Scan 11
Catalog of Rare Old Violins, Violas, Violoncellos, Bows of Rare Makes, 1921
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1FOREWORD
3IN this, the Thirty-second Edition of our Catalog of Rare Old Violins, Violas, Cellos, Bows, etc., we offer a noteworthy collection of instruments by the great violin makers of the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries.
5Our Violin Department was inaugurated in 1888, and it was the ambition of the late P. J. Healy (founder of the house), that it should be a leading factor in the musical development of America by supplying violins of highest quality, so that every violin offered in this department should be the best possible value in its class, musically and commercially.
7The violin occupies a unique position in the musical life of the country.
9It forms the foundation of the orchestra, around which the other instruments are grouped, as well as being the principal solo instrument of our concert stage, and the favorite instrument of a large portion of our people.
11It follows, therefore, that the question of quality is most important to any one contemplating a purchase. The necessity of owning a good instrument becomes obvious to every violin player before he progresses very far in his studies. Musical quality comes to be appreciated as the musical faculties are cultivated. To violin students this is of supreme importance because it invariably, sooner or later, reflects itself in the playing. The late Theodore Thomas used to say that he "could tell the kind of violin a soloist had used in his younger days, after hearing him play a few measures." By this he meant that the quality of tone possessed by the artist was a sure index of the violin he had used in his student days. If the tone of that instrument had been hard, stiff and non-elastic, that of the mature player took on the same quality; and although it might be very much improved by the instrument used in his concert work, yet there always remained that lack of beautiful tone color—that musical feeling which identifies the true artist.
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