Victor Roman

You should not make anything out of it. Mr. Suzuki might have been a wonderful enthousiast but his violin playing skills were not even average. Then, all the picture shows is what he was comfortable with at that ( photographic ) moment.

In my personal opinion I don't see an easy way to figure out if instruments by a particular maker will appreciate or not in value. I could well be wrong but as I see things the demand is dropping and will drop further and fast as economies misfire. I am not familiar with various contemporary makers but I can say that in Europe you should look at instruments by Roger Hargrave. I personally know they are used by CM's, Conservatory teachers and Soloists for serious concerts and comercial recordings. In the US, I was very impressed by three violins by Mr. David Burgess of which I received extensive sound samples from a third party. Personally, I would not buy a violin "younger" than five years ( three at a push ). New violins change in tone and couple of years down the line you might not like it. And I would ask for some sort of written guarantee against defective workmanship / materials and in particular I would ask for firm assurance that "white glue" was not used in making the violin.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/estimate "to guess or calculate the cost, size, value, etc. of something"

Absolutely beats me why smart people do not understand an appraisal is just an informed guess.

Were they bought to be worn ?????????

Agrred and I don't think anybody could argue with that. But the old discussion was about the effect of the tone on the selling price, when wishful thinking translates to reality....

1. This might be incorrect in YOUR case, reasons escape me. In general, in the art world it is common to appraise at values higher than what could be realised comfortably at the time of the appraisal. There is really absolutely nothing to discuss here... Unless the object has been sold and money is in the bank the appraisal figure remains a fiction albeit a superbly informed one. Notice the huge oscillations at auction for the art segment : sometimes less, many times much more than the appr. value. Why did you think "reserve" has been invented ?? 2. Very uncommon does not mean "not at all". It does happen albeit not often and I know of a few cases of "X's instrument is for sale"... I am pretty sure you know, too. To further clarify : if a violin has been appraised at $nnn and later was found to have been mistakenly attributed etc etc... It seems it happened to the best of them.

Yes and no... Premiums go up and depreciation takes a bite. Often takes all of it.

1. The apraised price is a fiction. It is replaced by reality when the goods need to be sold. 2. That is not as uncommon as you might think.

I mean no disrespect but do you realise how utterly nonsensical this sounds to normal people ?

This is true and I personally know that at least in the 60s there was in Eastern Europe a tiny industry specializing in improving indifferent factory violins and from what I have seen with good results. My understanding was that wood quality was most important and ( to my chagrin ) the reason Romanian violins could not be satisfactorily improved as once they got "better" the A string would suffer.

Sorry - I remembered a third one...

I knew of one - who BTW won at Paganini and another one who did pretty well at Tch. If one tries many violins over decades and if one can actually play violin... one finds once in a while an exceptional one originating from an indiferent stable.

Thank you very mmuch for an absolutely wonderful post to which I could add very little, if anything. One may come up with many strategies and I think in the end personal impression of the sound and playability is paramount. I confess that I never over concerned myself with string "adjustments" when playing in an orchestra but I payed some attention when acting as a CM or in a quartet. In those cases I asked and received the opinion of wonderfully qualified people. I'm pretty sure it always pays to seek a 2nd opinion.... Again, thank you !

Sure. I read some of his posts - quite a few actually. He was a very talented man and in general a wonderful contributor.