Books › The violin: its famous makers and their imitators. : With several wood engravings from photographs of the works of Stradiuarius, Guarnerius, Amati, and others, 1880 › scan 167
Scan 167
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators. : With several wood engravings from photographs of the works of Stradiuarius, Guarnerius, Amati, and others, 1880
5 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 149. See the scan on archive.org.
1In matters of magnitude, whether artistic or otherwise, competition is undoubtedly healthy, there being always a small body of patrons who are willing to check the tendency to deteriorate, common to all productions, by encouraging the worker with extra remuneration, in order that a high degree of excellence may be maintained; but in matters confined to a small circle, as in the case of Violin making, the number of those willing to encourage artistic workmanship is so minute as to fail even to support one maker of excellence, and thus, when deprived suddenly of its legitimate protection, the art, with other similar handicrafts, must drift into decadence. If we look around the Violin world, all is much the same. In Italy there are no Stradiuariuses in embryo, in France no coming Lupot, in Germany no Jacobus Stainer, and in England no future Banks or Forster. Why so? The answer is twofold. Partly there is fault in the demand, arising from the marked preference of this age for cheapness at the expense of goodness; partly, too, there is fault in the supply, a foolish desire on the part of the makers to give maturity to their instruments wherein they always completely fail, and yet will not give up their conceit. Here, again, were we dealing with matters of more magnitude, the evil influence would be lessened, the artistic impulses would still be felt, though in a less degree; whereas, so contracted is the circle of the Violin world, that under any stress the support given to makers willing to bestow an artist's care on their work is totally inadequate. one of two readings
2In matters of magnitude, whether artistic or otherwise, competition is undoubtedly healthy, there being always a small body of patrons who are willing to check the tendency to deteriorate, common to all productions, by encouraging the worker with extra remuneration, in order that a high degree of excellence may be maintained; but in matters confined to a small circle, as in the case of Violin making, the number of those willing to encourage artistic workmanship is so minute as to fail even to support one naker of excellence, and thus, when deprived suddenly of its legitimate protection, the art, with other similar handicrafts, must drift into decadence. If we look around the Violin world, all is much the same. In Italy there are no Stradiuariuses in embryo, in France no coming Lupot, in Germany no Jacobus Stainer, and in England no future Banks or Forster. Why so? The answer is twofold. Partly there is fault in the demand, arising from the marked preference of this age for cheapness at the expense of goodness; partly, too, there is fault in the supply, a foolish desire on the part of the makers to give maturity to their instruments wherein they always completely fail, and yet will not give up their conceit. Here, again, were we dealing with matters of more magnitude, the evil influence would be lessened, the artistic impulses would still be felt, though in a less degree; whereas, so contracted is the circle of the Violin world, that under any stress the support given to makers willing to bestow an artist's care on their work is totally inadequate. one of two readings
4The case of modern Violin makers is unfortunate. Old Violins being so immeasurably superior to
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.