Second-tier Bargains for Instrument Investors
Find a good investment by thinking outside the box
"The challenge," says Ketty Keane," head of musical instruments at Christie's International auction house, "is to ask players to look outside of what they know as a viable instrument." He means something that sounds great and projects. Pros often believe that only an Italian—especially a rare 18th-century Italian that sells for six or seven figures—will do, but the days when a working musician could afford a beat-up Gagliano are long gone. And even 19th-century Italians are out of the financial reach of most, leaving musicians to look elsewhere for something to play. So what's a string player to do?
One of Keane's favorites from Christie's October 12 sale was not Italian at all, but a great-sounding Tyrolean, from Bolzano, that piqued the interest of a lot of players. "Tyrolean," he says, "is tossed out to demean an instrument, but there were some magnificent makers." Among them Matthias Albani, a follower of Stainer and a fine copyist. The perception that highly arched Stainer outlines don't project simply isn't true, says Keane. Handled correctly by the maker and properly set up, the arching works perfectly. The circa 1680 Albani flew past its $15,000-$25,000 estimate to sell at $46,600, a new record for the maker.
Keane also recommends considering Dutch and French makers.
"If the craftsmanship and tonal quality are there," he says, "why not?"
Another genre of instruments that has long been generating interest is 20th-century Italians. Prices for this genre have recently taken a significant leap, says David Bonsey of Skinner's. The $95,000 paid last year at Christie's for an Enrico Rocca might have been seen as a spike, he says, but the sale of a 1915 Rocca at Skinner's October auction for $105,000 confirms the price hike.
There goes the neighborhood . . .
Several record prices were paid for the next tier of modern Italians this season, including $55,000 for a viola by Marino Capicchioni (1895-1977) of Rimini. A fine place for black linguini or fried calamari, Keane suggests, but not exactly the epicenter of violin making. Capicchioni was a talented woodworker who started as a cooper, learned to make guitars, and taught himself violin making. According to his son Mario, who followed in his footsteps, Capicchioni made only one mention of visiting another violin maker during his formative years. Still, he showed prodigious talent, winning a gold medal at the Padua Exposition in 1931 and medals for a quintet at the 1937 Stradivari Bicentenary Competition in Cremona. He was also prolific—by 1948 he had made 380 instruments.
Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrach, Salvatore Accardo, and Rostropovich all owned instruments by Capicchioni.
If Rimini was not a center of violin making in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Milan certainly was. Christie's, Skinner, and Tarisio all offered instruments from the modern Milanese school last fall. As violin expert Phillip Kass explains, the Cremonese tradition was transplanted to Milan in the 19th century by Riccardo Antoniazzi. He was a pupil of Enrico Ceruti, the last of the great line of violin makers of Cremona. And so, says Kass, the Milan-school product derived from the work of Ceruti.
Because of its location, east of France, south of Switzerland, Milan has long been a crossroads, with the money and infrastructure to support a bustling instrument trade. In terms of sheer quantity, Milan couldn't match Mirecourt or Markneukirchen, says Keane, but it was a center of dealing in fine instruments, which gave its makers a serious advantage over makers in less cosmopolitan places.
Indeed, the Milan workshop of Leandro Bisiach, a student of Antoniazzi, generated a lot of traffic.
"Leandro had a great talent as a maker," notes Kass, "but he had other great talents. He had a keen eye and was an astute businessman, and so he rapidly became known as a leading expert and connoisseur. Many of the greatest masterpieces passed through his hands. Expert repairs became an important part of his work, with standards that set the pace for others."
Bisiach was also an active concert violinist.
Many of his students or assistants went on to become top makers, including his four sons: Andrea, Carlo, Giacomo, and Leandro, Jr. The two youngest sons carried on the family business as Giacomo and Leandro Bisiach until 1973. Leandro, Jr., was still making violins for exhibition in 1974.
Among the Bisiach-school instruments sold in the October United States auctions were a violin by Giuseppe Pedrazzini, 1906, for $39,400 at Christie's; a 1939 violin by Giacomo and Leandro Bisiach for $22,325 at Skinner; a violin attributed to Giuseppe Ornatti, 1937, at Tarisio for $18,720; a violin by Sesto Rocchi, 1975, at Tarisio for $21,060; and four violins by Iginio Sderci, all at Tarisio.
