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Scan 299
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
16 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 271. See the scan on archive.org.
1CHAPTER XVIII
3VIOLIN COLLECTING IN EUROPE AND AMERICA¹
5Old violins, like paintings, porcelains and other works of art, have many devotees. Because of their exterior beauty as well as tone, fine violins give unbounded pleasure, and consequently violin collecting has become a recognized artistic hobby.
7For similar reasons, violin collecting has been prevalent in nearly all European countries, commencing apparently as early as Nicola Amati's time (1596-1684). As in other things there is to be noted a very wide range of intelligence on the part of collectors, and an equally wide range in the quality of the instruments assembled.
9Some seek only the finest specimens of the greatest old makers; others search for what may be termed "speculative" specimens, that is, genuine instruments in poor preservation that can be purchased for comparatively small sums. Still others, seeking quantity rather than quality, satiate their acquisitive propensities with cheap old commercial copies, usually of German make, picked up here and there, usually with more or less interesting histories attached, and delude themselves and others into the belief that they possess genuine works of art. Generally, such collectors are blissfully ignorant of real values, but more often their knowledge is influenced by monetary considerations. The latter group is not common alone in America but to all other countries where the violin is played. Furthermore it has existed everywhere for many years. It is by far the most numerous, and since such collections have no artistic and very little commercial value, we shall not consider them here but confine our attention to real works of the masters of the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
11While we have to do primarily in this article with private collections in the United States we shall digress, for the purpose of obtaining proper background, and briefly review famous European collections because the violin itself and violin collecting as a business or a hobby originated in Italy.
13Violin playing and violin collecting may be said to have been coëxistent. About the year 1650 violin playing had developed far enough for the violin sonata and violin solo to have taken definite form. As early as 1604 a violin part appeared for the first time in an operatic score, that of Monteverde. As violin playing assumed the dignity of a profession and soloists began to be heard throughout the principal countries, popular appreciation of the pos-
15¹ Contributed to the Encyclopedia of the Violin by Mr. Jay C. Freeman.
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