Scan 415
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1884
2 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 325. See the scan on archive.org.
1and 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 Stradivari and Guarneri at the present time. Violins of Amati and other makers were, up to this time, obtainable at nominal prices. 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 1799 and 1804. may be gathered from the following extracts from the day-book of the second William Forster, who was a dealer as well as maker:—"20th April, 1799. A Violoncello by Nicholas Amati, with case and bow, £17 17s. od."; and further on—"5th July, 1804, an Amati Violin £31 10s. od." These prices were probably less than those which William Forster received for many instruments of his own make. It is certain that these low prices did not long continue; the price increased in due proportion to the vanishing properties of the supply. The call for Violins by the Amatis was so clamorous as speedily to effect this result; the prices for them were doubled, trebled, and often quadrupled, until they no longer found a home in their native land. The value set on them by the French and English so far exceeded that
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