Scan 453
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
4 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 301. See the scan on archive.org.
1bronzes, dainty bits of Joshua Wedgwood's ware, and old Cremonas, are exposed for sale in the windows of dealers in unredeemed pledges, brokers shops, and divers other emporiums! It is the firm conviction of these amiable persons, that scores of gems unknown, are awaiting in such cosy lurking places the recognition of the educated eye for their immediate deliverance to the light of day.
3The quasi bric-a-brac portion of the general dealer's stock is dexterously arrayed in his window, and not allowed to take up a prominent position among the wares displayed. To expose treasures would be a glaring act of indiscretion, inasmuch as it would tend to the belief that the proprietor was perfectly cognisant of the value of his goods, whereas he is imagined by the hypothesis to be profoundly ignorant on the subject. Pictures, bronzes, china, and Fiddles, with their extremely modest prices attached, lie half-hidden behind a mountain of goods of a diametrically opposite nature. There they may rest for days, nay, weeks, before the individual with the educated eye, for the good of all men, detects them. Sooner or later, however, he makes his appearance, and peers into every nook of the window, shading his eyes with his hands. Something within arrests his attention, his nose gets flattened against the glass in his eagerness to get nearer the object. He enters the establishment, and asks to be allowed to look at an article quite different to the one he has has been so intent upon; his object being that the
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