Books › The reminiscences of a fiddle dealer, 1925 › scan 53
Scan 53
The reminiscences of a fiddle dealer, 1925
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 29. See the scan on archive.org.
1Two Celebrated 'Celloists, Father and Son
3which his father lacked, and had ability enough to make a great name for himself, had it not been his aversion to travel to other countries. His friends urged him repeatedly to do this, but he delayed until it was too late. He died very suddenly one day while on a visit to the Prince Caraman Chimay. They had had a day's shooting, together and were sitting after dinner when Servais, rising to get his pipe off the mantelpiece, fell to the ground and expired. His sudden death was a terrible blow to his friends and relations.
5On the death of M. Servais fils the grand 'cello was sold to a banker, who bought it for his son and paid over £3,000 for it. He was anxious to keep the instrument in the country where its merits had been made known by these two great artistes, father and son.
7I may here mention that the work of reducing the size of these large Strads. was a most serious and difficult one; the only maker who could do it really well was one named Meningand. Although his own make of new instruments was comparatively poor, for repairing old ones he was a very king, and he had discovered some means whereby he could reduce the size of any instrument without leaving the slightest mark to shew that it had undergone such an operation. Even Vuillaume admitted his superiority in this, and latterly advised any one who wished such a thing done to go to Meningand.
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