Scan 55
The Violin Gallery: Comprising: Section I. South Kensington Special …, 1890
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1himself; all this old man's work is done by younger men. However, generalities are useless on a subject so difficult and disputed. The only way is to get the doubtful violins or basses and analyze them, and should the Museum give a permanent corner to Cremonese instruments, this Francesco and Homobuono question will be sifted with examples. The minutiae of work in Stradiuarius are numerous and admirable, but they would occupy too much space and are too well known to need discourse. His varnish I shall treat along with the others. A few words about the man. He was a tall, thin veteran, always to be seen with a white leathern apron and a nightcap on his head; in winter it was white wool, and in summer white cotton. His indomitable industry had amassed some fortune, and "rich as Stradiuarius" was a byword at Cremona, but probably more current among the fiddle-makers than the bankers and merchants. His price towards the latter part of his career was four louis d'or for a violin; his best customers Italy and Spain. Mr. Foster assures us on unimpeachable authority that he once sent some instruments into England on sale or return, and that they were taken back, the merchant being unable to get £5 for a violoncello. What ho! Hang all the Englishmen of that day who are alive to meet their deserts! However, the true point of the incident is, I think, missed by the narrators. The fact is that, then, as now, England wanted old Cremonas, not new ones. That the Amati had a familiar reputation here and probably a ready market can be proved rather prettily out of the mouth of Dean Swift. A violin was left on a chair. A lady swept by. Her mantua caught it and knocked it down and broke it. Then the witty Dean applied a line in Virgil's Eclogue—
3Mantua vae miseræ nimium vicina Cremonæ.
5This was certainly said during the lifetime of Stradiuarius, and proves that the Cremona fiddle had a fixed reputation; it also proves that an Irishman could make a better Latin pun than any old Roman has left behind him. Since I have diverged into what some brute calls anec-dotage, let me conclude this article with one that is at all events to the point, since it tells the eventful history of an instrument now on show.
7THE ROMANCE OF FIDDLE-DEALING.—Nearly fifty years ago a gaunt Italian called Luigi Tarisio arrived in Paris one day with a lot of old Italian instruments by makers whose names were hardly known. The principal dealers, whose minds were narrowed, as is often the case, to three or four makers would not deal with him. M. Georges Chanot, younger and more intelligent, purchased largely, and encouraged him to return. He came back next year with a better lot; and yearly increasing his funds, he flew at the highest game; and in the course of thirty years imported nearly all the finest specimens of Stradiuarius and Guarnerius France possesses. He was the greatest connoisseur that ever lived or ever can live, because he had the true mind of a connoisseur and vast opportunities. He ransacked Italy before the tickets in the violins of Francesco Stradiuarius, Alexander Gagliano, Lorenzo Gaudagnini, Giofredus Cappa, Gobetti, Morgilato Morella, Antonio Mariani, Santo Magini, and Matteo Benti of Brescia, Michel Angelo Bergonzi, Montagnana, Thomas Balestrieri, Storioni, Vicenzo Rugger, the Testori, Petrus Guarnerius, of Venice, and full fifty more, had been tampered with, that ever brilliant masterpiece might be assigned to some popular name. To his immortal credit, he
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