Scan 8
The Violin Gallery: Comprising: Section I. South Kensington Special …, 1890
16 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1PREFACE.
3IN presenting this work to the public it is not my purpose to undertake to reveal anything new in the old violin world, but there is certainly an unoccupied field which I hereby take possession of.
5The student of this interesting and fascinating art may read over and over again the descriptions given in the standard works, but without the opportunity of examining the real instrument or seeing a fac simile of the same, he cannot acquire any knowledge that will aid him in the least to discriminate between the genuine and even the ordinary and very numerous imitation.
7I do not expect to convey much information on the perplexing question of Cremona varnish (I leave that to Charles Reade to do), but I do, by the aid of photography, expect to furnish fac similes which, if studied, will educate the eye up to the form, model and fine artistic points of the productions of the Cremonese masters and some of their numerous imitators and followers.
9In looking for a similar work for my own use, I found that the only one which was ever published was the official catalogue of the "South Kensington Exhibition, 1872," by Carl Engel, and that was long ago out of print; but after a search of several months I obtained one from London.
11Desiring also, the Charles Reade pamphlet, "A Lost Art Revived," I succeeded finally, after even a longer search, in finding a copy in the hands of Mrs. E. S. Muntz, Birmingham, England, widow of the late Geo. H. M. Muntz, a former publisher of the pamphlet, and the kindness of Mrs. Muntz in sending me the copy I hereby acknowledge with great pleasure.
13As the letters, "A Lost Art Revived," were written at the Kensington Exhibition and refer to many of the instruments photographed, it is considered a happy thought to reprint the "Exhibition" and "A Lost Art Revived" together, but as the variety of instruments photographed in the Kensington Catalogue is inadequate to the present demands, I have added pictures of numerous other genuine instruments, and each instrument represented herein is a study in itself, it shows some of the characteristics of its maker, and wherein they differ from other makers; they are like the chirography of men—no two the same. Even the works of the same maker are often very unlike, and indeed, the greater the genius, the greater can be the diversity in his works; for, capable of originality, and not being confined to the dictates of another, his liberty knows no limit; his productions take on new form without sacrifice to that paramount object, tone. But, as in other things, there are always characteristics which betray the author.
15The principal schools are represented and classified as far as the material
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