Books › The reminiscences of a fiddle dealer, 1925 › scan 42
Scan 42
The reminiscences of a fiddle dealer, 1925
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 18. See the scan on archive.org.
1The Fiddle Dealer
3his brother, J. B. Vuillaume, in Paris agreed that it was an Italian instrument of the Amati School, and, of course, M. Jansen was quite satisfied with their verdict.
5I looked at it again, examining its varnish and details, which did not seem to me to be Italian. I also noticed that on the table below the finger board, there was an ornamental circle cut in the wood but not through it. I had seen in London, two instruments with this same circle on the table, whose tickets bore the name of Barak Norman, and in this ornamented circle his initials were wrought in purfling. He was an old English maker and the London dealer in whose shop I had seen them assured me that they were perfectly genuine and fine specimens of the maker. This 'cello of M. Jansen's was similar in all particulars and with some little hesitation I mentioned having seen these two other instruments, and drew his attention to the circle with the initials in it. M. Jansen seemed rather put out at my remarks, though I did not assert that his was by the same maker, but suggested that possibly the English maker had copied his or some other Italian instrument. One thing was clear to me and that was that all three instruments had been made on a similar model. I passed the matter off, however, and came away. M. Jansen accompanied me downstairs and there told M. Vuillaume what I had said, but he only smiled and said that "whoever made that 'cello, it
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.