Books › Violins, old & new, 1887 › scan 6
Scan 6
Violins, old & new, 1887
2 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1beginning of the 18th centuries—a Stradivarius or Guarnerius, for besides these there are only one or two makers whose violins are considered really first-rate, and sought after accordingly. Others are accepted when a Stradivarius or Guarnerius cannot be obtained; but these two are the makers whose instruments, not only by report, but by sheer beauty of workmanship and wonderfully pure and sympathetic quality of tone, have long held and still hold the first place in the estimation of all who have studied the subject. A Stradivarius has been sold for nearly a thousand pounds. Spohr and Paganini played on instruments made by Guarnerius; Wilhelmi and Remenyi both use instruments by the first-named celebrated Cremonese maker. These particular instruments, if sold, would fetch fabulous prices, not simply because they had been so long used by great men—though that would doubtless increase the price offered—but because they are the grandest specimens of this most wonderful instrument, made by the two men who reached the highest point of excellence in violin-making. The cost of an elaborate grand pianoforte, of the highest quality, would not be enough to buy a genuine "Strad." of the best period, and a fine organ of very fair proportions could be built for the money which has actually been paid for one of the best violins made in the workshop of Joseph Guarnerius at Cremona.
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