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martin swan

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  1. They also have to do the accounts, service their neurotic clients, attend trade fairs and concerts, network at VM events, and advertise themselves. Most also take in repair work to keep the lights on. We should also consider who the average violin full-time maker is. The vast majority of violins are made by full-time makers whose names aren't known - actually very few people engaged in making violins could possibly make a living on 10-12 violins a year. I don't wish any disrespect to those who spend a couple of hundred hours on a violin - I merely point out that this is high altitude making.
  2. I also know a great maker who can produce a complete violin in a week. Obviously this isn't possible with a slow drying varnish, and it assumes a level of tool skills that can only be achieved in childhood or adolescence, and absolute concentration on the task at hand. For quite a while we worked with a maker in Reghin who produced 5 white instruments a month, with no power tools apart from a small bandsaw. But he used an outside mold, worked on several instruments at a time, and as far as I could tell he had no outside interests or demands on his time. These days I find it difficult to write a 5 minute Maestronet post without breaking off to do something else
  3. I was thinking that for every person who has sold a Strad there are probably a hundred who haven’t … but then it occurred to me that every time a Strad is sold at least 20 people claim to have sold it.
  4. I have some experience in failing to sell Strads. Does that count?
  5. Looks to me like a Maire/Pajeot « workshop » bow great button modification!
  6. the slipped Disc comments section is a uniquely warm environment … if you’re into burning witches
  7. This thread will be deleted too But I take their point - there can hardly be more than 150 luthiers in Cremona following the classic artisanal traditions. And of course many of them aren’t even Italian. The one thing we can say for sure about Mauro Lucini is that he’s Italian. That’s surely worth a monthly cheque …
  8. I don’t disagreed with you, but if you’re in business it makes sense to learn about your biases and overcome those which aren’t profitable. With bitter experience you learn what you can sell something for and can therefore assess what you should buy it for. If you do that with a degree of rigour then this “winner’s curse” concept doesn’t apply. One might say that any purchase is cursed since there’s always a theoretical possibility that you might have used the money better. Looking at estimates is a fool’s game.
  9. Well, generally with an item like this it’s a compromise between the algorithms of the auction house and the expectations of the seller. And then there’s internal competition between auction houses to get the high profile sales. So I don’t believe it’s quite as failsafe as you make it out to be …
  10. I thought that after their last drubbing on Mastronet they might have reined in the purple prose a bit
  11. There is a world of difference between the behaviour of professional bidders and that of amateurs. There is also a world of difference between the Joachim Ma and the lady Blunt, which might have given Tarisio pause …
  12. I’ve never come across an “investor” who wasn’t extremely interested in musical considerations. Most high level investor sales involve extensive blind trials and jurys … Of course there are unscrupulous dealerships who will flog a wormy knackered ship of theseus to an old myopic deaf foggy under the aegis of an investment scheme, but that’s increasingly rare. This is an age of extreme scepticism.
  13. No I think the price was pretty realistic. The problem for me lies elsewhere … very public sales create spurious data. With any auction result, unless you know the specific instrument intimately that result is relatively meaningless. And yet it’s shouted from the rooftops.
  14. I don't think anyone's making a moral judgment, but it's bad news for all those collectors and foundations who bought their Golden Period Strads for a good deal more ...
  15. This is a modern violin.
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