Scan 9

Violins, old & new, 1887

31 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.

1"of time, which is beyond our reach. Wines and

2"violins want maturing; but this mellowing which

3"age gives has its limits. The culminating point

4"when the supreme excellence of an alcoholic fluid

5"is reached may be fixed. After that period, each

6"moment is one of deterioration. With an instru-

7"ment made of wood the same law must exist.

8"We cannot say that the next century will diminish

9"the strength or volume of tone in a Cremonese

10"violin, but it is quite possible that the best violins

11"of the old makers have reached their highest

12"degree of excellence; perhaps others of later make

13"have not yet arrived at their maturity. Still, all

14"this is merely speculative, and the advantages

15"which age gives to violins are believed by many to

16"be fanciful, or only appreciable in an old instru-

17"ment by one listener in ten thousand."

19We certainly think the marvellous qualities

20ascribed to age alone in a violin are altogether

21fanciful. Use may improve them, but not age

22without use. We believe there is a maker in

23London—an amateur maker, mirabile dictu—who

24has made violins which could not be distinguished

25by the tone from genuine Cremonas. We have

26seen and heard these violins, and could not dis-

27tinguish the faintest difference between their tone

28and that of the finest "STRAD." America, too, is

29producing such violins. Readers of the Musical

30Standard will remember the article on "WILHELMJ'S

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