Scan 286
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
2 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 18. See the scan on archive.org.
1Their early instruments are of the German form, but later they made many copies of the Cremonese. To Benjamin Banks we are indebted for having led the English makers to adopt the pattern of Amati. He had long laboured to popularise the school which he so much loved, but met with little encouragement in the beginning, so strong was the prejudice in favour of the high model. However, he triumphed in the end, and completely revolutionised the taste in England, till our Fiddle fanciers became total ab-Stainers! Then commenced the taste for instruments of flat form. Where were they to be found? If the few by the early English makers be excepted, there were none but those of the Italians to be had, and, perhaps, a few old French specimens. Attention was thus directed to the works of the Cremonese, and the year 1800 or thereabouts, may be put down as the time when the tide of Italian Violins had fairly set in towards France and England. The instruments by the Amatis were those chiefly sought after; the amount of attention they commanded at this period was probably about equal to that bestowed upon the works of Stradiuarius and Guarnerius at the present time. Violins of Amati and other makers were then obtainable at prices of a nominal character. The number in Italy was far in excess of her requirements, the demand made upon them for choir purposes in former days had ceased, and the Violins were thus quite out of proportion to the players. The value of an Amati in England in
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