Books › Fiddle frauds and how to detect them, 1894 › scan 15
Scan 15
Fiddle frauds and how to detect them, 1894
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1served old Italians of the Straduarius and Guarnerius type are really still in existence and in playable condition? At the present day, surely, no virtuoso would play on a screechy Amati, or a dull-sounding, high-bellied Maggini. And the numbers of genuine and justly-renowned makers of the old Italian school being, as before stated, so small, it is surely time that the prejudice against non-Italian instruments should disappear, and the incontrovertible fact be candidly admitted that England, Germany, France, and America have, with their splendid productions, quite equalled those of the Cremona school, leaving the modern Italian, as the Americans say, "way behind."
3There have, of course, at all times existed good, medium, and bad makers in different countries; but in considering the art we must generalise.
5The number of violins actually produced by the few grand old masters being very limited, and the demand for them being wholly disproportionate, the most serious consequences followed.
7As we have seen, there were at different times very good copyists; but people were not satisfied with their good copies, they craved for the real article. What more natural then that copies should be palmed off upon willing purchasers as originals, i.e., as the actual work of such masters as Straduarius, Guarnerius, Amati, etc., sometimes with full knowledge of the facts, but often by persons who were themselves deceived—such individuals thinking themselves keen judges, and by voluble terminology, parrot-like acquired, making others believe the same; whereas in reality they possessed only the most superficial knowledge—certainly not sufficient to enable them to pose as judges in such difficult matters. But cool, unblushing impudence often effects more than true knowledge in such cases. The greatest number knew, of course, very well what they were about, and
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