Books › De fidiculis bibliographia: being an attempt towards a bibliography of the violin and all other instruments played with a bow in ancient and modern times, 1890 › scan 24
Scan 24
De fidiculis bibliographia: being an attempt towards a bibliography of the violin and all other instruments played with a bow in ancient and modern times, 1890
6 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1the period of which I speak. It is well within the memory of even young violinists that at one time the purchase of a violin was fraught with as much danger of fraud as that of a horse or of an "old master." It would not be seemly for me to call more precise attention to the circumstances, but it is an acknowledged fact that the action of your Royal Highness in consequence of the revelations that were made in connection with a celebrated violin fraud in 1882, has tended to purify the trade in old violins of much of the stigma which rested upon it, and to-day the amateur can place himself in the hands of such dealers as William Ebsworth Hill and his sons, and Messieurs Gand and Bernardel (among many others) with perfect confidence that his ignorance will be respected rather than capitalized.
3The history of the concrete evidences of the renaissance of the violin is merely an illustration of the eternal laws of demand and supply. The amateur (as opposed to the professional player) is ever as much a theoretician and student as a practitioner, and when he takes up the practice of a hobby, he seeks to perfect himself in its history and theory. Hence with the increase in the number of amateur violinists, a demand has arisen for information concerning the instrument, and that that demand has been readily supplied it has been the object of this work to show.
5I need hardly say that it was with great misgiving and faintness of heart that I at last discussed the publication of this work with my friend, Mr. Charles Welsh, of Griffith, Farran & Co. I had grave doubts whether even the past eleven years of constant research
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.