Three13

The seller - who has multiple accounts - seems to spend most of his time tarting up Chinese fiddles. I was shown one of them in hand a couple years ago. He'd gone to the trouble of faking pins on the back, and inserted a not-particularly-convincing J. Rocca label.

And never forget that the buyer's premium is a part of the total cost of the item.

This one doesn't seem to resemble the examples that I've seen that are now attributed to Rogeri - I'd love to know what people think about it...

It looks like someone saw a Degani, a Cavalli, or a Blanchi and wanted to push that sort of fluting to its logical extreme.

Julien's seems to get all the money for stuff like that, but they're greedy and obnoxious to deal with.

It's not a terrible idea to put a throwaway lot right after a marquee item at auction - if you go to a lot of sales, you'll notice that the lot immediately after something newsworthy will often underperform. Now that most auctions are as internet-driven as they are, it's not as dramatic, but 15-20 years ago, I started making a habit of figuring these "next lots" because they so frequently fell through the cracks.

The provenance for this fiddle that was reported by the treasury at Innsbruck might offer a clue as to its origin: https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/349033-can-we-talk-about-f-holes/&do=findComment&comment=938632

There are plenty of situations where my approach is that of a dealer, but the ones where I've done the best have tended to be objects where I've been - in essence - a long-term collector. The most successful collectors that I've known have all developed their expertise to the point where they have ended up playing dealer with some frequency. edited to add - My experience with collectibles as an investment is that those approach the subject as an investor get wiped out, and those who do quite well tend to be obsessive collectors, who - ironically - don't value money as much as the object.

If you took a sampling stock from a random assortment of companies over time and tracked its performance, you could wind up with the same conclusion. Expertly chosen collectibles perform, junk/average stuff doesn't. I buy and sell various collectibles for a living, and have managed to routinely outperform the stock market with my own tangible investments, but that seems to be a function of expertise.

That’s nuts.

Can anyone ID this stamp?

I couldn't say whether there were bargains, but none of the high end lots saw bids - perhaps some buyers are pulling in their horns with everything that's going on. I think the problem right now is that it's impossible to game out what's going to happen with dollars/tangibles/etc. in the mid-term. I'm trying to buy a house in Northern California right now (I must be a masochist, an idiot, or both), and aging the down payment is giving me a case of the screaming fantods.

That's just stunning. The letter in the Dipper article is the only primary source document that I'm aware of (there could be more) that specifically ties Lupot to Pique's varnish: "I beg you, if you can do me the favor at this time to have some of your oil varnish for a few violins, I being short in this time and not having the time to make it. I made some four years ago, that I used up until this time; However, in Paris it is not very convenient to do this, we would need a yard or garden (for the process). As I have two violins to varnish immediately, I would be obliged if you would send me this in a small bottle with rocourt (annatto) to put before the ground coat of saffron, I am not in a particular hurry for the two violins that I mentioned." Assuming that the letter is genuine, we can reasonably conclude that Lupot didn't rely on Pique as a supplier of varnish for at least four years prior to the letter, but when he found himself in a pinch, he tried to get Pique to send him some. Given their relationship, it's doubtful that Pique would have refused him, but - as Jeffrey pointed out - none of us were there...

When he was in a pinch: https://stringsmagazine.com/a-look-at-parisian-violin-makers-approach-to-varnish/

Jefferey, that's stunning - what period is it? 1810ish?