tion Salle, Vuillaume, Chanot, Gand,
Germain, Mennegand, Gaillard, and Miremont, all copyists of more or
less note, who may be said to complete the modern French school. These
makers are or were the chief manufacturers of Violins in France of a
better class. Those made by thousands yearly at Mirecourt are not
Violins in the eyes of the connoisseur. They are made, as common
cabinet work is produced in England, by several workmen, each taking a
portion, one making the backs, another the sides, another the bellies,
and so on with the other parts of the instrument, the whole being
finally arranged by a finisher. Such work must necessarily be void of
any artistic nature; they are like instruments made _in_ a mould, not
_on_ a mould, so painfully are they alike. This Manchester of
Fiddle-making has doubtless been called into being by the great demand
for cheap instruments, and has answered thus far its purpose, but it
has certainly helped to destroy the gallant little bands of makers who
were once common in France, Germany, and England, among whom were men
who were guided by reverential feelings for the art, irrespective of
the gains they reaped by their labours. The number of instruments
yearly made in Mirecourt and Saxony[1] amounts to many thousands, and
is yearly increasing. They send forth repeated copies of Amati,
Maggini, Guarneri, and Stradivari, all duly labelled and dated, to all
parts of the world, frequently disappointing their simple-minded
purchasers, who fondly fancy they have thus become possessed of the
real article at the trifling cost of a few pounds. They produce
various kinds of modern antiques in Violins, some of which display an
amount of ingenuity worthy of being exercised in a better cause; but
usually the whole thing is overdone, and the results, in point of
tone, are far more disastrous than in the common French copies. The
following list of French, Belgian, and Dutch makers contains many
names not included in the first edition of this book. The works
wherein several of these names occur are M. J. Gallay's, "Les Luthiers
Italiens aux 17ieme et 18ieme Siecles," 1869; M. Fetis, "Biographie
Universelle des Musiciens;" M. Vidal, "Les Instruments a Archet,"
1876; the "Catalogue Raisonne," of the instruments at the
Conservatoire, by Gustave Chouquet, Paris, 1875; "Recherches sur les
facteurs de Clavecins," by M. le Chevalier de Burbure, Antwerp, 1863;
Pougin's "Supplement to the Dictionary of Fetis;" and M