737), the great violin-maker worked
industriously, and produced a large number of instruments, but a far
greater number are attributed to him than he could possibly have made.
His usual price for a violin was about twenty dollars, (Haweis says
fifty dollars), but a fine specimen from his hand now sells in the
auction room for hundreds of dollars. In 1888, a Stradivarius violin
brought the large sum of five thousand dollars, and double this sum was
paid a few years since for the celebrated "Messie" violin, made by
Stradivarius in 1716, and still in perfect condition. Count Cozio di
Salabue had bought it in 1760, but never allowed it to be played upon,
and when he died (about 1824) it was purchased by that remarkable
"violin hunter," Luigi Tarisio. Thirty years later, he, too, passed
over to the majority, and his friend, the Parisian violin-maker
Vuillaume, bought the "Messie" from Tarisio's heirs, along with about
two hundred and fifty other fiddles, many of which were of the greatest
rarity and value. Vuillaume kept the "Messie" in a glass case and
never allowed any one to touch it, and many anxious days he passed
during the Commune, fearing for his musical treasures. However, they
luckily escaped the dangers of the time, and when, in 1875, Vuillaume
died, the "Messie" became the property of his daughter, who was the
wife of M. Alard, the celebrated teacher of the violin. From his
executors it was bought in 1890 for 2,000 pounds, for the English
gentleman who now possesses this most famous of all the works of
Stradivarius. Charles Reade, the novelist, who was a lover of the
violin and an expert in such matters, in 1872 had thought this
instrument to be worth 600 pounds, so that its value had trebled in
less than twenty years. The celebrated violinist, Ole Bull, owned a
Stradivarius violin, dated 1687, and inlaid with ebony and ivory, which
is said to have been made for a king of Spain. In the "Tales of a
Wayside Inn" Longfellow speaks of it:

"The instrument on which he played
Was in Cremona's workshop made,
By a great master of the past
Ere yet was lost the art divine;

* * * *

"Exquisite was it in design,
Perfect in each minutest part,
A marvel of the lutist's art;
And in its hollow chamber, thus,
The maker from whose hands it came
Had written his unrivalled name,--
'Antonius Stradivarius.'"

Haweis, in his admirable book on "Old Violins," reproduces