I'm intrigued by the Amati Single Owner Collection auction on 30/31 July.

[BernieR]

I have very little knowledge about the value of violins, I've never been to an auction. 

The violins in the collection were apparently interesting enough for them to be collected by a collector. Most of them are set up ready to play. From the photographs they mostly appear to be in decent condition. I'm speculating that the collector either acquired instruments in reasonable shape, or that they have been repaired. 

The estimated sale values seem ridiculously low, £10-£20 pounds is very common. Is it normal to set an extremely low value like this? Surely any "collectible" old violin in decent condition is worth ten times that amount? 

 

[Wood Butcher]

They have these kinds of sales all the time. It's not unusual.

Clearly you haven't read many of the threads here about eBay fodder and auction "bargains".
I'd also take collector with a pinch of salt too, single owner could mean many things. Probably not what you are thinking.

 

[matesic]

The £10-£20 estimate is just saying there is no estimate and no reserve. The "worth" of these violins (mostly anonymous, pseudonymous or by obscure makers with no market presence) is defined by what bidders are prepared to pay.

[BernieR]

12 hours ago, Wood Butcher said:

They have these kinds of sales all the time. It's not unusual.

Clearly you haven't read many of the threads here about eBay fodder and auction "bargains".
I'd also take collector with a pinch of salt too, single owner could mean many things. Probably not what you are thinking.

 

What would I have learned if I had read all those threads? 

[Spelman]

Much

[jamesbuchanan]

@BernieR I work at Amati, so hopefully I might be able to help a little.

The estimates of £10 - 20 are actually a quirk of a decision we made years ago. Our auction system needs the bidding to start somewhere so we settled on £10 to be the opening bid. Auctioneering habits die hard, so the estimates ended up being £10 - 20. It is our way of saying that the instruments are being sold (almost) at no reserve. 

We do have these auctions quite often. Frequently a vendor just wants instruments sold. This can be for a variety of reasons. A collection from Germany was sold to fund dementia care, this one is because a widow is selling her house and needs to clear her husband’s collection. Although it can be tempting to view motivations in the narrow focus of our industry, life events are far more frequently a motivating factor. At Christie’s we used to define the drivers as ‘death, divorce, debt and downsizing’. It still holds true. 

As for the definition of collectible violins being worth ten times more. The intention behind the auction is to let the market decide. You really don’t want me standing in the way of bidding by putting unrealistic estimates. At this point, I am happy to step out of the process and let the buyers form their own judgements.

If you have any questions, please feel free to DM me. I am not brilliant at checking Maestronet messages, but will keep an eye out for the next couple of days.

[BernieR]

On 7/15/2025 at 2:00 PM, jamesbuchanan said:

@BernieR I work at Amati, so hopefully I might be able to help a little.

The estimates of £10 - 20 are actually a quirk of a decision we made years ago. Our auction system needs the bidding to start somewhere so we settled on £10 to be the opening bid. Auctioneering habits die hard, so the estimates ended up being £10 - 20. It is our way of saying that the instruments are being sold (almost) at no reserve. 

We do have these auctions quite often. Frequently a vendor just wants instruments sold. This can be for a variety of reasons. A collection from Germany was sold to fund dementia care, this one is because a widow is selling her house and needs to clear her husband’s collection. Although it can be tempting to view motivations in the narrow focus of our industry, life events are far more frequently a motivating factor. At Christie’s we used to define the drivers as ‘death, divorce, debt and downsizing’. It still holds true. 

As for the definition of collectible violins being worth ten times more. The intention behind the auction is to let the market decide. You really don’t want me standing in the way of bidding by putting unrealistic estimates. At this point, I am happy to step out of the process and let the buyers form their own judgements.

If you have any questions, please feel free to DM me. I am not brilliant at checking Maestronet messages, but will keep an eye out for the next couple of days.

Thank you James, that's an interesting response.