Scan 244
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1under the guidance of Dodd, who steadfastly kept before his workmen the originals of the great Italian masters for models, his work acquired a distinctive stamp of its own, and in its turn gave rise to a new and independent class of makers.
3FENDT, Bernard Simon, London, born in 1800, died in 1851. Son of the above. He was an excellent workman. It is to be regretted that he did not follow the example set by his father, and let time do its work without interruption upon his instruments. Had he done so they would, in many instances, have been equal to those of his parent; but, unfortunately, he worked when the mania for obtaining supposed maturity by artificial means was at its height, and shared the general infatuation, and, in consequence, very frequently destroyed all the stamina of his instruments. Subsequently he became a partner of George Purdy, and carried on a joint business at Finch Lane, in the City of London, from whence most of his best instruments date, having removed to the West End about 1843. He was a most assiduous worker. The number of Violins, Tenors, Violoncellos, and Double-Basses that he made was very great; indeed, his reputation would have been greater had he been content to have made fewer instruments and have exercised more general care. His copies of "Guarnerius" are most numerous, numbering some hundreds. They are mostly varnished with a glaring red colour, of a hard nature. He made many good Double-
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