Scan 84
Antonio Stradivari, his life and work (1644-1737), 1909
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1one which, in our opinion, ranks amongst the finest of the fine—the "Alard," the property of Mr. R. E. Brandt. We may here remark that it would be incorrect to single out any one of these violins as standing supreme in merit, for we cannot too strongly emphasize the fact that among all the finest Stradivaris still existing there is not one which can with justice claim absolute superiority over all others. The neck of the "Alard" is original, and in the mortise of the
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5Fig. 20.
7head, still visible, are written the initials P. S. (see fig. 20). We conjecture that these initials are those of Paolo Stradivari, and they possibly indicate that the violin was one of those which came into his possession on the death of his brother Francesco in 1742.* We have found these initials marked in six other violins, all of which obviously retain their original necks, otherwise the letters would have been cut away when grafting on the new one: the most notable are
9* See Chapter X., p. 237.
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