Books › Old violins, 1905 › scan 197
Scan 197
Old violins, 1905
4 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 177. See the scan on archive.org.
1he was a singular and most whole-hearted enthusiast. As the novelist Charles Reade (who was himself a great fiddle dealer and knew Tarisio) has well said, "The man's whole soul was in his fiddles. He was a great dealer, but a greater amateur. He had gems by him which no money would buy from him." Mr Reade then goes on to relate how once, when a splendid equipage rolled by him in Paris, the carpenter remarked, "He would sooner possess one Strad than twenty such carriages." He would stalk the back or the belly of a valuable fiddle until he recovered the whole, just as the Roman antiquary stalked the fragments of the Hercules Farnese, finding the trunk in one place and the head in a ditch miles away.
3Chanot had stumbled upon the cracked belly of a Strad violin in Spain. Ortega, the fiddle-maker, had sold the remainder, ribs and back, to a Spanish lady, fitting them nicely with a brand-new back made by himself! The precious belly caught Tarisio's eye in the shop window, and he at last worried Chanot into parting with it for 1000 francs. Off went Tarisio to Madrid, extracted from the bewildered Ortega, who had sold, the patched Strad, the required information, interviewed the donna who possessed the patched Strad, and who, after the fashion of the high-born Spaniard, at once said, "Sir, the instrument is at your disposition," which only meant that she would part with it for a consideration, or what she considered to be the good round sum of 4000 francs. This was a mere bagatelle for such a treasure, which, refitted
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