, 1889-12-14
FANCIES OF FIDDLERS.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE vloLINS
OF FAMOUS MAKERS.

AooAcAs
Instruments Used by Some Experts
If poor old Antonio Stradivarius could
come to life again and see the thousands
of violins now bearing his label, / feel
sure the old gentleman would be sent
once more to his grave with shame and
modification. The same could be said
of the several Guarneri, chief of whom
was Joseph (del Jesul and likewise of
Amati, Bergonzi, Ruggieri, Stainer,
Guadagnini, Gagliano,. Maggini and
many others.
For many years the manufacturers of
common iddles in Germany, which sell
in the United. States at from 81 to
$50, have labeled them ''Stradivarius,"
"Guarnerius," etc. Yet they must know
that any n acquainted with the merits
and value of the violins of these two
great makers would not buy them for
such. and if they are made for farmers.
sailors and cowboys, or for a class who
never heard of either Stradivarius or
Guanerius, the manufacturers must
know that the labels of these W and
other great makers do not help to sell
them. Yet they continue to make them
and paste in these labels ad libitum.
VI d. IT
This is not so serious a grievance,
however, for the price asked generally
indicates the character of the violin, but
what is really in the way of n desir-
ing to purchase a fine violin made by
any of the Brescia, or Cremona, or even
French, German or English makers, Is
the traffic in labels practiced SO much
today by European dealers, and were it
~ NInN $50 I~-, - NJ
fine judges of violins who do not go by
labels, many artists and amateurs in
this country and city would have fallen
victims to the practices OF the many
dishonest dealers throughout Europe.
There are hundreds of violins in this
city alone made probably by makers con-
temporaneous with the Cremona makers,
who initiated their more skillful breth-
en-, which are bought for and labeled as
coming from the workshop of the great
makers. There are also several SO called
''Strads" in this city and throughout the
world for which large-in fact, enormou
sums have been given, the genuineness
of which is doubted by able and compe-
tent critics.
There are hundreds of fine yiolins
throughout Europe and America which
have "A genuine Stradivarius or Guane-
RUS or Amati top or back, and the rest is
either initiated or made up of other old
violins by Italian makers.
There are thousands of fine old ~violins,
Italian, French, German, Tyrolean, etc.,
both in Europe and America, which can
not possibly be identified as having peer
made by any particular maker, no mat
ter how good the expert may be. If you
want T. neal differences of opinion
borrow a violin and go to the scores OF
dealers and makers in this city and it will
repay you, for unless it has a very promi-
nent and marked characteristic of some
maker you will most probably have no
two opinions alike. This is not intended
to reflect on their Judgment, but simply
to show the difficulty of placing or at
tributing the many old violins of today.
FoRGERIEs IN RIDDLES.
l have seen and heard many of those
nameless violins which were finer in
tone, both as to power and quality, than
many of the Amati, ETC., really anthem
ticated, and for which five times the price
had beer paid. 1 nave seen old Italian
v~iolins, beautifully modelled, well made
and of superb tone, labeled "Guarnerius
Amati," and even "S~tradivarius," and
attributed to these makers ten or fifteen
years after they were dead, and some as
having been made by them several years
before they were born. So the question
naturally arises, how can one tell or who
can tell a real ''Strad" or a Guarnerius
or an Amati or a Ruggieri or a Bergonzi
or a Maggini or a Gagliano or a Sanctus
Seraphino or a Montagnana OF a Gasporo
da Salo?
No one can tell a "Strad" if he mas
never seen one. knowledge must be
based on having seen not only one, but
several, as all "Strads'' are not alike. In
deed one must be familiar with all the
great and authenticated "Strads" now
extant to be an expert, for there are many
resembling each other. There are no two
alike. The eye must be cultivated to
know them, as IN expert in painting
knows a Corot, or a Daubigny, or a
Vibert, and so thoroughly versed in the
minute characteristics of the constituent
parts of the violin as to detect a fine imi-
tation FROM a real one, to say nothing of
the superb varnish used by the Cremona
makers, the manufacture of which is yet
a lost art, Notwithstanding the many SO
called discoveries of its secret.
And in the same way only can the
violins of the other great makers be
known, identified and distinguished from
the really fine limitations of today and of
the past. Therefore, to be familiar with
the works of the great makers in minute
detail one must travel, see and study the
great violins of the world in the hands of
collectors, artists and amateurs.
1t may interest many 'iddlers" to
know that Paganini played on a noble
specimen of a Joseph Guarnerius and
now owned by the city of Genoa, to
whom he willed it. Sivori plays on a
copy of this violin by Vuillaume, a noble
instrument, for which, it is said, he has
refused 81, 600. The immortal Joachim
plays on a "Strad," or l should say on
''Strads," for he owns several of them.
Sarasate also plays on a "Strad." Will
helmj plays on a Lupot and a "Strad,"
and 1 have also heard him play on a
Gemunder. Nine. Norman-Neruda uses
the famous ssStral' left to her nv Ernst