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Scan 101
British Violin Makers, 1920
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 81. See the scan on archive.org.
1John Bull and Jean Crapaud transmogrified into the wood of Stradiuarius by merely sticking on to it? Is it not extravagant to quote patched violins as beyond rivalry in all the qualities of sound?" (Vide Fourth Letter in the Pall-Mall Gazette, Aug. 31, 1872.)
3The testimony of many more competent witnesses might be given, but it is not necessary to belabour the point. I am not quarrelling with my critics: they have as good a right to their own opinions as I have to mine, but I think if they had been better informed on the subject they would not have said the foolish things they did about the comparative merits of old and new fiddles.
5It is my earnest advice to players of moderate means, professional and amateur alike, who require a good fiddle, to spend their money wisely on a sound new instrument, made by some artist of recognized ability.
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9Repairing does not come within the scope of this work, but a few words on the sister craft will not be out of place. Good repairers are like gold, often scarce, always wanted, and much abused. They are often abused, forsooth, because they cannot perform miracles, and transform wretched old fiddles with broken voices into seraphic Cremonas.
11Repairing, I need hardly tell my readers, is a special art, requiring much skill, great patience, and a double portion of the spirit of self-effacement and of reverence for old work. The absence of the last named virtue in the repairers of the past is one
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