Books › The history of the Violin, and other instruments played on with the bow from the remotest times to the present: also, an account of the principal makers, english and foreign, with numerous illustrations, 1864 › scan 293
Scan 293
The history of the Violin, and other instruments played on with the bow from the remotest times to the present: also, an account of the principal makers, english and foreign, with numerous illustrations, 1864
2 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 272. See the scan on archive.org.
1Here may be considered to terminate the succession and second portion of violin-makers, from Jacob Rayman to John Betts, notwithstanding the last name, as a house of business, still exists. However, as the successors have not studied the art of violin-making, they can only be considered as dealers. Mr. Arthur Betts, who succeeded to the business of his brother, old John Betts, was a teacher and professor of the violin, and held an honourable position as a performer. At his death, the business became the property, or perhaps was under the guidance of the elder son, the present Arthur Betts, who had been a clerk in a large banking establishment in Lombard Street, consequently not a person using the various tools to develop a violin or violoncello. There was another nephew, named —— Vernon, who acted as shopman in the latter years of his uncle, old John Betts, and soon after the death of the latter, in 1823, opened a house of business in Cornhill, or near that locality; but in a very few years death terminated his career. He could not make a violin, and was only the dealer. Although but few allusions have been made to the Cremona instruments in this portion of the book, yet they were gradually arriving in England during the period just noticed, and their superiority of tone created a want which the supply, unfortunately, could not satisfy; it therefore led to the debasement of genuine instruments to gratify the love of gain. Two instruments were made out of one, by taking portions—say the head and upper vibrating plate or belly—then adding the sides and lower vibrating plate or back, also vice versa, or any other mode of separation; then perfecting the whole as a violin, or whatever instrument it might be. Of late years these instruments have been brought before the public for sale, and it is greatly to be deplored that a
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