Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-09-14


Guarnerius of 173S, and another by tn
same maker. or "author," as it is techni
cally the etiquette to term manufactur
er of fiddles, for two hundred and forty
five pounds. This instrument was ais,
dated 1888 A violin by Carlo Bernonz
brought fifty pounds one by Jakol
Staincr forty-five pounds n violin will
the belly" only Stradivarius seventy-fiv,
pounds and, as bonne bouche, a vio
loncello, formerly the property of Georg,
H., and of the make of Francisco Rug
gieri, or ''Rugerius," was knocked dow
for three and thirty pounds. Recogniz
ing the eternal fitness of Buffers aphor
ISM
For what Is worth in anything,
But 50 much money as 7 Will brlng9'
we are not prepared to stigmatizc as in
ordinate the prices attained by the old
tiddles. The seven lots brought an ag.
gregate sum of fifteen hundred pounds
but there are amateurs in other branches
Of 'vIrtu" vino will cheerfully give thrice
the sum just named for n bureau of Boule
ware formerly the property of some
French king or queen, while thousand
pounds would be readily offered for pair
of old Sevres vases of "Rose Dubarry''
or "Bleu du Roi;' and there are old
Dresden figures that would still be ac-
counted cheap at hundred guineas
apiece. As for an unimpeachably genuine
gross piece of Palissy or of "Henry
Deux" ware, only the weathiest of col
lectors or the curator of national mu-
seum would be able to bid for such n
treasure. Objects quite as beautiful in
form, i'll ''potting," IN color, and in glaz.
ing can be and are Systematically imita-
ted; and in Paris some years since there
was factory doing large business IN
the fabrication Of the sham antique Gre
mona iiddles; but it is the rarity of the
original article quite as much as its beau
ty that makes it precious to the virtuoso.
A reproduction by the photo-zinco-
graphic process Of the First Folio of
Shakespeare's Works is very interesting {;
but what is its value in comparison with
that of "First Folio" itself? First edi-
tions of Cookers Arithmetic, of Mrs.
Glasse's Cookery Book, of Dilly's Gram
mar, and Hoyle's Games are eagerly
sought for, not for their literary value.
but because they are scarce; and the first
edition of the late Mr.. a'Beckett's Comic
History of England will command high
er price in the market than copy of the
1862 edition of Shelton's translation of
Don Quixote. A black-letter Chaucer of
1898 may fetch five pounds copy OF an
edition OF few years earlier will be
worth twenty. As regards Cremona fid-
dies, double or three times the sum real
lzed at the recent sale might have been
obtained had there been among the rari-
ties belonging to the gentleman deceased
a single violin by Gasparo di Salo, who
seems to have made, towards the end of
the sixteenth century, the earliest of what
muy be called modern violins. The world
famed Cremona fiddles are all of late sew
enteenth and early eighteenth manufac-
ture.
The Amatis, of Cremoua, lead the van
as "authors" of these wonderful instru-
ments. Andrea Amati was the first to
gain renown for his liddles, and then came
his sons, Geronimo and Antonio, and the
son of the former, Nlcolo. The prestige
of the Amatis, however, Is by some "cog-
noscenti" considered TO have been eclipsed
by Antonio Stradivari, or Stradivarius,
the traditions of whose excellence were
continued by the Guarneri and Ruggieri
families. Those extraordinary craftsmen,
wiser than the lady in the guardian,
knew well enough whereabouts in n fiddle
the tune lay. According to the learned
NJ. Otto, tirst-rate Crcmona fiddle is con-
structed i'll strict accord lnce with the
rules of mathematics. The instrument
comprises ffty-eight distinct divisions
some authorities gave sixty-nine-al-
though in cheap violins the parts are not
so minut@ly subdividcd. The back. neck,
sides, and circles are of sycamore ; tine
belly, base-bar, sounding-post, and six
blocks of deal the finger board and tail
piece of ebony. A Cremona fiddle should
have strong reedy tone, something like
that Of clarionet but the tone of II
Steiner approaches that of flute.
Although we are constantly reproached
with not being n musical people, there is
probably no country iu the world in which
violnists have gathered such plenteous
riches as they have done in England, or
where such large sums are given for Gre
mona fiddles. Long before the mysteri-
ous maestro Paganinl amassed his thou
sands by tiddling to us-and the price
exacted by that extraordinary artist for
single performance was twenty guiueas-
the famous Viotti, who had been first yio-
lin in the Royal Chapel at Turin, made
fortune after fortune on British soil.
Nlotti was II man of curiously varied at
tainments, and i'll the early days of the
French revolution he was actually elect
ed n member of the Constituent Asse M
bly,. He took refuge in England during
the reign of terror he was one of the
managers Of the Italian Opera. post
from which he soon retired to assume that
of leader of the orchestra and i'll 1876 he
was expelled from England as spy. He
made II fortune by tiddling in Germany,
and on being allowed to return to Eng
land in 1901, he risked his money in
speculation in the wine trade, and lost his
all.
AT the Restoration, Louis XVIII. con-
ferred on him the Directorship of the
Academic Royal de Musique; but man
agement was not in Niotti's line, and he
came back to England to make more
money and lose it once more, to be IN ac-
tive member and director of the Philhar-
monte Concerts, and, at last, to die in
1924, worr out by losses and disappoint-
ments. The Gives of the Fiddlers"
would make most entertaining volume.
PaSininl's career was, at its outset, more
than melodramatic, and the more igno-
rant among his countrymen firmly be-
lieved that he had made n compact with
the Devil, and that his fiddle was posses.
sed by an evil spirit. Nor was the career
of the violinist who once owned the
'Spanish Stradivarius" just sold exempt
from the strange vicissitudes. Born at
Bergen, in Norway, in 1919, Ole Borne
man Bull was educated atthe University of
Christiana, whence he was dismissed for
the offence of surreptitiously leading the
orchestra at one of the local theatres,
Then he studied law at the University of
iottengen, fought n duel nt Minden; He'd