Books › Old violins, 1905 › scan 238
Scan 238
Old violins, 1905
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 216. See the scan on archive.org.
1excusable margin left for honest error, especially when personal interest is on the side of error.
3I have very little doubt that my old friend, the late Mr Cox, well known as an acute picture dealer, really believed in a certain violin which he called the Red Knight. He bought it at the great sale of Gillott's fiddles as a rare Joseph Guarnerius.
5I would never tell the old man to his face that his Joseph was a very plausible red Landolpho copy of Joseph, and I was even weak enough to allow it to lie on the table of the Royal Institution side by side with the "Dolphin," Enthoven's Maggini, the Emperor of Russia's Strad, a genuine Nicolas, a Joseph and a Jacob Stainer; in short, the Red Knight lay by favour for one evening in company with some twenty gems of worldwide reputation.
7In the course of my lecture, to please my old friend, I took up the Red Knight, remarking, "Here is a fine violin labelled Joseph Guarnerius, once the property of Mr Gillott, now owned by Mr Cox." I said no more.
9A few weeks afterwards the Red Knight was sold for £300, partly on the strength of my having vouched for it at the Royal Institution.
11Meanwhile the Jupiter of judges, William Ebsworth Hill, had been consulted by the purchaser, who, on finding that he had only got hold of a Landolpho, wanted his money back.
13I think they would have gone to law if they could have counted on me as a witness; but when I was
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