Books › Violins, old & new, 1887 › scan 19
Scan 19
Violins, old & new, 1887
2 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 15. See the scan on archive.org.
1and purity of tone. Another Italian maker, GIUSEPPE GUARNERIUS, who lived rather later, also made violins of extraordinary worth, which, though not so elegant in appearance, are for the most part as fine in tone as those of STRADIVARIUS. The GUARNERIUS violins have a masculine strength and vigour of appearance, but lack the air of elegant refinement which is the charm of the STRADIVARIUS instruments; but in the matter of tone there is not much to choose between them. For a long time after the death of these two men no violins were made like theirs, and their pupils and successors fell off in their craft until they seemed to have lost the art altogether, and followed it as a mere trade. The art which had died in Italy did not seem to flourish anywhere else, and no more first-class fiddles came, or ever have come, from the city or the country of STRADIVARIUS and GUARNERIUS. The fiddles of these two great artists were scattered all over Italy, and it was some considerable time before it was discovered that the peasantry of numerous towns in Italy were executing their simple dances to the music of instruments which were triumphs of art, and which were destined to make a noise in the world. It was not until the end of the last, or the beginning of this, century that English people heard of these fiddles; but when they did hear of them, they did as they always do—began to bid fabulous prices for a foreign article, and soon gave far more than it was worth rather than not have it at all. In the first
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