IT WAS NOT AN ANTIQUITY
THE HISTORY OF A CHEAP VIOLIN WITH LOFTY AMBITIONS.

A DEALER CHARGED WITH SELLING A FIFTY-CENT FIDDLE FOR A SIXTEENTH CENTURY DUIFFOPRUGCAR.

Published: October 30, 1890 (Copyright The New York Times) (view original article)

The attention of the musical world in general, and of New-York in particular, will be drawn in a few days to a case which will be called for trial in the Court of Common Pleas in this city. The suit is that of Miss Maud Powell, the violinist, against Victor S. Flechter, who pretends to be a dealer in old violins, and who does business at 23 Union Square. Miss Powell charges Flechter with obtaining money under false pretenses, and she seeks to recover the difference between $500, which she paid for an instrument, and $50, which is its real maximum value. When the violinist in various parts of the country, of greater or less repute, who have bought instruments of Flechter, learn the true inwardness of this case, they will look to their fiddles with a solicitude born of very natural suspicion. To others who have had business with Flechter in the courts in the past the developments will be in the nature of a confirmation of charges heretofore brought against him.

Miss Powell, who is a niece of Major J. W. Powell, the explorer and surveyor, is a young woman of twenty-three years, who has won renown as a violinist both in this country and in Europe. Four years ago she went to Flechter's store and found a violin having the appearance of an antiquity. "Mr. Flechter told me," she said to a TIMES reporter yesterday, "that it was a genuine Gaspard Duiffoprugcar, and that it was worth $1,000".  The fiddle seemed to my inexperienced eyes to be genuine, and, after mature deliberation, I bought it for $500, with the assurance from Mr. Flechter that it could be sold at any time for double that amount. Flechter is a man of pleasing appearance and suave manner, and at the time, so far as I knew, he had an honorable reputation in the trade. He told me to be very careful of the fiddle and not to tell what I had paid for it, owing to the greatly reduced price for which it had been sold. He had only sold it to me, he said, because he was personally interested in me and my work.

Two years later I had occasion to have the fiddle repaired, and took it to a dealer named Knopf of 92 Third Avenue. The very moment he saw it his face brightened and he exclaimed: 'Oh, yes. I've seen this before. You bought it of Flechter, did you not?' I told him I had, and then he asked what I had paid for it. When I said $500 the good man almost fainted. Then he got his account book and showed me the entry. He had sold my 'Duiffoprugcar' to Flechter for $40! He had bought it, he said, from an actor named Whiffen of the Lyceum Theatre, and it had lain on his shelves for a long time without a purchaser.

"Then it all dawned upon me. Time and again I had noticed that my fiddle was unwieldy, and had stated my objections to Flechter. But he said that I would become accustomed to it, and that it was my fault rather than the instrument's. But the more I played, the more faults the thing seemed to possess. It is not what musicians call a responsive instrument. In the fine shades of phrasing it refused to meet me half way, as it should do. It never helped me. I always seemed to be playing on it, rather that with it. I never felt as though I could put my arms around my fiddle and feel that I had an affection for it. But it is all clear now, for I have expert testimony that my fine-hundere-dollar 'Duiffoprugcar' is made by the carload at Miercour, in Southern France, where they are sold at $6 a dozen."

Miss Powell permitted the reporter to examine the violin, which is a dark-colored instrument, seemingly greatly worn with use and discolored with age. Through one of the F-shaped sound haloes in the belly there may be seen, pasted to the inner side of the back, a label greatly discolored and barely decipherable, containing these words:

GASPARD DUIFFOPRUGCAR.
Bononiensis, Anno 1515.

The counterfeit is remarkable. Wasaielenski, Court Director of Music in Vienna, in his work on "The Violin and its Masters," says that there are but two or three Duiffoprugcars in existence. His description of one of these would seem to be the model upon which Miss Powell's counterfeit was made. "The frame is bulky," says Wasaielenski, "and at the end of the handle there is a carved head of a bearded old man, with fat cheeks." This corresponds exactly with the bogus fiddle, as does also the explanation that Duiffoprugcar lived in Bologne, which finds corroboration in the "Bononiensis" of the label. Other points of agreement are the inlaid work on the back of the instrument and a small painting of a male and a female figure near its shoulders. The whole thing is as complete a counterfeit as could be made, and it is doubtful if the best connoisseur in the land could have detected it.

The unwieldiness of the violin is its most objectionable feature, and the one of which Mme. Urso and other violinists who have handled it have most frequently complained. But its builder only aimed, in this particular, to make the counterfeit the more exact, for his authority was again Wasaielenski, who writes, "to Duiffoprugcar belongs the honor of first making stringed instrument; hence the large model, which is the natural condition of the primitive violin." Hart, the English authority on this subject, expresses the belief that there are no Duiffoprugears in existence, which tends to show that the description given by the Austrian musician and antiquarian is the model upon which the counterfeit was made.

So much for the fiddle; now for Flechter. This is not the first time his counterfeits have come back to him. Only last Winter Max Bendix, leader of the first violins in the Thomas Orchestra, brought suit against him under nearly the same circumstances as has Miss Powell. Flechter sold Bendix a fiddle which he declared was an old Italian make, and for which Bendix paid $500 down and was to pay the rest in installments. When the Thomas Orchestra went to Cincinnati Bendix met Henri Schradiek of the Cincinnati Conservatory. "I hear you have a famous new fiddle," said Schradieck. "Yes," san Bendix, whereupon he proudly unlocked the case of this old Italian treasure. Hardly had he thrown the silk covering off the violin when an exclamation of astonishment came from Schradieck's lips. "My old fiddle!" he gasped, "which I sold for $50."

Having fully confirmed Schradieck's statements Bendix returned to New-York and brought suit against Flechter for having obtained money under false pretenses. He lost his care, however, for Flecter alleged that as all the installments had not been paid on the tiddle it was not yet Bendix's property. Morraly, however, Bendix won his suit, for Flechter at no time attempted to prove that the instrument was anything more than a base counterfeit.

It is said further that John F. Rhodes and Michael Banner, two well-known violinists have had similar experiences with Flechter, and a suit is now pending in which Mr. Winslow, an amateur of Chicago, seeks to recover a fancy price which he paid Flechter for a bogus Amati. There is a fiddle in this city to-day, in which the violinsists of the world take the utmost interest because of its alleged and presumably authentic antiquity, which was bought of Flechter for $2,700, and which is a counterfeit. THE TIMES is not at liberty at present to state the name of the owner of this instrument, but it will probably be announced when the case is investigated.

Each of the bogus fiddles that were described to the reporter was made, it was said, at Miercour, in Southern France. In addition to the artifices described in the making of Miss Powell's "Duiffoprugcar," these fiddles are covered with a preparation which sinks into the wood, thus seasoning it artificially. For one or two years after this treatment the violin seems to gain great resonance, and its mellow tone, together with its antiquated appearance, at once commends it to the notice of antiquarians. At the end of a few years, however, the mellowness is supplanted by a very hard sound that excites the suspicion of the expert ear and leads to just such revelations as those which now threaten the dealer Flechter.

The reputation which he holds among musicians is far from good. In a burst of impassioned virtue he recently sought to vindicate his good name by bringing suit for libel against Prof. Frauko, a musical conductor, who called him "a liar and a thief." This suit is now pending in the criminal court before Judge Smythe. An interesting point as brought out in the examination last week when such witnesses as Prof. Lichtenberg, Michael Banner, and Mr. Gemunder testified that they would not believe Flechter under oath.

It is said among those who know him best that there are other little irregulatities attaching to his good name. Yesterday's edition of the Musical Courier contains the following editorial paragraph, which THE TIMES is informed concerns nobody else but Flechter:

    "A rascally fraud violin dealer, who sells stenciled violins and 'cellos, who misreprensents the instrument he offers for sale, who perjures himself by systematic undervaluation of invoices, and who ought therefore be prosecuted by the Government; who, in short, is a swindler, casts obloquy upon the whole violin trade, and damages it by making the business unpopular and subject to suspicion on the part of the public at large. All dealers in fine violins should combine to drive the rascal out of the business, simply as a matter of self-protection and also as a method of purification. Get rid of him. He is a constant menace to the prosperity of the trade in fine violins."

Flechter is reputed to be a man of wealth. He lives in a fashionable up-town neighborhood, and is famous among his friends as a giver of champagne dinners. A TIMES report called at Flechter's place in Union Square yesterday and asked him what he had to say to the charges. "It is unfortunate," he said, "that I should be dragged into court on this case while I have the Franko case on my hands. I can only say that Miss Powell is very ungrateful. It was I who made her reputation among the New-York musicians, and now she turns upon me with a charge that is evidently inspired by some envious dealer who is not making as much money as I am. How was I to know that the instrument was not a Duiffoprugcar? It had his name in it, and persons who buy such antiquities buy them for their name alone. It is just so with persons who buy autographs and other curiosities. I am too proud of my reputation to risk it in a fraudulent practice of any sort."

Mr. Flechter also produced a book containing the names of Sarassate, Musin, and other bright lights in the musical firmament, who, he said, were patrons of his. It was noticed, however, that many of the persons therein named were those who had brought suit against Flechter or those who had publicly denounced him as a swindler and a cheat.

The case in which his reputation is to be put to the test will probably come up for trial to-day or to-morrow. Musical connoisseurs and violin experts will be present from all parts of the country. They all know Flechter.