The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-02-17

| Violin making, recognized as having
reached its highest perfection over a
hundred years ago. has not only fail
ed to improve, but has descended
from an art to an industry, from be-
ing the work of master hand to that
OF machine. Hundreds OF thousands
of instruments ara now turned out by.
machinery. many OF which are later
sold as ''one of the few remaining
Strads." With the aid of a carefully
copied label, and the powers of elo-
quence and persuasion, the gullible
collector or the amateur Is continually
taken in by these frauds. Although
Ii Is claimed by many that there are
no good violin makers in America,
there have been a few, who. both In
Europe and this country. have been
recognized as being among the most
scientific makers who ever lived. One
of these was George Gemunder, of
Astoria, n. Y. who died few years
ago, and whose son now ranks almost
as his father.
Violin making never has reached
the point of being an industry in the
United States. What instruments are
r1ade here are for what might be
termed select" buyers, and in the
ma jority OF cases these bring good
prices. There are practically no fac
tories which are devoted solely to the
making of violins, and few that turn
out any large number However, the
country Is full of amateurs, expert re-
patrers. and others who make violins.
There are several amateurs In Port
land. Ore, who have produced speci-
mems that have been favorably COM
mented upon by Judges
1t Is said that the principal reason
for the lack of violin factories In this
country Is the poor scale of wages
paid here. also the cfeapness of the
German instruments. Although the
duty on these articles Is 45 per cent.
they can, nevertheless. be imported
into this country and sold for less than
1t would be possible to make them
here. But the United States has i'm
proved in string making until to-day
it stands as q powerful rival to Eu-
rope in this matter. Chicago. the
great place OF slaughter, is where the
best strings are made.
1t was about the year 1860 when
the secret of the famous Italian var
nish was supposed to have been lost,
and along with 1t the yarnish itself.
This varnish. which II is believed gave
the violins what Is know AS the '1tal-
ian tone" recognized as the finest, has
been the object OF constant search by
violinists. and has been the means of
keeping numberless chemists awake
nights In an attempt to rediscover it
Time after time hue and cry has
been raised by some one who claimed
to have found the cherished article.
but always with the same result--faii-
ure.
The most recent instance of this.
so far as Is known. Is the varnish
discovered by a wealthy violin coliec-
tor in Baltimore. This varnish has
been experimental with. and instru-
ments which once harsh have
been turned into sweet-toned ones.
The theory of its finder Is that IL is
the expensive varnish formerly used
on the gondolas of Venice. After the
law was passed decreeing that all
gondo}as should be painted black the
demand for the magic varnish fell
of. and It's secret persisted. A tradf-
ton in Venice says that in reply to
solicitations on the subject a Venetian
varnish dealer said: MY supply is ex-
hausted, I know not what 1t Is, nor
where it came from"
Whatever the cause may have been.
all those violins made by the Italian
makers have, since about the begin
ming of the eighteenth century, grad
uaIly risen In value until to-day they
are almost priceless. One made by
Joseph Guarnerius was sold in New
York few years ago for the record
price of $4,000. while a Stradivarius
brought $4,000. It is claimed that
there have been violins made by
Stradivarius which have been sold In
Europe for as high as $4,000, and
that $4,000 has been refused for
great specimens of this masters work.
Violins made by these two masters.
which were bought for $4,000 thirty
years ago now bring from $4,000 to
$4,000 each.
1t Is estimated that Stradivarius
made over two thousand instruments
during his lifetime, which he used to
sell for twenty dollars apiece. At that
rate his instruments aggregated a sum
OF $4,000, an amount which would
not buy more than three of them to-
day. These violins have been given
the highest place among their kind,
and have been used by many of the
worlds greatest performers.
The habit of violin collecting Is
steadily growing. II Is claimed that
the majority Of the best specimens of
Italy's art in this line are now in the
possession of English. French and
American collectors. and that in Italy