Scan 70
The Fiddle Fancier's Guide: A Manual of Information Regarding Violins …, 1892
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Council medal to J. B Vuillaume. A decision like that was quite enough to take away any violin maker's breath for all time, and it is not in the least astonishing that B. S. Fendt died that same year! Seriously, however, that decision will remain a curious comment on the astonishing ignorance of fiddle matters which prevailed in distinguished musical circles forty or more years ago. I yield to none in my admiration of J. B. Vuillaume's fine violins, and I also know that B. S. Fendt in his later instruments tried somewhat similar ways, but to accept an honour for processes of that kind, argues as much ignorance on Vuillaume's part at that time as the jury themselves displayed, or else an unusual amount of hardihood in the arts of self advertisement.
3The instruments of almost every member of the Fendt family have for years back been steadily advancing in public favour. The beautiful character of the tone which they possess is sufficient to account for this, but apart from tone, there is a style about Bernhard, Bernard Simon and Jacob, which so forcibly recalls the finest efforts of the greater Cremonese, as to make one almost realise, in the latter's absence, what it is to have a fine Cremona violin. The varnish on his later instruments is occasionally a little dull. In his tickets his name is printed "Bernard S. Fendt, Junr."
5Fendt, Martin, London. Born 1812. This maker was another son of Bernhard Fendt, and was in the employment of the Betts firm. I have not seen any instruments which were made by him, and it is probable that he was chiefly occupied with repairs.
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