MALLER, LAUX

, Venice. This artiste was an early and highly esteemed maker of lutes. Mace in his curious and very interesting book, "Music's Monument," mentions him as one of the best authors, _i.e._ makers. He also says he has "seen two of his lutes ('pittiful, battered, cracked Things,') valued at £100 apiece." Mace's book was published in 1676. Think of £100 for a lute two hundred years ago, when the value of money was at least six times less than it is now! This would make the comparative value of a "battered" old lute about £600, a sum (with the exception of the King Joseph Guarnerius, mentioned elsewhere) exceeding the highest price we have heard of in modern times. Even the most splendid and perfect violins of Stradiuarius have never realised as much as this "pittiful battered lute!" In the face of this fact (as we suppose it is) we cannot be surprised that enthusiastic amateurs should in the present day give such large prices for the splendid productions of the great Cremona Makers.