
+  1802, Mirecourt; 1876, Brabant. He worked with his brother, Jean
+  Baptiste, Paris; made fair instruments, and was a fine copyist of
+  Stradivari.
+
+  VUILLAUME, Sébastien, son of Claude François Vuillaume; b. 1835; d.
+  1875, Paris. He was the last maker of this family, and continued to
+  make bows on the same pattern as Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, having
+  in his possession the machine for cutting bows which J. B. V. had
+  invented shortly before his death. Bronze and silver medals: Paris,
+  1867; Havre, 1868.
+
+
+  WAGNER, Benedict. A maker of lutes and violins in Estwangen in 1769.
+
+  WAGNER, Joseph. Constance, 18th century.
+
+  WALDANER. Fussen, 1770.
+
+  WALTER, Jean. Paris, 1775-1800.
+
+  WAMSLEY, Peter. A maker in London about 1715-51. He had at one time
+  a great reputation, especially for his violoncellos. He copied the
+  Stainer pattern very closely, and also made a few imitations of
+  Stradivari instruments; but in his attempts to obtain an Italian
+  quality of tone he thinned the wood too much, making the tone sound
+  hollow. His violoncellos with thicker wood have a fine tone, so
+  have his double-basses; the latter are rare, and generally have red
+  varnish.
+
+  WEAVER, Samuel. London; known by his printed label, “All sorts of
+  musical instruments made and sold by Saml. Weaver on London Bridge.”
+
+  WEICKERT. Halle, 1800.
+
+  WEIGERT, Johann Blasius. Linz, 1721; a viola d’amore known,
+  labelled: “Joann Blasius Weigert Lauten und Geigenmacher in Linz,
+  1721.”
+
+  WEISZ (Weiss), Jacob. Salzburg, 1733-61.
+
+  WENGER, Gregor Ferdinand. Salzburg, 1750-60.
+
+  WENGER. Padua, 1622.
+
+  WETTENENGEL, Gustav Adolph. Neukirchen, Saxony, 1828. He wrote an
+  excellent practical treatise on violin-making.
+
+  WEYMANN, Cornelius. Amsterdam, 1682.
+
+  WIDHALM (Withalm), Leopold. Nuremberg, about 1750-80; imitated
+  Stainer; wood carefully chosen, sometimes too thin; the varnish red
+  colour, good quality. Several of his violins have double purfling,
+  and are branded with his initials inside.
+
+  WIGHTMAN, George. Only known by his label: “George Wightman, Wood
+  Street, London, 1761.”
+
+  WILLEMS, Hendrick. Ghent, Belgium, 1650-1700. An alto of large
+  pattern has remarkably fine wood used for the belly; the corners
+  are prominent and squared at the end; Brescian model; the neck ends
+  in a lion’s head; the outline and the beautiful finish could almost
+  be mistaken for Italian work, but the varnish is too dry. Nearly
+  all his instruments have beautiful wood for the belly, but walnut,
+  lime-tree, or plane-tree wood is frequently used for the back and
+  the sides, especially in the case of the basses.
+
+  WILLEMS, Hendrick. Ghent; some time after the previous Hendrick
+  already mentioned. He made a violoncello or bass with five strings,
+  labelled: “Heyndrick Willems tot Ghendt, 1717.” A violin, dated
+  1743, had the belly made of carefully selected pine, the back of
+  walnut, and the sides (very exceptional) of maple.
+
+  WILLEMS, Jooris. Ghent, 1630-65; a cornet-player, 1634-71. The
+  first mention of him is in August 1634; used lime-wood and
+  finely-figured maple; Italian style.
+
+  WILLER. Prague, 18th century.
+
+  WISE, Christopher. Transition maker of viols and violins in London,
+  1656; small pattern, not much arched; yellow varnish, good quality;
+  careful work. Label: “Christopher Wise, in Half-Moon Alley, without
+  Bishops-Gate, London, 1656.”
+
+  WITHERS, Edward. He succeeded to William Davis’s business at 31
+  Coventry Street, London, in December 1846. Both Charles Maucotel
+  and Boullangier worked under him at one time.
+
+  WITHERS, Edward, eldest son of Edward Withers, b. Oct. 22, 1844.
+  Pupil of his father and John Lott. Commenced business at 31
+  Coventry Street, London, in 1856; makes about twelve instruments
+  per year, on the Stradivari and Guarneri patterns, using good oil
+  varnish, amber colour.
+
+  WITTING, Johann Georg. Mittenwald, about 1775; his instruments are
+  well made; dark varnish.
+
+  WORNUM, Robert, 1742-1815. A music-seller in Glasshouse Street,
+  also a violin and violoncello maker.
+
+  WORTE, Matthias. Augsburg, 1639.
+
+  WRIGHT, Daniel. London, 1745. Label: “Made by Daniel Wright in
+  Holborn, London.”
+
+
+  ZACH. Vienna; makes good instruments.
+
+  ZANFI, Giacomo. Modena, 1756-1822.
+
+  ZANOLI, Giacomo. Padua, 1740.
+
+  ZANOLI, Giambattista. Verona, 1730; rough work; German style.
+
+  ZANOTTI, Antonio. Lodi and Mantua, 1734.
+
+  ZANOTTI, Giuseppe. Piacenza, 18th century.
+
+  ZANTI, Alessandro. Mantua, 1770; Stradivari pattern; poor varnish.
+
+  ZENATTO, Pietro. Treviso, 1634.
+
+  ZIMBELMANN, Filippo. Florence, 1661.
+
+  ZIVERGER (Zwerger), Anton. Mittenwald, 1750; good wood; dark
+  varnish; fair finish.
+
+
+
+
+                         BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+It is very difficult to define my obligations to previous writers
+and advisers when I owe almost everything to them; but I am bound
+to state specially, that without Messrs Hill & Sons’ assistance and
+counsel, and the works of Fétis, Vidal, George Hart, Heron-Allen, and
+Mr Fleming, I could not have written this book at all. The preceding
+list of makers has been largely adopted from Miss Stainer’s elaborate
+Music Primer, “Violin Makers,” published by Novello.
+
+
+ENGLISH.
+
+HAMILTON, J. A. Hamilton’s “Catechism for the Violin.” London, 1848. R.
+Cocks & Co. Fifteenth Edition, 1883, contains Preface by John Bishop.
+
+FÉTIS, FRANÇOIS JOSEPH. “Biographical Notice of Nicolo Paganini.”
+Includes a sketch of the history of the violin. Schott & Co. 8vo.
+
+JOUSSE, J. “Theory and Practice of the Violin.” London, 1811.
+
+MACDONALD, JOHN. “Practice and Theory of the Violoncello” (printed for
+Author). London, 1811. Appendix, 1815. Also “A Treatise on the Harmonic
+System, Divisions of Strings, &c. &c.” London, 1822.
+
+OTTO, JACOB AUGUSTUS. “Treatise on the Construction, Preservation, and
+Repairs of the Violin.” London: Longmans, 1833.
+
+DUBOURG, GEORGE. “The Violin.” H. Colburn. London, 1836. Small octavo,
+fifth edition. Enlarged by John Bishop, of Cheltenham, 1878. R. Cocks.
+
+MACKINTOSH. “Remarks on the Construction and Materials employed in the
+Manufacture of the Violin.” Dublin, 1837. 8vo pamphlet.
+
+PAINE, JOHN. “A Treatise on the Violin.” Printed for the Author, 1850.
+
+PURDY, GEORGE. “A Few Words on the Violin.” W. G. Goulburn, 1858.
+
+SANDYS, WILLIAM, and FORSTER, SIMON ANDREW. “The History of the
+Violin.” London, 1864. J. R. Smith, Addison, & Lucas. Large 8vo.
+
+FÉTIS, FRANÇOIS, JOSEPH. “Notice of Anthony Stradivari.” R. Cocks.
+Large 8vo. 1864.
+
+PEARCE, JOSEPH, jun. “Violins and Violin-makers.” Longmans, 1866.
+
+ADZE, WILLET. “Musical Notes,” including “Violinists” and “The Violin
+and its History.” London, 1869. R. Bentley.
+
+DAVIDSON, PETER. “The Violin.” Pitman: Edinburgh, Aberdeen, 1871. Small
+octavo. Fourth edition, 1881.
+
+READE, CHARLES. “A Lost Art Revived.” Gloucester, 1873. John Bellowes.
+Large 8vo.
+
+GOFFRIE, CHARLES. “The Violin.” Philadelphia, U.S.A., 1876. G. André &
+Co. 8vo pamphlet.
+
+SMITH, H. P. “The Construction of the Violin.” Syracuse, U.S.A., n.d.
+(1877). Roblee & Co.
+
+SCHEBEK, DR EDMUND. “The Violin Manufacture in Italy and its German
+Origin.” London, 1877. W. Reeves. Large 8vo pamphlet.
+
+BROADHOUSE, JOHN. “Facts about Fiddles.” London, n.d. (1879). W. Reeves.
+
+PORTER, THOMAS. “How to Choose a Violin.” London, n.d. (1879). F.
+Pitman. 8vo.
+
+NICHOLSON, J. “Designs and Plans for the Construction and New Model of
+Violin, and Arrangement of the New Model Violin.” London, 1880. Printed
+by H. K. Lewis. Large folio.
+
+HART, GEORGE. “The Violin, its Famous Makers.” London, 1875, 1884,
+1880. Dulan & Schott. Large post 4to and small 8vo.
+
+HART, GEORGE. “The Violin and its Music.” London, 1881. Dulan & Schott.
+
+GEMÜNDER, GEORGE. George Gemünder’s “Progress in Violin-making.”
+Astoria, New York, 1881. Published by the Author.
+
+READE, CHARLES. “Jack of All Trades.” London, 1882. Chatto & Windus.
+
+HERON-ALLEN, EDWARD. “Opuscula Fidicularum.” London, 1882. Mitchell &
+Hughes.
+
+HERON-ALLEN, EDWARD. “De Fidiculis Opusculum” II. London, 1883.
+Mitchell & Hughes.
+
+HERON-ALLEN. “Markneukirchen Arts and Crafts Book” (translated).
+
+HILL & SONS. (1) “The Messie,” (2) “The Tuscan,” (3) “Gio. Paolo
+Maggini.” Novello, Ewer & Co.
+
+CHANOT, GEORGES. “Hodges _v._ Chanot.” London, 1882. Mitchell & Hughes.
+Large 8vo pamphlet.
+
+ENGEL, CARL. “Researches into the Early History of the Violin Family.”
+London, 1883.
+
+
+ITALIAN.
+
+ZANNETI, GASPARO. “Il Scolaro.” Milan, 1645.
+
+TARTINI, GIUSEPPE. A Letter from the late Signor Tartini to Signora
+Maddalena Lombardini, translated by Dr Burney. London, 1771. R. Bremner.
+
+BAGATELLA, ANTONIO. “Regole per la Costruzione de’ Violini, Viole,
+Violoncelli, et Violoni.” Padova, 1786. A spese dell’ Accademia.
+
+PANCALDI, CARLO. “Progresso Italiano nella Costruzione del Violino
+operato da Antonio Gibertini da Parma.” Palermo, 1845. Tipografia
+Maddalena. Small 8vo.
+
+REGLI, FRANCESCO. “Storia del Violino in Piemonte.” Turin, 1863. Enrico
+Dalmazzo. Large 8vo.
+
+LOMBARDINI, PAOLO. “Cenni sulla celebre scuola Cremonese degli
+stromenti ad arco.” Cremona, 1872. Tipografia dalla Noce. Large 8vo.
+
+RINALDI, BENEDETTO-GIOFFREDO. “Classica Fabbricazione di Violini.”
+Turin, 1873. Rinaldi. Large 8vo pamphlet.
+
+VALDRIGHI, LUIGI FRANCESCO. “Liuteria Modenese antica e moderna.”
+Modena, 1878. Toschi. 8vo.
+
+---- Musurgiana No. 9. “Strumenti ad arco Rinforzati.” Modena, 1881. G.
+T. Vincenzi e Nep. Large 8vo pamphlet.
+
+
+FRENCH.
+
+ROUSSEAU, JEAN. “Traité de la Viole.” Paris, 1687. Ch. Ballard. 8vo.
+
+LEBLANC, HUBERT. “Défense de la basse de Viole contre les Entreprises
+du Violon et les pretensions du Violoncelle.” Amsterdam, 1740. P.
+Mortier. 16mo.
+
+JACQUOT, A. “Music in Lorraine.”
+
+TERRASSON, A. “Sur la Vielle.” Paris, 1741.
+
+LECLAIR, JEAN MARIE. “Tablature idéale du Violon.” Paris, 1766. 8vo.
+
+SIBIRE, L’ABBÉ. “La Chelonomie.” Paris, 1806. Brussels, chez l’Aullur
+et Millet. Second Edition, 1823. Weissenbruch. 8vo.
+
+CHANOT, FRANÇOIS. “Rapport fait à l’Académie des Beaux Arts 3 Avril
+1819.” Paris, 1819. 4to.
+
+CONTANGER (LE DR HENRI). Gaspard Duiffoprugcar et les Luthiers lyonnais
+du xvi^e Siecle. Paris, 1893. Fischbacher.
+
+SAVART, FÉLIX. “Mémoire sur la Construction des Instruments à Cordes et
+à Archet.” Paris, n.d. (1819). Roret. 8vo.
+
+MAUGIN, J. C. “Manuel du Luthier.” Paris, 1834. Roret 12mo.
+
+MAUGIN, J. C., et MAIGNE, W. “Nouveau Manuel Complet du Luthier.”
+Paris, 1869. Roret.
+
+DESMARAIS, CYPRIEN. “Archéologie du Violon.” Paris, 1836. Dentu et
+Sapia. Large 8vo pamphlet.
+
+FOURGEAUD, ALEXANDRE. “Les Violons de Dalayrac.” Paris, 1856. Leclerc.
+Large 8vo pamphlet.
+
+[YOUSSOUPOW, PRINCE.] “Luthomonographie Historique et Raisonnée.”
+Frankfort S/M., 1856. Ch. Fugel. Large 8vo.
+
+GALLAY, JULES. “Les Instruments à Archet à l’Exposition Universelle de
+1867.” Juanst. 8vo.
+
+GRIVEL, VICTOR. “Vernis des Anciens Luthiers.” Grenoble, 1867. F.
+Allier. 8vo.
+
+GALLAY, JULES. “Les Luthiers Italiens.” Nouvelle édition du Parfait
+Luthier de l’Abbé Sibire. Paris, 1869. Académie des Bibliophiles.
+
+PLASSIARD, J. A. “Des Cordes du Violon.” Lille, 1876. Danet.
+
+VIDAL, ANTOINE. “Les Instruments à Archet, les Faiseurs, les Joueurs
+d’Instruments, leur Histoire sur le Continent Européen.” Suivi d’un
+Catalogue générale de la Musique de Chambre. Orné de planches gravées
+à l’eau forte par Frédéric Hillemacher. Paris, 1876: J. Claye. 3 vols.
+4to. Edition-de-luxe.
+
+COPPÉE, FRANÇOIS. “Le Luthier de Cremone.” London, 1880. Dulan & Co.
+12mo.
+
+SIMOUTRE, N. E. “Aux Amateurs du Violon.” Bâle, 1883. G. A. Bonfantini.
+
+
+GERMAN.
+
+REICHARDT, JOHANN FRIEDRICH. “Ueber die Pflichten des
+Ripien-Violinisten.” Berlin und Leipzig, 1776. G. J. Decker.
+
+BAGATELLA, ANTONIO. “Ueber den Bau der Violine.” Leipzig, n.d. (1806).
+Kuhnel. 8vo.
+
+WETTENGEL, GUSTAV ADOLPH. “Neuer Schauplatz der Künste und Handwerke.”
+Ilmenda, 1828. B. F. Voigt.
+
+BACHMANN, OTTO. “Theoretisch-praktisches Handbuch des Geigenbaues.”
+Leipzig, 1835. G. Basse.
+
+BAADER, J. “Chronik des Marktes.” Mittenwald.
+
+ABELE, HYACINTH. “Die Violine.” Neuberg A/D., 1864. A. Zrechter. Small
+8vo.
+
+SCHUBERT, F. L. “Die Violine.” Leipzig, 1865. Merzeburger.
+
+DIEHL, NICOLAUS LOUIS. “Die Geigenmacher der Alten Italienischen
+Schule.” Hamburg, 1866, 1877. J. F. Richter.
+
+WETTENGEL, GUSTAV ADOLPH. “G. A. W.’s weil Violin-bogenmachers zu
+Markneukirchen.” Weimar, 1869. B. F. Voigt.
+
+WASIELEWSKI, JOSEPH WILHELM VON. “Die Violine im XVII. Jahrhundert.”
+Bonn, 1874. M. Cohen.
+
+RITTER, HERMANN. “Die Viola Alta.” Heidelberg, 1876. G. Weiss. 4to.
+
+NIEDERHEITMANN, FRIEDRICH. “Die Meister der Geigenbaukunst in Italien
+und Tyrol.” Hamburg, 1876. Aug. Cranz, 1876.
+
+---- Cremona. “Eine Charakteristik der Italienischen Geigenbauer.”
+Leipzig, 1877. Carl Merzeburger. 8vo.
+
+
+
+
+DESCRIPTION OF PLATES
+
+
+PLATE I (_to face page 18_)
+
+A Duiffoprugcar viol da Gamba, owned by Mr George Donaldson. This
+matchless antique is doubtless one of many, but most of the rest
+have perished; it stands almost alone as a poetic specimen of the
+phantasy of the old viol makers. It is elaborately decorated on the
+back, after the taste of the period, with an excess of ornament,
+which the fine instinct of the subsequent makers of violins rejected
+as prejudicial to tone. The habit of adopting a creature’s head,
+or a face, for a scroll long lingered, and is not unknown in the
+work of Stradivarius. In England numerous copies of Duke that have
+been palmed off as original have lion heads. These instruments were
+usually “made in Germany,” and it appears to have been a favourite
+practice there to use such carved scrolls.
+
+
+PLATE II (_to face page 38_)
+
+A Maggini violin (the “De Beriot”) owned by Mr Antonietti. The
+Maggini here given is an admirably preserved specimen of the great
+Brescian master, who, next to Stradiuarius, did more than any one
+man to inspire and define the ideal shape, from which even the Amati
+at first departed, but which Strad had the genius to restore and
+perfect. The corners, however, have been rubbed, and not in every
+case renewed, otherwise it is in as perfect a condition as can be
+expected in so old a fiddle. The scroll is cut with a care and an
+advanced finish which reminds us of the bolder Strad period, 1700-30.
+Maggini, oddly enough, was little honoured in the first quarter of
+this century, but De Beriot had the insight to discern his merits;
+and from the time he adopted him for his masterly and full-toned
+performances, the Magginis rose, and have been continuing to rise, in
+public estimation.
+
+
+PLATE III (_to face page 50_)
+
+Her late Majesty’s Amati tenor is in beautiful condition; it is
+elaborately ornamented, in lieu of the usual purfling. It was,
+doubtless, originally made to order for some great prelate; and it
+bears on its back a noble coat of arms hardly decipherable, and the
+image of John Baptist carrying a lamb (“Behold the Lamb of God!” John
+i. 36). The instrument was used in Her late Majesty’s private band
+by Mr Hann (1898). Like many old viols it has been somewhat reduced
+in size. For the loan of this instrument I am indebted to the good
+offices of Sir Walter Parratt, director of the late Queen’s private
+band.
+
+
+PLATE IV (_to face page 58_)
+
+Paganini’s Joseph Guarnerius. This is a fine and very characteristic
+specimen of the mighty Del Gesù. It is in his most powerful and
+massive style (the head almost brutal in its bull-dog strength), with
+full rich colour thickly laid on to match. Seldom, indeed, do we find
+so much varnish left on the back of so old a violin. The instrument
+has been very carefully dealt with. The story of how it passed into
+Paganini’s hands is well known. An Italian amateur, who evidently
+knew its value, lent it to the great maestro, and, after hearing its
+marvellous qualities, as drawn forth by the Magician of the Violin,
+declared that no other hand should henceforth set its chords in
+vibration. Paganini left it to his native town of Genoa, and there it
+may still be seen in the Town Hall. It was his favourite instrument;
+and the giant Joseph Guarnerius was well matched with the giant
+Nicolo Paganini.
+
+
+PLATE V (_to face page 66_)
+
+The Rode and Spanish violins and the Spanish tenor, it will be
+observed, are all inlaid. Strad was no bigot, and although we may
+confidently assert that he disapproved of all inlaying or decoration
+on the bellies or backs, and confined it to its narrowest limits
+when resorted to in lieu of the usual strip of purfling, he probably
+judged that if it did not encroach upon the vibratory surfaces much
+beyond a common purfle, it was comparatively harmless. It is likely
+that the Rode Strad, whose history I am unable to record, was made
+for Royalty or some great Prince Cardinal of the Church, the extra
+decoration being considered due to the high rank of the patron, or
+wrought in obedience to a special request. We have many evidences
+that Strad was not above pleasing the individual whims of his
+clients. He was himself an expert carver, and could inlay with the
+best of them when he chose. The Rode Strad was sold to Messrs Hill
+by M. Lamoureux, the eminent French conductor, and by them to Dr
+Oldham of Brighton. The Strad ’cello is a good specimen of Strad’s
+improved bass model. The size is brought down characteristically, and
+the comparative smallness of the upper, contrasting with the ample
+development of the lower part, gives the instrument an appearance of
+lightness and grace; whilst the delicate and somewhat narrow head,
+with its sufficiently massive and finely cut out scroll, admirably
+balances the whole to the eye with a certain “chic” quite _a la
+Strad_.
+
+
+PLATE VI (_to face page 68_)
+
+This plate contains profiles of the three Strads shown in Plate V.,
+and is interesting as displaying the variety exhibited in Strad’s
+scroll carving. The Spanish Strad has quite an Amatisé scroll, long,
+light, and very restrained, and undeveloped at the lower extremity.
+Notice the greater freedom of the Rode scroll, quite in Strad’s best
+manner. The Rode model is also flatter in the back, but the bellies
+are all flat in the approved style, after the earlier Amati groove
+had almost entirely disappeared from the Cremona model.
+
+
+PLATE VII (_to face page 82_)
+
+A Panoramic View of Cremona, taken outside Porto Po from the banks of
+the river, and engraved about 1830 by Caporali. Names of buildings,
+counting from the right of the print: 1. Church of S. Pietro; 2.
+Tower of the old prisons near the Town Hall; 3. Battisterio; 4.
+Cathedral; 5. Town Hall Tower; 6. Torrazzo, the Cathedral Tower,
+the highest in Italy; 7. Church of S. Marcellino; 8. Church of S.
+Domenico; 9. Church of S. Agostino; 10. Church of S. Lucca; 11.
+Church of S. Omobono, patron of the town; 12. Church of S. Agata; 13.
+Church of S. Ilario; 14. Church of S. Luca. Signor Sacchi, a native
+of Cremona, has kindly identified all the above for me.
+
+
+PLATES VIII AND IX (_to face pages 106, 110_)
+
+These portraits of Tourte, Lupot, Vuillaume, and Ebsworth Hill being
+fully dwelt on in the text, need no further comment.
+
+
+PLATE X (_to face page 162_)
+
+This plate of backs, bellies, and bows, has been fully explained in
+the text.
+
+
+PLATE XI (_to face page 182_)
+
+Portraits of Paganini abound. Landseer sketched a series, which,
+however, are slightly of the nature of caricatures. It was difficult
+to do otherwise. The Maestro’s features were so marked, his long
+hair so weird, the tall forehead, the wide sensitive mouth, the dark
+eyes, the ungainly and gaunt, almost dislocated attitudes of the man
+lent themselves freely to a lively and not always sympathetic or
+respectful pencil. The portrait, a rare one, here produced, hits the
+happy mean. The finest representation of him is, however, Danton’s
+small bust (admirably reproduced by Mrs Haweis’ pencil in “My Musical
+Life,” where see my biographical study of Paganini).
+
+
+PLATE XII (_to face page 238_)
+
+For a fuller list of labels, the “Collector” had better consult Mr
+Vidal’s most valuable book referred to in our Bibliography, from
+which our seven specimens are reproduced. I may observe that a
+forged fiddle may often have what purports to be a genuine label. A
+reference, therefore, to these facsimiles may be useful.
+
+Buyers should also beware of labels bearing dates _posterior_ to the
+death of the alleged makers. I have seen Stainer’s so decorated.
+Stainer labels in two different sorts of type, _i.e._, the name in a
+running type and the rest in print, are never genuine. Duke copies of
+Stainer, often very good ones, sometimes present this peculiarity.
+Notice that Gasparo and Gio Paolo Maggini never _dated_ their
+instruments. There exist numerous dated copies of Maggini--generally
+recent copies--De Beriot having brought the great Gio into notice.
+These are all frauds.
+
+Stradiuarius changed his labels late in life, using a _v_ instead
+of _u_, and spelling Stradivari or Stradivarius. This is called the
+cursive _v_. Some Stradivarius-labelled violins have all the figures
+of the date _printed_, _e.g._, 1712. These are forgeries. The last
+two figures in the real labels being always filled up in ink, which
+has much faded. It does not, however, follow that all thus filled in
+are genuine--indeed, most are frauds. A particularly favourite date
+for forged Stradivari labels is 1721.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Albani, 102
+
+  Aldric, Paris dealer, 174
+
+  Aireton, 124
+
+  Amateurs, their opinions, 225
+
+  Amati, the, 43, 44, 47
+
+  Americans, their wood, 233
+
+  Artôt’s Strad, 75
+
+
+  Balzar, great violinist, 122
+
+  Band, Charles II.’s, 121
+
+  Banks, English maker, 130
+
+  Barak Norman, English maker, 125
+
+  Bernadel, French maker, 109, 189
+
+  Betts, English maker, 133
+
+  Bisexual violin nature, 22
+
+  Boquay, French maker, 105
+
+  Bows, _see_ Chap. XI.
+
+  Buying fiddles, 235
+
+
+  Carlo Bergonzi, 83;
+    supremacy, 230;
+    gems, 173;
+    influence, 94
+
+  Charles II.’s court, influence on music, 121
+
+  Charles Reade, 180, 217
+
+  Children, their fiddles, 68
+
+  Collecting mania, 12
+
+  Completeness of violin, 7
+
+  Control of violin, 9
+
+  Convalescent fiddles, 200
+
+  Cracked fiddles, 198
+
+  Cremona city, 42
+
+  Cremona gems, discovery of, 173
+
+  Cremona influence, 94
+
+  Cross, English maker, 125
+
+
+  Dealers, _see_ Chap. XV.
+
+  Dodd, bow-maker, 133, 166
+
+  “Dolphin,” a celebrated Strad, 74
+
+  Duiffoprugcar, old maker, 12;
+    his viol da Gamba, 19
+
+  Duke, English maker, 132
+
+
+  Elector fiddles by Stainer, 97
+
+  English makers, _see_ Chap. VIII.
+
+
+  “False” strings, 156
+
+  Fendt, Bernard, 132
+
+  Fiddles and umbrellas, 214
+
+  Fiddle flukes, 220
+
+  Fiddle frauds, 223
+
+  Fiddle judges, 224
+
+  Fiddles, new and old, secret of, 227, 233
+
+  Fingerboard, 207
+
+  “Finish” of old makers, 26
+
+  Foster, the family of, 126-127, &c.
+
+  France, violins in, _see_ Chap. VII.
+
+  François Tourte, bow-maker, 164
+
+
+  Gagliano, 89
+
+  Gand, French maker, 109, 189
+
+  Gasparo da Salo, 30
+
+  Genesis of violin, _see_ Chap. I.
+
+  German strings, 158
+
+  Germany, fiddle-makers, _see_ Chap. VI.
+
+  Geronimo Amati, 44
+
+  Gillott’s Mr, collection, 217
+
+  Giuseppe or Joseph Guarnerius, 53
+
+  Goding’s, Mr, collection, 178
+
+  Golden Strad period, 73
+
+  Guadagnini, 86
+
+  Guarneri family, 51
+
+  Guild of Markneukirchen, 194-197.
+
+
+  Hart, John, dealer, 180
+
+  Hill, William Ebsworth, 133
+
+  Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 226
+
+  Horses, fiddles and umbrellas, 214
+
+
+  Ignorance and neglect, 215
+
+
+  Jaques, French maker, 105
+
+  Jay, English maker, 124
+
+  Jean and Nicolas Medard, 187
+
+  Joseph or Giuseppe Guarnerius, 53
+
+
+  Kennedys, the English, 1872 and 1885, 218;
+    makers, 124
+
+  Klotz family, 101, 191
+
+
+  Landolpho, Italian, 216
+
+  Lott, John, English, 219
+
+  Luigi Tarisio, rediscoverer of Cremonas, 179, 181;
+    _see_ Chap. XIV.
+
+  Lupôt, French maker, 106, 168-188
+
+
+  Maggini, early Brescian maker, 32-40
+
+  Mantegazza, Venetian maker, 90
+
+  Manufacture of strings process, 155
+
+  Markneukirchen, early home of violin manufacture, 186, 193
+
+  “Master” Reiter, Mittenwald maker, 192
+
+  Maucotel, French, 188
+
+  Medard, early Tyrol maker, 187;
+    _see_ Chap. XIII.
+
+  Menegand, French, 188
+
+  “Messie,” a great Strad violin, 77
+
+  Mirecourt, early home of violin manufacture, 189
+
+  Mittenwald violin manufacture, 186
+
+  Montagnana, Venetian maker, 87
+
+  Mutes or sordini to deaden sounds, 159
+
+
+  Neglect of English makers, 118
+
+  Neglect of violins, 215
+
+  New fiddles, 227, 233
+
+  Nicolas Lupôt, _see_ Lupôt.
+
+  Nicolo Amati, the best of the family, 47
+
+  Norman, _see_ Barak Norman.
+
+
+  Oliver Wendell Holmes, a letter, 226
+
+  Ouri, the violinist, 170
+
+  Over-restoration, 203
+
+
+  Paduan strings, 158
+
+  Paganini, 9-56, 182
+
+  Pamphilon, English maker, 124
+
+  Panormo, maker of guitars and fiddles, 124
+
+  Paris, Vuillaume and Tarisio at, 176-178
+
+  Parker, English maker, 124
+
+  Peccate, Italian maker, 169
+
+  Pernambuco wood for bows, 161
+
+  Personal fascination in violin-playing, secret of it, 11
+
+  Pieray, 105
+
+  Pique, French maker, 108
+
+  Prelude and postlude, 7, 237
+
+  “Pucelle,” a celebrated Strad, 78
+
+
+  Reade, _see_ Charles Reade.
+
+  Reiter, _see_ “Master.”
+
+  Remenyi, violinist, 170, 224
+
+  Restoration, 203
+
+  Revarder, Mirecourt maker, 188
+
+  Rosin, treatment and use of, 202
+
+  Rugerius, Italian maker, 50
+
+
+  Salo, early violin centre, 30
+
+  Savart’s experiments, 25
+
+  Scale of prices, 236
+
+  Secret or old violins, 228
+
+  Sound qualities of old and new violins, 227
+
+  South Kensington Collections, _see_ Kensington.
+
+  Stainer, _see_ Chap. VI.
+
+  Stainer, Miss, “Violin Manual,” 189
+
+  Stradivarius, _see_ Chap. V.
+
+  Strange finds, 77
+
+  String gauge, 154
+
+  Strings, violin, _see_ Chap. X.
+
+  Story of the Markneukirchen Guild, 194-197
+
+  Subdivision of labour a cause of decline, 231
+
+
+  Tarisio, _see_ Luigi, 179, and Chap. XIV.
+
+  Techler, German school, 102
+
+  Thibouville-Lamy, French maker, 189
+
+  Tourte, bow-maker, 164
+
+  Treatment of violin, _see_ Chap. XIV.
+
+  Tubbs, bow-maker, 169
+
+  “Tuscan,” the celebrated Strad, 69
+
+
+  Urquhart, English maker, 124
+
+
+  Varnish, _see_ Chap. IX.
+
+  Violin constitution, _see_ Chap. II.
+
+  Violin dealing and collecting, _see_ Chap. XV.
+
+  Violin progress, _see_ Chap. I.
+
+  Violin rise, _see_ Chap. I.
+
+  Violin treatment, _see_ Chap. XIV.
+
+  Viols, _see_ Chap. I.;
+    English, 119
+
+  Vision of Stradivari, 79
+
+  Vuillaume, 110, 168
+
+
+  Walmesley, English maker, 125
+
+
+                    PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH
+
+
+
+
+              _Uniform with this Volume_
+
+                          Fine Prints
+
+                     By Frederick Wedmore
+
+               With 12 Plates.      7s. 6d. net
+
+  Illustrations by Examples after Mantegna, Marc Antonio, Schöngauer,
+  Dürer, Beham, Lucas van Leyden, Rembrandt, Watteau,
+  Chardin, Reynolds, and Turner.
+
+CONTENTS: Introduction--The Task of the Collector--Claude,
+Vandyke, Ostade, Hollar--Rembrandt (Illustrations)--French Revival
+of Etching (Illustrations)--Whistler and Haden--Later English
+Etchers--Dürer: The “Little Masters” (Illustrations)--Italian
+Line Engravers (Illustrations)--French Eighteenth Century Prints
+(Illustrations)--Turner Prints (Illustrations)--Mezzotints
+(Illustrations)--Lithographs--Appendix: Certain
+Woodcuts--Postscript--Bibliography--Index.
+
+  “The ‘collector of moderate means,’ for whose special behoof the
+  volumes of the Collector Series are designed, will take pleasure
+  and find profit in the admirable guide to Fine Prints which Mr
+  Frederick Wedmore has written for Mr Redway. It maps out the ground
+  for him who would go forth on the delightful quest of rare and
+  beautiful etchings, line engravings, and mezzotints; and at every
+  turn it gives him valuable hints and directions.”--_Scotsman._
+
+  “It gives a bird’s-eye view of a large and important subject for
+  the benefit of the man of taste. Mr Wedmore is a well-known art
+  critic, and altogether a competent hand for the undertaking.
+  He discusses the work of the masters of engraving, ancient and
+  modern, including even the great lithographers.... A capital index
+  completes a model volume of its kind. The work contains many
+  beautiful reproductions from the best engravings of some of the
+  best men, rendered with admirable fidelity in the different styles
+  of line, mezzotint, and etching.”--_Daily News._
+
+  _The Magazine of Art_ says:--“Mr Wedmore is one of the few
+  professional writers in England with a truly refined and
+  appreciative knowledge of prints--possessing that more eclectic
+  sense proper for the cult. As a guide he may be confidently
+  commended to the reader, who will not fail to admire the delicacy
+  and tact with which Mr Wedmore handles the necessarily commercial
+  side of the subject. He deals adequately with the great Dutch
+  and French periods of etching, the recent revival of that art in
+  England, our great period of mezzotint, and line engraving in
+  Italy, as well as the prints of Turner, lithographs of the present
+  day, and famous woodcuts of the past.”
+
+
+
+
+              _Uniform with this Volume_
+
+                         The Coin Collector
+
+                        By W. Carew Hazlitt
+
+                     _New and Revised Edition_
+
+        Illustrated with 12 full-page Plates depicting 129 Rare Pieces
+
+                         _Pub. 7s. 6d. net_
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+Introductory--Collectors and Collections--Value of Coins--Unique or
+Remarkable Coins--Greek Coins--Rome--Continent of Europe--United
+Kingdom--The Coin Market--Terminology--Bibliography--Description of
+Plates--Index.
+
+  “Mr Hazlitt is an expert in regard to coins; his book from the
+  practical standpoint is trustworthy.”--_Notes and Queries._
+
+  “We may say at once that we have a very interesting and instructive
+  volume before us. The subject is, of course, only lightly
+  touched upon, and no attempt at dealing with any section of it
+  in detail is made. This is as it should be in a book on coins in
+  general.”--_Antiquary._
+
+  “Perhaps as excellent an introduction to the study of a delightful
+  pursuit as could have been written.”--_Daily Telegraph._
+
+  “Abreast of the latest discoveries and theories, and is sure
+  of a welcome from the general reader as well as from the
+  collector.”--_Scotsman._
+
+  “This admirable volume gives a bird’s-eye view of the whole. It is
+  clear that Mr Hazlitt is not only an enthusiast in the subject of
+  his book, but also a student whose knowledge is at once singularly
+  wide and remarkably accurate.”--_Publishers’ Circular._
+
+
+
+
+                         The Book Collector
+
+                        By W. Carew Hazlitt
+
+  A General Survey of the Pursuit, and of those who have engaged in
+  it, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time; with an Account
+  of Public and Private Libraries, and Anecdotes of their Founders or
+  Owners, and Remarks on Bookbinding and on Special Copies of Books,
+  illustrated with a beautiful photogravure of a famous sale of books
+  at Sotheby’s, square cr 8vo, art canvas, gilt top, fore and under
+  edges uncut
+
+                        _Pub. 7s. 6d. net_
+
+
+“As Mr Hazlitt shows, his field of choice is wide enough. Ancient
+typography fascinates some, but here a long purse is needed. Bibles
+and Testaments, Liturgies, Books of Hours, or similar devotional
+works appeal to others. The British Museum Library, for instance,
+is singularly rich in editions in all languages of the ‘Imitatio
+Christi.’ Books of travel, of voyages, and on topography, such as
+county and town histories, have all their devotees, and of late
+years the search for Alpine literature has become so much keener
+that some books, printed barely forty years ago, have quite doubled
+their published price. Yet even the systematic collector, as Mr
+Hazlitt tells us, often runs risks. Here, as among all things human,
+fashions and whims exist, and a particular class of literature may
+have ‘booms’ and ‘slumps,’ like certain ‘stocks’ of a questionable
+character. The books, for instance, in William Morris’s library were
+‘below mediocrity in state,’ and of little intrinsic value, yet
+they excited keen competition, and went for sums ‘which were simply
+absurd.’”--_Standard._
+
+“The subject abounds with stories, for, indeed, in a sense which the
+author of the aphorism little imagined, _habent sua fata libelli_.
+We might fill columns with curiosities about the buying and selling
+of books from these pages. Mr Hazlitt, however, is not of the
+non-literary collectors; no man could write such a book as this about
+the subject if he were. Readers, therefore, as well as buyers, may
+find ‘The Book Collector’ to their taste. Then there is the eleventh
+chapter, with its many interesting anecdotes of inscriptions;
+often the casual name or note which some purchaser or owner of a
+bye-gone time has written will be of more interest than the volume
+itself.”--_Spectator._
+
+“There is pleasure nevertheless--nay, much intellectual and
+sometimes pecuniary profit--in the pursuit, when intelligently
+pursued. Mr Hazlitt discourses pleasantly on every side of
+book-collecting, and his book will be valued by all interested in the
+subject.”--_Chambers’ Journal._
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] An unique set of instruments by the Amati family worthy of
+mention is the quintett, composed of three violins, a viola, and a
+violoncello, now (1898) in the possession of Miss Willmott.
+
+[2] This Fent is no relation, as far as is known, to the family
+working in England, whose name is spelt Fendt.
+
+[3] A popular comedy (1898).
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
+
+Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
+corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the
+text and consultation of external sources.
+
+Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a
+predominant preference was found in the original book.
+
+Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,
+and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
+
+  p61-> ‘the boy Giuseppe Gaurneri’ amended to ‘the boy Giuseppe Guarneri’
+  p105-> ‘Jaques Boquay’ amended to ‘Jacques Boquay’
+  p278-> ‘he branded’ amended to ‘He branded’
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78831 ***