some
degree of success, commercially if not artistically and acoustically
considered.

During the early period of the art, repairing was of a rough and ready
kind, chiefly in connection with damages sustained under ordinary
usage and accident; while extensive and costly renovating, such as is
so frequently undertaken at the present day, must have been of rare
occurrence, for the reason that it was then quite possible to get equal,
sometimes better, quality in quite new instruments which were being
sent forth every day by the resident makers. With the onward march of
time this has been changed; the art of the Italian liutaro having
reached its climax some century and a half back, the masterpieces
executed during that time are gradually diminishing in number and
cannot be replaced by instruments having a sufficiently high degree
of excellence; naturally enough the skill of the repairer has been more
and more in requisition, so much so, that many who have shown
exceptional ability for this kind of work have achieved a reputation
for it alone, among the large circle of dealers in the principal cities
of Europe. The necessities of the time have thus brought into
prominence a modification of the art of the old Italian liutaro, in
which there has to be displayed much more mechanical ingenuity if with
very little or no originality; the high class of artisan has become
strongly in evidence, while the artist has disappeared. It was in the
consideration of these facts that the idea was first suggested that
a work treating of the general methods adopted by professional
restorers for important work, coupled with helpful hints in the
management of minor injuries, would be interesting and acceptable to
amateur as well as professional repairers, besides the numerous
readers of THE STRAD, in the pages of which the following chapters were
first issued.

In sending out the matter in book form, some alterations and additions
have been, as usual, found advisable for completeness. All readers
readily admit the impossibility of touching upon one half of the
various accidents and ailments to which a violin is liable during its
usually long life; the most likely ones have therefore been taken, and
it is hoped that the suggested treatment of these cases may enable the
repairer to become sufficiently adept for undertaking such others,
serious, or slight, as may not have been here referred to.

Further, the author is hopeful that those readers