Scan 543
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1884
10 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 447. See the scan on archive.org.
1interesting particulars from the pen of the late Charles Reade, the novelist and lover of Fiddles:—
3"THE BETTS STRADIVARI.
5"To the Editor of the Globe.
7"SIR,—As you have devoted a paragraph to this Violin, which it well deserves, permit me to add a fact which may be interesting to amateurs, and to Mr. George Hart, the late purchaser, M. Vuillaume, who could not speak English, was always assisted in his London purchases by the late John Lott, an excellent workman, and a good judge of old Violins.* The day after this particular purchase, Lott came to Vuillaume, by order, to open the Violin. He did so in the sitting-room whilst Vuillaume was dressing. Lott's first words were, 'Why, it has never been opened!' His next, 'Here's the original bass-bar.' Thereupon out went M. Vuillaume, half dressed, and the pair gloated over a rare sight, a Stradivari Violin, the interior of which was intact from the maker's hands. Mr. Lott described the bass-bar to me. It was very low and very short, and quite unequal to support the tension of the strings at our concert pitch, so that the true tone of this Violin can never have been heard in England before it fell into Vuillaume's hands. I have known this Violin forty years. It is wonderfully preserved. There is no wear on the belly except the chin-mark; in the centre
9* The hero of Mr. Reade's "Jack of All Trades, a matter-of-fact Romance."
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