His most noted violins were the sixteen "Elector Steiners," one
sent to each of the Electors and four to the Emperor. During his life
the average price of his violins was six florins. A century after his
death the Duke of Orleans, Louis Philippe's grandfather, paid 3,500
florins for one of them. It is also recorded that an American gentleman
on La Fayette's staff, in the Revolutionary War, exchanged for a Steiner
1,500 acres of the tract where Pittsburg now stands. Mozart's violin, in
the Mozarteum at Salzburg, is a Steiner.
Many violin-makers did good work in the past, many are achieving success
to-day. It has been confidently asserted that the violin reached its
highest possibilities in the old Brescian and Cremona days. Why should
this be the case? The same well-defined principles, based on acoustics
and other modern sciences, that have led to the steady improvement of
other musical instruments ought surely to be of some advantage to the
violin. Indeed, who knows but the day may come when the present will be
considered its golden age.
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