Scan 484
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
4 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 330. See the scan on archive.org.
1that their instruments bray when they should speak—twang. Then touching briefly on the pegs, which he prefers unornamented, he will hang lingeringly upon the neck, pronounce authoritatively upon the right degree of elevation of the finger-board, and the effects of its due adjustment upon the vibration of the whole body-harmonic, and, consequently, upon the tone. Then jumping over the bridge, he will animadvert on the tail-piece; after which, entering at the f-holes—not without a fervent encomium upon their graceful drawing and neatness of cut—twang—he will introduce you to the arcanum mysterii, the interior of the marvellous fabric—point out to you, as plainly as though you were gifted with clairvoyance, the position and adaptation of the various linings, the bearings of the bass-bar, that essential adjunct to quality of tone—twang—and the proper position of the sound-post. Lastly, he will shew you, by means of a small hand-mirror throwing a gleam of light into its entrails, the identical autograph of the immortal maker—Albani, Guarnerius, or Amati, as the case may happen—with the date printed in the lean old type, and now scarcely visible through the dust of a couple of centuries, 'Amati Cremonæ Fecit 1645,' followed by a manuscript signature in faded ink, which you must take for granted.
3"Borax has but one price; and if you do not choose to pay it, you must do without the article. The old fellow is a true believer, and is accounted
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