Excerpt from A Treatise on the Structure and Preservation of the Violin and All Other Bow-Instruments: Together With an Account of the Most Celebrated Makers, and of the Genuine Characteristics of Their Instruments In the present age, Music forms one of the favorite occupations of polished society, and frequently affords the highest gratification, as well in the small domestic circle as in large assemblies. Parents of cultivated minds often expend much money in providing their children with a talented musical instructor, and spare no expense in the purchase of an instrument: but, unless possessed of sufficient knowledge to guide them, they are often exposed to gross imposition, as I have frequently observed in repairing instruments. Many parents, for instance, have given from six to ten pistoles for a violin which was scarcely worth as many dollars. In consideration of this, and as it is but reasonable to suppose that a man must be thoroughly acquainted with the business which he follows, I have been induced to draw up a minute description of the construction of the violin and all other bow-instruments, together with a careful explanation of the forms of the genuine Italian instruments, by which they may be clearly distinguished from the spurious imitations. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.