Books › The reminiscences of a fiddle dealer, 1925 › scan 36
Scan 36
The reminiscences of a fiddle dealer, 1925
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 12. See the scan on archive.org.
1The Fiddle Dealer
3its tone. If its appearance had delighted me, its tone sent me into raptures. Words cannot express my feelings, my intense enjoyment, at hearing from it the tone for which I had so long and earnestly sought. I had indeed travelled miles, going wherever I heard a good violin was to be found, but without success till now.
5That the reader may know how this violin impressed me, I will describe it, although it is now more than thirty years since I saw it.
7It was a small violin rather long in proportion to its breadth; the back was in two pieces of maplewood beautifully marked with small curls, ondes the French call them, the rims and head being similar. The table was made of lovely soft-looking pine called silvery pine, with narrow reeds in the centre, which widened as they reached the sides; but more so on the treble side than on the bass, which was a common thing in such early violins. It was well covered with a beautiful yellow-brown varnish, clear and transparent, apparently of considerable depth, although not so in fact. This coating gave to both kinds of wood—maple and pine—a fine silky look, the sheen of which changed at every turn of the hand. The head struck me as being rather large and masculine for such a small and fragile-looking body, but this I understood later to be a well-known characteristic of the maker.
9I asked Mr. Eadie several times what it was and at last he replied gruffly, "A vamped-up
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