Books › Fiddle frauds and how to detect them, 1894 › scan 20
Scan 20
Fiddle frauds and how to detect them, 1894
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Next comes the fixing of the neck. To give this the desired appearance of age, the peg head with scroll or lion's-head is made of a single piece of maple, while the neck and block are made out of another suitable piece of the same wood, differing in grain from the first, and the two parts are solidly glued together near the G peg; if cleverly done, this contrivance will lead to the supposition that one of the composite parts has been rendered useless and a new one substituted.
3Then comes the boring of the peg-holes, which are made somewhat larger than the pegs intended to be used, and the holes will be closed up by gluing pieces of maplewood into them. Next follows a piece of refined trickery which may well excite astonishment, if not admiration:
5After the four peg holes which were filled up with maple have been well dried, four new holes will be bored, slightly above or below the first ones, and in such a manner that a part of these will remain visible. Those parts which have remained in the second borings from the first ones will appear under the varnish, when applied, and suggest that, the first holes having been worn out in course of time, new ones have had to be made.
7Then old damaged pegs of different sorts are fitted in such a manner that they sink deep into the holes. If considered advisable that the scroll and peg head should show further damage, they are carefully seen to, and after that the neck will be ready for fixing.
9In many old fiddles it became necessary to replace the original neck, when worn out in course of time, by a new one, and in the imitation this device is, of course, not forgotten.
11The varnishing is naturally a matter of great importance, and much trouble is taken with it.
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