Books › The reminiscences of a fiddle dealer, 1925 › scan 48
Scan 48
The reminiscences of a fiddle dealer, 1925
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 24. See the scan on archive.org.
1The Fiddle Dealer
3After trying the other two dealers with no better success I decided there and then to give up the wholesale method of selling fiddles. I brought them home, packed them carefully in their box and put them into a press where they remained for about six months. At the end of that time I was leaving home to go abroad again and on the day I was starting I remembered the fiddles and got out the case. I took two of them with me, the Ruggieri and Landolphus, and these I left with a maker in a provincial town in France, with instructions to mount them for me and put them in playing order ready for my return in a few weeks' time.
5When I called for them I could hardly recognize them for the same fiddles, they were so much improved by their mountings and had altogether such a different appearance. The repairer said he had a buyer for the Ruggieri at £24, but that I refused; the offer was increased to £32, but I would not take it.
7I brought both fiddles to London again and sold the Ruggieri for £35, and later on the Landolphus for £20 to one of the dealers to whom I had offered the lot for £60.
9The rest of the half dozen I sold at intervals, and through this deal in violins I learnt more than one valuable lesson. The first was never to shew any violin worth more than £5 in its primitive condition to any one, not even a dealer. Another was to exercise the virtue of patience
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