Scan 487
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
18 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 333. See the scan on archive.org.
1that you might have been treated to the same article had you named thirty or forty guineas instead of ten.
3"I once asked Schnapps if he knew wherein lay the excellence of the old Italian instruments.
5"'Mein Gott!—if I don't, who de teifil does?'
7"Then he went on to inform me, that it did not lie in any peculiarity in the model, though there was something in that; nor in the wood of the back, though there was something in that; nor in the fine and regular grain of the pine which formed the belly, though there was something in that; nor in the position of the grain, running precisely parallel with the strings, though there was something in that; nor in the the sides, nor in the finger-board, nor in the linings, nor in the bridge, nor in the strings, nor in the waist, though there was something in all of them; nor yet in the putting together, though there was much in that.
9"'Where does it lie, then, Mr. Schnapps?'
11"'Ah, der henker! hang if I know.'
13"'Has age much to do with it, think you?'
15"'Not mosche. Dere is pad Pfeedels two hunder years ole as vell as goot vons; and dere is goot Pfeedels of pad models, vitch is made fery pad, and pad Pfeedels of de fery pest models, and peautiful made as you sall vish to see.
17"This is the sum-total of the information to be got out of Schnapps on that mysterious subject. On other matters, he can pronounce with greater exactness. He knows every Cremona in private or
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