John Weeks Moore

“ Wishing, in their turn, to be original, and not reflecting that the true principles of making violins were established, they made some alterations in the principles they had received, in flattening the tops, increasing the thickness, and diminishing the model. They have given a great celebrity to their works, but it is to be regretted that their fourth string should possess an excessive dryness, and that it should be, so to speak, sacrificed to their others. ”

“ He was born at Stuttgart, the 4th of December, 1758, and received from his father the first elements of the art which he pushed to so high a degree. After having long worked under the best masters of Germany, he set himself to study the models of the celebrated artists of whom we have just spoken. ”

“ Wishing to have a model of his own, he began to shorten that which is in common use. His numerous counterfeiters, without suspecting it, have all missed this mark, in restoring to their imitations the accustomed width. The brilliancy of the tone of the instruments of Steiner makes amends for what thew lack in volume; likewise his violins are better adaptec the music of a chamber than to that of a conc.
"Antoine Stradivarius, of Cremona, was the most perfect of all the manufacturers of Italy. ”