Books › Old violins and violin lore, 1900 › scan 235
Scan 235
Old violins and violin lore, 1900
12 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1OLD VIOLINS
36th. But given the possibility of favourable conditions—time, absorption, infinite experience, and all the accumulated knowledge of the past—and given a modern Nicolo, Strad, Joseph, or even Bergonzi, and given climate, and given wood galore, and might not we expect Cremona results?
5Why, yes, with Cremona conditions, certainly, or at least a very fair approximation; and I am far from saying that we are not on the road to it.
7Until lately it has not been worth while for makers like the Hills, the Gands, or the Chanôt firms to do aught seriously but repair or parody closely for the eye the old fiddles.
9But such of Vuillaume's fiddles as have not been aged with heat and acids, and the fine £10 to £30 violins now being made conscientiously by Messrs. Hill, in proportion as old fiddles become rare and inaccessible, must come to the fore. Anyhow, players will, it is hoped, give up the idiotic folly of paying large sums for indifferent old fiddles, even with respectable names, when they can get really fine new ones for half the money with twice the tone—a good tone, too, which a very few years will suffice to mellow.
11We write these words in the interest of dealers, collectors, players, and artificers alike—indeed, it would be well worth while for collectors even now to get hold of the finest attainable specimens of new work. As a mere speculation it would be at least as sound an investment as laying down good vintages of port or sherry.
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