Scan 90
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 74. See the scan on archive.org.
1they had no rivals to fear, and when so many good violins were ruined by bungling and blundering hands. What wonder, then, that men harked back to the classical, standard examples left by the great Italians? Even this resulted in people rushing to the opposite extreme; the Cremonese instruments were so much sought after, that makers sought their advantage in merely slavishly copying them. Instead of making really good instruments on the models of the great masters before them, as the Cremonese giants had to do in their own day, their unworthy successors merely attempted to imitate the outward form and appearance of those great works, and were content to impart the look of age and wear to inferior work. It was not enough for them to be imitators of the form and construction of the body of the violin, of the cutting and position of the sound-holes, of the turn of the scroll, of the colour of the varnish, and to produce the most illusory and deceptive resemblances to old violins; but they also attempted by scratching away the varnish, and the imitation of other defects, to produce the semblance of old age and constant use. The labels of the old Cremonese were also (and still are) exactly imitated and pasted in.
3For about thirty years past*, these "artists" have settled themselves in Paris, and have unfortunately found their way to Germany too.
5There is one thing to be said even for this fashion of violin making, viz., that so long as only good, sound wood is used and the essential features of the Italian school are adhered to, no harm will result to the art itself; for in the end it can matter little to a player whether he plays on a new or on an old instrument, so long as that instrument is a good one. The skilful maker only hurts himself by these tricks of disguise and slavish imitation of the external details of the famous masterpieces. He cannot expect to make his own name, or to see his market grow more and more extensive, so long as he sends out
7* Or, roughly speaking from 1830 to 1860.—Translator.
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