Books › The reminiscences of a fiddle dealer, 1925 › scan 44
Scan 44
The reminiscences of a fiddle dealer, 1925
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 20. See the scan on archive.org.
1The Fiddle Dealer
3Gand, Chanot and others knew that certain Italian and French makers had gone to London and wrought there, among whom were Panorma, Fendt and Macautel, but these they did not, of course, regard as English makers and their productions were well known. Not one of them knew or would admit that there were good English makers both before and contemporary with these foreigners. As an illustration of this I will mention another incident which occurred only seven or eight years ago. When I was calling one day on the largest firm in Paris, a gentleman passed me on his way out as I was going in. On the counter lay a tenor which one of the partners lifted and handed to me remarking as he did so that they had just sold it to the gentleman I had passed, as a fine specimen of the Italian school after Amati. He asked if that was also my opinion. "No," I said, "it is English." "English," said he. "Never!" I assured them that it was and the name of the maker was Banks of Shrewsbury, a man famous for all his instruments and his tenors especially. They could not understand the name as I pronounced it, and I wrote it down, when one of them immediately opened a drawer and taking out of it Hart's book asked if I would turn it up. I did so, and at the same time pointed out the long list of English makers. He and his partner admitted their mistake and asked what was to be done. They had their customer's address at
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.