Scan 239
The violin, its famous makers and their imitators, 1887
12 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1numerous instruments have been operated upon with no greater skill than might have been expected at the hands of those barbarians. "These ruthless men," remarks Charles Reade, "just sawed a crescent off the top, and another off the bottom, and the result is a thing with the inner bout of a giant and the upper and lower bout of a dwarf." He rightly names this, "cutting in the statutory sense, viz., cutting and maiming," and implores the owner of an instrument in its original state to spare it, and if too large, to play on one of the value of £5, with the Cremona set before him to look at while he plays. To "cut" a Cremona, and to cut a diamond into a brilliant or a rose, are tasks equally difficult. The indifferent operator in both cases suffers more or less from the injury and annoyance his unskilfulness has occasioned. Borgis, a Venetian diamond-cutter, was employed by Shah Jehan to cut the Koh-i-nor, and in place of a reward was fined ten thousand ducats for his imperfect performance. Had it happened that some possessors of Cremonese gems had inflicted monetary or other punishment on incapable instrument-cutters, the world would have been richer in Cremonas. Mennégand was at Amsterdam for a few years, and returned to Paris in 1857.
3MIREMONT, Claude Augustin, Paris. Born at Mirecourt in 1827, removed to Paris in 1844. Miremont has made several excellent Violins, copies of Stradivari and Guarneri.
5MODESSIER, ——, Paris, 1810. Made several instruments of large pattern, excellent for orchestral purposes. Wood of good quality.
7NAMY, ——, Paris, 1780 to 1806.
9NEZOT, ——, about 1750, maker of Viols.
11NICOLAS, François (Nicolas Fourrier), went from Mire-
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