John Alexander Mann

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By William Meredith Morris

Mann was a remarkable person in many respects, and in some unique. He was never more at home than when amongst curious machines, nor more at ease than when evolving mechanical intricacies. He was for many years the right-hand man of the conjurer, J. H. Anderson — "The Wizard of the North." His mystical proclivities and love of the occult followed him to the atelier, if we are to believe the apocryphal revelations of a well-known author. I regret that careful investigation has led me to doubt the correctness of many of the tales anent the intercourse between him and Vuillaume, and I prefer to leave these, however idyllic their character, severely alone. The fewer instruments attributed to Mann which I have had the fortune to see were not calculated to rouse the connoisseur into ecstatic utterance. They were beautifully made, but timid and tame. They reminded one of Sir Joshua Reynolds' criticism of a picture. The great painter was standing before a painting by another celebrated artist one day, and on being asked his opinion of the work, replied : " It wants — it wants — d-n me ! it wants that." Nothing aggravates the connoisseur like frigid monotony. No genius in the poetical world ever reached the summit of Parnassus by a path previously made, and no two great violin-makers ever walk exactly the same road.

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