Books › Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883 › scan 260
Scan 260
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 246. See the scan on archive.org.
1curious details of a portion of the history of a so-called Tourte bow, which will give the reader some idea of the measures resorted to by clever dealers in these things. This bow had been sold to my informant quite innocently as a genuine Tourte, with the additional attraction of a name engraved upon it, which proved to be that of a musical magnate not unknown to fame, and who was director of the music for a late famous European autocrat. Wishing to part with it, its owner showed it to a dealer, who, after a brief though careful examination, found that it had been spliced under the leather, and that the lower end only was by Tourte, the upper portion being by another French maker. After passing through several hands it ultimately found its way to a no doubt delighted purchaser for, I understand, the sum of £20. Doubtless the upper portion, similarly spliced, realised somewhere a like sum. These are the pitfalls which beset the unwary amateur; fraud on every hand, at every step; great violin backs, bellies, sides, and scrolls distributed piecemeal among inferior instruments, spliced bows, &c., and all the miserable tricks that a vandalistic unscrupulousness can concoct in order to satisfy the greed of a set of locusts who care nothing for the destruction of these beautiful examples of human industry. Figs. 19 and 20 are two illustrations of bows which, although not claiming attention as being particularly accurate, will sufficiently indicate to the reader the difference between the character of the head of a "Tourte," and that, for example, of a "Stentor," another class of bow which has, in recent years, risen in public favour. These latter are very good bows,
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