Books › Old violins, 1905 › scan 256
Scan 256
Old violins, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 234. See the scan on archive.org.
1from the old forests of Herzegovina and Bosnia are far superior for fiddle-making purposes.
3Then think of the care and study in selection made by those old Italian artificers who frequented the Brescian and Cremonese markets, and haggled over special bits of timber. They knew exactly where it came from—the peculiarities of the soil, iron or salt impregnated from whence it came; whether it was cut as it should be, in autumn, with the sap out of it, and exactly how long it had been cut, and to what conditions it had been exposed before it came to be worked up. The subtleties were endless. Who troubles their heads about such things now?
5No! The fact about modern fiddles you, my anxious inquirer, may take it for granted is what I have stated. Take good new fiddles by Hill, Chanôt, Bernardel, Gand, and, according to the time and individual or one-man power and skill spent upon them, they will rank high, and higher by-and-by; and if ever the genius and the conditions which obtained at Cremona, anno 1700, are again found, then, and not till then, will the peers and rivals of the Cremona masterpieces be seen and heard—and paid for.
7It may be rash to attempt a scale of prices, when the experience of the last fifty years proves that we have to deal with a sliding scale. Forty years ago my father bought a rather small Andrea Guarnerius at Puttick & Simpson's for £4, which could not now be picked up under £20. No Cremona from 1660 to 1760 can be got for much less, though many
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