Books › Violins, old & new, 1887 › scan 13
Scan 13
Violins, old & new, 1887
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1ardour of professional and amateur violinists in pursuit of Cremona instruments will cool somewhat when it is known—as it certainly will be, sooner or later—that they can buy for fifty pounds that which has hitherto cost five hundred. It will no doubt take a long time to convince some people that anything modern in the way of violins can be in every respect as good as that which is old; and so far as concerns those people who have more money than judgment it does not matter much whether they are convinced or not, for they will of course always believe, and act on the belief, that what costs most is worth most.
3It is sheer nonsense to speak of these magnificent old Cremona violins as though their makers had some "secret" which died with them. If this is true at all, it is true only of the varnish, which is one of the least factors in the making of a good violin, and in this respect Vuillaume of Paris and other makers claim to have recovered the lost art. In all other respects there can be, as the newspaper previously quoted observed, no secret which modern skill, ingenuity, and research cannot discover. Certain facts must be remembered, and to keep them in mind will much facilitate the consideration of the question. These axiomatic truths may be summarised as follows:—1. That age of itself does not improve the tone of a violin. 2. That the wood of which the belly and back of a violin are to be
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