The semi-weekly miner., 1883-08-04
FACTS ABOUT FIDDLBS.
Instruments With a History
V1ollns That Have Sold for
Fabulous Prices.

Instruments With a History
Viol1ns That Have Sold for
Fabulous Prices.
A very respectable looking fiddle
good enough to play Haste to the
wedding" upon, may be purchased
at secondhand dealers for q few
shillings. An undoubted Antonius
Stradivarius may, on the other hand,
bring, in auction sale as much a.
e5OO.
Such stupendous price was real
ized day or two since at the sale OF
Messrs. Puttick & Simpson O. q
choice collection of violins, the prop.
erty of gentleman deceased. The
instrument which reached the final
and amazing bid of $500 was brought
to England by the celebrated Nor
wegian violinist, Ole Bull, who, in
the long line of famous fiddlers may
be placed between Paganini and ST.
vori, and the violin which he brought
with him to our shores is known
among "fidiculamaniacs" as the
"Spanish Stradivarius," and is of
the date of 1857. After this excep-
tionally interesting instrument had
been sold there was sold for ESQ q
Joseph Gxarnerius OF 1888, and an
other by the same maker or "author,"
as it is technically the etiquette to
term the manufacturers of tiddles,
for G245. This instrument was also
dated 1873. A violin by Carly Ber-
nozi brought ESQ; one by Jacob
Stainer, 94s; a violin with the
"belly" only, by Stradivarius, Els;
and, as "bonne bouche," violen-
celle, formerly the property Of George
II. and of the make Of Francisco
Ruggieri, or "Rugsrius, Twas knocked
down for s33O. Recognizing the
eternal fitness Of Butler's aphorism,
''Fer what is worth in anything but
so much money as twill bring? we
are not prepared to stigmatize as in
ordinate the prices attained by these
old fiddles. The seven lots brought
an aggregate sum of FL 500; but there
are other amateurs in other branches
of "virtu" who will cheerfully give
thrice the sum just named for bu-
reau Of Boule ware, formerly the
property of some French King or
Queen, while a thousand pounds
would be readily offered for a pair
of old sevres vases of "Rose Dubarry"
or "Bleu du Roi;" and there are old
Dresden figures that would still ne
accounted cheap at a hundred guineas
apiece. As for an unimpeachably
genuine "grosse piece" of Palissy or
of "Henri Deux" ware, only the
wealthiest of collectors or the curator
of a national museum would be able
to bid for such treasure. Objects
quite as beautiful in form, in pot
ting" in color, and in glazing can
be and are Systematically initiated;
and in Paris some years since there
was factory doing large business
in the fabrication of sham ANTIQUE |
Cremona fiddles; but it is the rarity |
of the original article quite as much |
as'its beauty that makes it precious
to the virtuoso. A reproduction
by the Interchangeable process of
the First Folio of ofShakespeare's works
is very interesting; but what is its
value in comparison with that of q
First Folio" itself? First editions
of Cscker's Arithmetic, of Mrs.
Classes Cookery Book" of Dilly's
Grammar and Hoyle's "Games" are
eagerly sought for. not for their lit
erary value, but because they are
scarce, and the first edition of the
late Mr.. A. Beckett's "Comic His
torv Of England" will command a
higher price in the mark 1t than
a copy of the 1852 edition of
translation Of "Don Quix-
ote." A black-letter "Chaucer" of
1889 may fetch e5, copy of an edi-
ton of a few years earlier will be
worth e2O. AS regards Cremona fid-
dies, double or three times the sum
realized at the recent sale might have
been obtained bad there been among
the rarities belonging to the gentle
man deceased a single violin by Gas
paro di Sale, who seems t. have made
the end of the Sixteenth Gen.
tury the earliest of what may be
called modern violins. The world
famed Cremona fiddles are all of late
and Eighteenth manu-
facture. The Amatis of CremOna,
lead the van as authors" of these
instruments. Andrea
Amati was the first to gain renown
for his Antonio, and then came his
sons Geronimo and Antonio, and the
son of the former Nicola. The pres
tige of the Amitas, however, is by
some ''cognoscenti' considered to
have been eclipsed by Antonio Strad-
ivari, or Stradivarius, the traditions
Of whose excellence were continued
by the Guaraneri and Rugieri fami-
lies. These extraordinary craftsmen,
wiser than the lady in "The Guar
dian," knew well enough wherea-
bouts in a fiddle the tune lay. Ac-
cording to the learned NJ. Otto, a first.
ate Cremona fiddle is constructed in
strict accordance with the rules of
The instrument COM
prlses titty-eight distinct divisions
some authorities give sixty-nine--al-
though in cheap violins the parts are
not so minutely subdivided. The
back. neck, sides and circles are
Of sycamore; the belly, base.bar'
sounding post, and six blocks of deal
,he tinger-board and tail-piece of ebo.
ny. A Cremona fiddle should have
\ strong reedy tone, something like
hat of a clarionet; but tho tone of a
5tainer or Steiner approaches that Of
! f1ute.-LOndOn Telegraph.
Cetewayo.