Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/285

Rh A "Strad" 'cello which had been played by three generations of the Servais family, brought £5,000 when placed on sale a few years ago in Vienna.

The phrase, "worth its weight in gold," may well be applied to such transactions. On weighing a Stradivarius violin sold in 1856, it was found to have brought £40 an ounce. The great bass player, Dragonetti, had a celebrated Stradivarius double-bass which he valued at £1,000. It would now probably bring three times that amount.

In 1716 Stradivarius made a violin, which in 1760 he sold to a Count Salabue, after whose death in 1824 it was purchased by Tarisio, the peripatetic violin collector. He kept the treasure hidden, but after his death it was ferreted out by Viullaume who, in turn, on his death, left it to his son-in-law, Alard, the violinist. A few years ago it was sold to a Scotch violin collector for £2,000. Madame Norman-Neruda gave £2,000 for one "Strad" which had belonged to Ernst, and Wilhelmji paid £3,000 for another, for which he was afterward offered £5,000.

Stradivarius' is not alone in bringing high sums. Amati's and Guarnerius' instruments have had a similar appreciation in value. In 1790 Foster, the English instrument dealer, sold a Nicholas Amati for £19, and in 1804 another for £30. These would now bring from £200 to £300 each. In 1827 one of his 'cellos sold for £280, and in 1859 a violin by the brothers Amati brought £140. It may be imagined that some of the fiddles of Guarnerius "del Jesu" brought him originally but a pittance; but in 1826 we hear of one of his 'cellos bringing £120. Wieniawski's Guarnerius was sold to Hubey, of Brussels, for £3,000, and Ferdinand David's favorite instrument, a Guarnerius, was bought by Zajic, of the Strasburg Conservatory, for £4,000.

General Morgan Melville, of Cincinnati, related that his father, who, by the way, was an aide-de-camp to La Fayette, gave 1,500 acres of land, then valued at a dollar