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 226
Scan 226
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators. : With several wood engravings from photographs of the works of Stradiuarius, Guarnerius, Amati, and others, 1880
2 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 208. See the scan on archive.org.
1makers be excepted, there were none but those of the Italians to be had, and, perhaps, a few old French specimens. Attention was thus directed to the works of the Cremonese, and 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 Stradiuarius and Guarnerius at the present time. Violins of Amati and other makers were then obtainable at prices of a nominal character. 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
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