Scan 301
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
2 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 241. See the scan on archive.org.
1by Mr. Reade in his article on "Cremona Violins," entitled the "Romance of Fiddle-dealing." "Well, one day Georges Chanot, senior, made an excursion to Spain, to see if he could find anything there. He found mighty little. But coming to the shop of a Fiddle-maker, one Ortega, he saw the belly of an old bass hung up with other things. Chanot rubbed his eyes, and asked himself was he dreaming? the belly of a Stradiuarius Bass roasting in a shop window! He went in, and very soon bought it for about forty francs. He then ascertained that the Bass belonged to a lady of rank. The belly was full of cracks; so, not to make two bites at a cherry, Ortega had made a nice new one. Chanot carried this precious fragment home and hung it up in his shop, but not in the window, for he was too good a judge not to know the sun will take all the colour out of that maker's varnish. Tarisio came in from Italy, and his eye lighted instantly on the Stradiuarius belly. He pestered Chanot till the latter sold it him for a thousand francs, and told him where the rest was. Tarisio no sooner knew this than he flew to Madrid. He learned from Ortega where the lady lived, and called on her to see it. 'Sir,' says the lady, 'it is at your disposition.' That does not mean much in Spain. When he offered to buy it, she coquetted with him, said it had been long in her family; money could not replace a thing of that kind, and, in short, she put on the screw, as she thought, and sold it him for about four thousand francs.
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