Scan 19
A Review Of Ancient And Modern Violin Making, 1899
4 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1might be some grounds for contradiction. It might be urged that it was carelessness on the part of the maker, or owing to unfavorable conditions of the wood; but as a rule, the most signal failures have been directly after or preceding the most brilliant success. I have a violin now in my shop that for real tone value is not worth five dollars, yet the violin preceding it was sold by the maker for fifteen hundred dollars. The same form and wood were used, and the same care taken in the construction of both instruments. If the maker was a master, as he was probably called, why this difference in the two instruments when the conditions were the same? There is no other rational conclusion than that there must be some vital points in construction, that, if harmoniously united, would secure success for the one violin, and a failure to so unite them spoils the other.
3As the poor violins are so largely in the majority, I am forced to the conclusion that the good ones are accidents. My researches satisfy me that there never was a maker, ancient or modern, who did not realize the lack of some knowledge in his art—an elusive, intangible something that stood between him and
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