Books › Fiddle frauds and how to detect them, 1894 › scan 14
Scan 14
Fiddle frauds and how to detect them, 1894
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1this, but I will allude to only one, which is well authenticated.
3On various occasions such distinguished virtuosi as H. Wieniawsky, H. Vieuxtemps, and A. Wilhelmj have played on what they took in good faith to be an undoubted Straduarius "without blemish," while in reality they were all the while performing on highly finished copies made by the justly renowned maker, G. Gemünder, of Astoria, U.S.A.
5It is true that those copies could scarcely be distinguished from genuine old masters, but they would for all that have at once been detected by real connoisseurs as imitations. This only proves that the greatest artist cannot be relied upon as a judge of an instrument with regard to its construction and origin, though he may be an excellent judge of its tone.
7As to tone, it is a certainty that in quality of sound Gemünder's violins stand quite on a par with those of the best old masters—perhaps Straduarius alone excepted—nay, some times even surpass them: which, after all, only proves that the making of first-class instruments of the violin order is not a lost art, but, on the contrary, has, during the last 20 years, been thoroughly revived, Gemünder taking the lead in the renaissance, and advancing to greater and greater perfection. Many excellent makers of the present day might be named whose works bear the impress of great ability, and give the lie to the assertion that violin-making has degenerated.
9Many eminent artists of our time possess instruments of quite modern make, which are such well-constructed and sonorous specimens that they would on no account exchange them for a sickly, worm-eaten Italian fiddle, merely to boast the possession of an instrument bearing an illustrious name. And the question may well be asked: How many well-pre-
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