Books › Chats on Violins, 1905 › scan 137
Scan 137
Chats on Violins, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 115. See the scan on archive.org.
1farewell look at the fiddle in whose company I had spent three anxious but ecstatic hours. The door of the safe was locked and secured with three huge seals, and in answer to my look of enquiry and startled query, the custodian replied:
3"The violin does not exhibit itself. An English milor had it under observation during yesterday, and it has been here enclosed by His Excellency Il Sindaco, until the English milor shall have gone away from the città. They are always causing disturbances, these English!"
5Guarnerius, like most great makers, has been extensively copied both honestly and dishonestly; his most successful imitators were Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi (1750), whose fiddles are most handsome; Lorenzo Storioni (Cremona, 1769-1799), who made the Guarneri model his idol; and Carlo Guiseppe Testore (Milan, 1690-1720), who copied him very closely.
7The dishonest imitations are very numerous and universally rough. They are generally sold as "Prison Fiddles," taking their name from the fable that gay young Joseph was once imprisoned for some of his peccadillos,
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.