Appraising a violin for value is a tricky business, with more than a few places not doing it? Violin appraisal is looking at the quality of the build of a violin, its sound and then also its historical value. Un-picking these three components of a violin during appraisal I find helpful in determining the value of a violin. But it’s not without its challenges. (See How much is my violin worth).
For modern instruments from a reputation brand or maker, appraisal is more straight forward and google can really help here. Of course you also need to consider the providence, or how the current own (and owner before them) came by the instrument to ensure it is authentically what it purports to be.
Older violins are much harder to appraise, labels to the uninitiated can be misleading at best, age can be faked, many in the trade are unwilling to appraise such instruments. For example most if not every instrument label as a Stradivari is labelled so at best as a homage to the famed maker, or indicates a copy of one of his models and the same is true for the instruments copied of other famous makers like Guarneri, Maggini and Amati’s in the wild.
Less kindly there is an entire business around “antiquing” of both instruments and the labels inside them , with dust, staining and even “tone balls” added to give a sense of age. In the trade valuing of these instruments is acknowledged as difficult to do, even with a encyclopaedic knowledge and years of experience, where there is intent to deceive by a maker it can be tricky to detect. There is the business of fake repairs, fake neck grafts etc… to give an impression of age.
Through the quality of the timbers, construction on the insides and sound one can learn much about an instrument during appraisal.
How old is it, where was it made and ultimately how much is it worth are the common questions i am asked during appraisal.
Usually I can give a pretty good idea, though where I have some uncertainty I often refer on to someone else, in particular with higher quality older instruments. Usually my estimates come in the same ball park as my collegues..but not always.
