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Scan 205
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 191. See the scan on archive.org.
1performer "may have, as many of them have, a particular singularity or twang upon some one instrument or other, it may be the violin or some such slight business." "Now, this brave young man assumes to himself a great presence, looks big, and magnifies himself, and, though ignorant in the main, thinks himself really to be the thing which he is cry'd up for, though nothing, Nothing so." This is Mace's last shot, and I have been somewhat profuse in quotations from him, because they show in the clearest possible manner that the violin had taken a firm hold of the public ear at this period, and because his doleful jeremiad also indicates that some distinguished performers upon the instrument had made their début in musical circles in this country. After all this, the reader will not be surprised to learn that Mace, a professional musician, evidently of some distinction, classes the violin with the Jew's trumpet, and that he prohibits its use, although, at the same time, and oddly enough, he counsels the purchase of "a pair of violins to be in readiness for any extraordinary jolly or jocund consort occasion. But never use them but with this proviso, be sure you make an equal addition in the strength of the basses"—his "best provision of a good chest of viols" already consisting of two basses, two tenors, and two trebles. Of such, he says, there are no better in the world than those of Aldred, Jay, and Smith, "yet the highest in esteem are Bolles and Ross (one bass of Bolles's I have known valued at £100)"—equal to about £600 of present currency. This is the second authentic mention which we have of viol makers' names, and it appears that they were considered antiques even in his day (although one
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