Books › The violin : how to choose one, 1893 › scan 14
Scan 14
The violin : how to choose one, 1893
2 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1listeners sigh but Gold-Mounted Tone? The extraordinary prices which these wrecks bring can be traced to the same folly. Collectors have thus become the curse of violin players, not so much on account of these wrecks which they keep in the market as of the really grand violins which they keep out of use, and have thus forced up to such outrageous prices. The Rev. Mr. Haweis says that the collector has been a blessing to the world in "preserving" so many matchless gems from the wear and tear of constant use, but the remark is more sentimental than sound. A strange peculiarity about wood is that in use it wears very little, but set aside it begins to mould and decay; so many of these violins are damaged rather than benefited by being kept from use by collectors; and, as a matter of fact, no such noble ambition as "preserving matchless gems to the world" fires the soul of the collector. He simply wishes his vanity flattered by possessing articles which others with more musical ability and less money cannot get. Again, even when the collector chances to be a violin player, he cannot well play upon more than one instrument, and violins, notwithstanding all the gush that has been written about them, are not lovely objects except to a select few. Grand pictures will please thousands, but a violin to the masses is "only a fiddle." Old china is sometimes beautiful to look upon; old coins are full of interest and of history; old books are also worthy of being collected, and no one is wronged by these being sought after and preserved as curiosities, but with old violins it is very different. Those who play upon violins suffer grievously; and as it was for them and not for collectors that violins were made, it is not surprising that they look upon the collector as worse than a crank. To keep good violins out of use they declare to be a crime, for the collector cannot use them himself, and cannot often have them admired, as good players have no time in a cursory trial to get acquainted with the powers of such violins, and great soloists usually shun them for fear of upsetting their fingering of their own instruments. My own view is entirely in sympathy with this one. Old pictures, china, coins, and books are usually placed in a position in which they can be admired; valuable violins are invariably entombed in boxes, fittingly made to resemble coffins. No one can admire them; scarce a being can play upon them; there they may stick in voiceless stillness and darkness till they rot into dust. Sometimes Death steps in
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