Scan 278
Antonio Stradivari, his life and work (1644-1737), 1909
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 250. See the scan on archive.org.
1but what of their condition? When we come to examine each example critically, we are grieved to find so many showing traces of wounds which are not honourable ones—scars attesting bad treatment at the hands of owners and, worse still, at the hands of would-be restorers. By consent of the former, at the instigation of the latter, most dire acts of vandalism have been perpetrated: in fact, of much of this kind that has been done in the past we cannot speak without positive horror. Violoncellos and violas have perhaps suffered most, owing to their size and proportions not being in accordance with the ideas of the day—ideas in many cases absolutely erroneous. They have been cut down and mutilated in the most ruthless manner; and this was done by violin-makers who, then as now, considered themselves thoroughly competent! Charles Reade very aptly refers to this subject in his letters addressed to the Pall Mall Gazette in 1872.* Speaking of the instruments at the Loan Collection of that year, he says: "The brothers Amati are represented in this collection, first, by several tenors that once were noble things, but have been cut on the old system, which was downright wicked. It is cutting in the statutory sense—i.e. cutting and maiming. These ruthless men just sawed a crescent off the top and another off the bottom, and the result is a thing with the inner bout of a giant and the upper and lower bout of a dwarf. If one of these noble instruments survives in England uncut, I implore the owner to spare it; to play on a £5 tenor, with the Amati set before him to look at while he plays."
3Alas! how true are these words! What more shocking evidence of the truth of the charge could present itself than is afforded by the fate of the unique violoncello made by Stradivari for the ornamental set which he intended to
5* Reprinted in "Readiana."
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