Books › Notice of Anthony Stradivari, 1864 › scan 86
Scan 86
Notice of Anthony Stradivari, 1864
4 lines. Read by computer on 24 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1especially of the effect of time upon the wood of which they are formed? To say the truth, this question is generally answered mentally before putting it; for I scarcely know a violin-maker who is not persuaded that no instrument can become good until it has been much played upon, and until time has deprived the wood of which it is made of all those properties which are injurious to a fine quality of tone. Now, since this is a question of facts, there are some absolutely opposed to these prejudices: the first of which is, that there exists at this moment, in Paris, a Stradivarius violin, made in 1716, which, after having reposed during sixty years in the collection of Count Cozio de Salabue, was purchased by Louis Tarisio, in 1824, and has since become the property of M. Vuillaume: but this instrument has never been played upon.* The wood of which it is made is of the choicest description, and remarkable for the richness of its waves. The workmanship is perfection, and the varnish beautiful: in short, nothing is wanting in it. It is a new violin, apparently just out of the maker's hand; and is, finally, the sole instrument of Stradivarius which has come down to us in this state of preservation. Now, this genuine memorial of ancient manufacture—this instrument which has not resounded under the action of the bow during the space of nearly a century and a half which has elapsed since the period of its fabrication—this instrument gives a striking refutation to the idea, that a free and pure tone cannot be
3* The reader will at once perceive, from the context, that these words are not to be taken in an absolute sense.—Tr.
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