Books › Violins, old & new, 1887 › scan 20
Scan 20
Violins, old & new, 1887
2 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 16. See the scan on archive.org.
1decade of this century, ten pounds would have bought the finest of these fiddles; to-day they range from two hundred to a thousand guineas, and, as we have observed before, the price of the most superb "concert grand" would not nearly buy a very ordinary STRADIVARIUS violin. Fashion says that to have the best violin you must buy a "STRAD." or a "JOSEPH"; everybody, therefore, rushes for an instrument made by one of these artists. Dealers keep them close, and are very mysterious about them: a brisk demand, as is always the case, sends up the price; and as much as a thousand guineas has recently been paid at an auction for a fine STRADIVARIUS violin. Fashion and prejudice have combined not only to raise the price of these violins, but also to raise a huge fabric of romance and mystery, which topples to the ground when pressed by hard use and close investigation. The violins of these makers are undoubtedly magnificent art works; we know it, and are quite willing to ascribe to these two Italians all the glory and praise which are their due; but truth is truth, after all, and when statements are made to the effect that these makers had "a secret" which is for ever lost; that no living maker can produce work equal to theirs; that wood of the same quality as that which was used a century and a half ago does not now grow; that modern brains cannot devise, nor modern skill and science execute, a violin equal in all respects to theirs—we distinctly affirm, not only that such statements
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