twcellist

I damaged a cello and I need to ship it internationally (From Taiwan to Florida) Anybody have any recommendations and/or experience with 3rd party shipping insurance companies? I was looking at DHL and they wanted to charge $640 to insure $32,000 USD. Any feedback/advice is greatly appreciated.

Lol... I actually had to look that up because it pre-dates me.

I also recently discovered the Aria from Samson and Deliliah by Saint Saens that was transcribed for cello and actually performed it at a recital. The first time I heard it I instantly fell in love.

Anybody know where I can get the score for Dvorak’s Song to the Moon for cello? I LOVE this version played by Gautier Capucon. Is it basically the violin score played directly played on cello?

We all know that a $69 violin is going to sound and play like crap so this was just more a comical video if anything. What would have been more meaningful is compare modern professional grade against the Strad, but then I’m guessing nobody wants to hear that modern instrument could be better.

No problem. This is all fascinating stuff!

My personal feeling is today is a MUCH different time than 1949. We’re a far more sophisticated and sadly litigious society now ...

Thanks StanY. I know this is not a jewelry forum, but I was mentioning this mainly to point out similarities in the fine musical instrument business when it comes to certifications and leading authorities/experts. Overall, because we're talking about hundred of thousands of dollars it's something to think about.

Would this be the same if the instrument is on consignment? I mean for sure if the shop purchased the cello and owned it then I would think/expect that the shop would be more willing to take responsibility for what they sell mainly to protect their name and reputation. Is it safe to say that if a shop is willing to sell on consignment then they obviously have high confidence in what they're selling and are willing to be responsible should things not be authentic.?

Wow! That's a crazy story about the experts, but then as I'm learning more about this business I realize it's not that surprising I guess. This is turning out to be kind of the same deal as the jewelry business. Certification companies like GIA, GRS, Gublin, etc are the one's setting the standards in terms how stones are rated, but the problem is nobody's regulating these certification companies. For example, a jeweler friend of my told me one time he got a colored stone rated by a certification company (I won't name the exact one) 20 years ago and it was fancy vivid yellow, but then when he got an updated cert from the same company they rated it fancy intense. For those of you who don't know stone rating "fancy vivid" is more desirable that"fancy intense" and the downgrade in the rating meant the value of almost a 20 % drop in value. When my friend questioned the certification company why the rating dropped they said they're grading standards became more stringent. Another time a good friend of mine was going to buy a unheated ruby that was certified unheated by two certification companies, but my friend insisted on getting another cert from a 3rd company. Well, the 3rd company said the stone was heat treated and well the difference between heat treated and unheated ruby in this case was $500K. So at the end of the day whether it's fine musical instruments or fine jewelry this whole thing about certs is very concerning. I guess sometimes you just have to go with your gut and in the long run hope for the best!

I'd like to share a positive experience with dendro. Last year in May Tarisio T2 had a cello that was labeled a Rugeri and it had documentation saying that the cello was belonged to a famous cellist in the 30's and was a documented Francesco Rugeri, but then in 1994 a certificate was written and it was determined to be "Follower or Rugeri". At the time I was naive and I was thinking maybe I would try to buy this cello that I thought was a Rugeri and spend money to fix it up, but luckily I had heard/read about dendro and decided that for $300 it was worth running a report out of my own pocket before plunking down $20K. Well, I'm glad I did! When the results came back they said the wood was from 1720, but that it was not old enough to be a Francesco Rugeri because because he died in 1698. They later suspected the cello was probably a cello made during the French Revolution from around 1740. So, in this instance yes while dendro couldn't pin down who was the maker at least it was able to confirm that based on age of the wood that it wasn't a real Francesco Rugeri. If I do decide to go forward and make a serious offer on this cello I for sure will run a dendro. I mean god forbid if they ran the dendro and it says the wood is after when Grancino was alive then we would have a serious issue ... . On the flip side maybe I get lucky and I've heard that sometime when they run the dendro they can sometimes cross-reference against other instruments in the database and through that they can possible make a positive ID that the cello likely is a Grancino. So, for me the dendro is for piece of mind and to give more confidence. Yes, I'm beginning to realize that in the fine musical instrument industry there is no 100% guarantee with anything (same is true in life), but my whole thing is to do as much as possible so that for me and down the line other people feel at ease with the authenticity. I mean between 3 certs written 40 years ago, a potential new cert and dendro if they all point to Grancino then I think that would provide a higher confidence level

I’ve come across a very fine 300 year old Italian Cello with 3 certificates. One from Etienne Vatelot written 1981, one from Fritz Baumgartner written in 1971, and one from Daniel Moinel written in 1971. I for sure will be getting a dendro done on this cello should I decide to seriously consider buying this cello, but in the long run I assume it’s necessary to get new certs to not only protect the value, but potentially to increase the value? Any suggestion/advice would be greatly appreciated since this is quite a significant amount of money being invested.

Ah.. I didn't realize the discussion would be about the color of the wood, but I guess this is possible reason why it's not desirable. I do know one time at Tarisio there was a cello made in the mid 1950's made by another Italian maker that was also this kind of bleached color. I thought the cello sounded nice, but my cellist friend said that color wasn't good for investment purposes, but he didn't explain why. For me as a personal preference I'm not such a fan of this color, but if the sound quality and craftsmanship are good then it would be worth looking at, especially for the price.

Ah... now that you bring up the A string yes I remember! It was a really old and crappy A and when they changed it the sound greatly improved. Overall though for me I wasn't too overly impressed with the sound, but yeah that's just my opinion.

Does anybody have any thoughts about the Claudio Amighetti cello on Bromtpon's June 2020 auction? Did anybody happen to have a chance to try it out in person? It looks like this cello actually sold in March, but I'm guessing with COVID the deal fell apart and it's re-listed.