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Scan 227
British Violin Makers, 1920
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 181. See the scan on archive.org.
1there were any such days at all is proof that his knowledge was intuitive rather than intellective, for had it been of the demonstrative—the two and two make four—order, he would always have been able to tell, or, at least, to pretend to tell. And had it been of the intellective order he would have differed little or nothing, perhaps, from the crowd of fiddle experts who rely more on the mathematics of their trade than on its psychology.
3Hill had all the qualifications of a great restorer: he had a perfect knowledge of violin construction, skill, patience, ingenuity, reverence, and the "artistic sense." It is not necessary to dwell at length on each of these qualifications, but I would point out as an instance of his profound reverence for the work of the masters the fact that he appreciated the absence of precision in an old instrument, and never attempted to rectify it, as an ordinary repairer would certainly do, for the sake of appearances. Some of the old makers, it seems certain, built their instruments without a mould, with the result that the curves are not always true, and the halves of the instrument (on either side of the longitudinal axis) not in exact contra-facsimile. This absence of precision in old art and craft work often imparts a pleasing tone to the general effect, but it requires the artistic sense to appreciate it. Hill both appreciated and reverenced it.
5His reverence is further shown by his very sparing use of fresh material in his restorations. No artist ever deplored more deeply the necessary renewal of parts which could not be re-set. He restored faithfully because he preserved faithfully. And this is the essence of all true restoration of art work. Imitation of old work may be tolerably faithful, but it is not old work, and it cannot be referred to as such; it is like the lifeless body, the spirit has taken its flight, and has left but the vague semblance of what it once was. And if haply any life-like spirit is infused into the reproduction, it is not the spirit of the old, but the spirit of a new life; and bears the impress of the mind, not of the ancient artist, but of the modern.
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