Books › The violin : how to choose one, 1893 › scan 56
Scan 56
The violin : how to choose one, 1893
4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 52. See the scan on archive.org.
1is usually of an elastic nature sufficient to take in the entire purse of the buyer. The price of a well-made new violin by a British maker also varies according to the demand upon the maker's time, and also, of course, according to his conscience. There are dealers who have in their list new violins at £10, £15, £20, and £25; as a matter of private opinion, I do not think that the violin of some of these men, sold at £10, will be a whit inferior to that which they sell at £25, but I do not wish to force this opinion upon any one. "You pays your money and you takes your choice," so you may adopt my opinion, or that of the advertising list, as you please; but be sure that you try the two violins against each other, and judge them solely by their tone, instead of by the price tickets tied to them. In the same way the common German fiddles may be had at prices from 15s. to 50s.; but the keen-witted judge of tone tries over a dozen of these, all at different prices, and probably picks out one, by no means the highest in price, which immeasurably excels all the others. "Oh, certainly, give us the best you have," says the easy and trustful buyer, and so he buys by the ticket instead of the tone, which is simply an encouragement to a species of dealing not far removed from robbery. Seriously, I think that as good a new violin as it is possible to make may be bought for from £5 to £10, if you only go about the matter in the right way.
3The only conceivable reason why a new violin should occasionally cost a little more than this sum is when the maker chances to hit upon two pieces of wood of such great age and grand acoustical quality that the violin so made commands a higher price as naturally as a genius rises above his fellows, but such an occurrence is rare, and when it does happen, it needs no advertising list to tell its value. The tone of the violin will speak for itself, and the others will simply be nowhere beside it; which brings us back to my original statement, that tone and nothing but tone ought to be the real criterion of value in a violin. Believe no price list or statement attached to the different prices—believe your own ears and those of your friends whom you call in to your assistance. There are several foreign makers now living who have the audacity to advertise their new violins at prices from £100 to £150, but I hope, for the credit of humanity, that this is a mere advertising fiction. The man who gives such a price for a new fiddle is worse than a fool. No new violin ever was worth such a sum—not even those
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