Nicolas Lupot Violin & Peccatte-style Bow
Watch
GUEST:
My husband got the violin in 1965 or so, and he got it from a violin shop in Washington, DC.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
Now, before I met him, he had seen this violin in that same shop, and wanted to buy it, but he couldn't afford it at the time, and then in the meantime, we got married, and things got a little better. He went to get it, and it was gone. It had been sold. And, of course, he was really heartbroken about that. But as years went on, about maybe five years later, he got a call from the shop and said, "That violin is back." He bought it. He was a very proud owner.
APPRAISER:
Was he a professional player?
GUEST:
Yes, he was. He was a violinist all his life, and teacher.
APPRAISER:
This violin bears its original label, "Nicolas Lupot à Paris, 1798," and Lupot was probably the most famous of all French violin makers. We refer to him as the Stradivari of France. He moved to Paris, I think, in 1798, after working in Orléans, not far from Paris. And this is a very nice copy of a golden period Stradivari violin. It is an example that I needed to spend quite a lot of time with when I first looked at it, trying to decide if it was right. Lupot is a difficult maker, because everybody in France in the 19th century is trying to copy him. And, of course, they're using facsimile labels inside, which looked pretty good. This label looks like a correct label to me, and it has several characteristics that I attribute to Lupot. One... is this scribe line that, as a maker, he used to scribe the center line of the instrument, but he didn't remove. Most makes remove it when they finish the head. And generally, I find Lupot doesn't remove it. So that's one thing that felt good for me. The other was, the purfling is this sandwich of three strips of wood. It's a decorative strip around the perimeter of the top and the back of the violin. And I noticed that the dark part of the, of the outside lines is whale bone, and whale bone is a characteristic purfling material used by Lupot. This type of varnish, this very dark, vibrant brownish-red color is typical for Lupot. The back and sides are very, very select maple. People call it tiger stripe-- we just call it curly maple, or highly figured maple. The sides also maple, and the front, spruce. This one has a few condition issues, which I'll point out. Mainly, this crack that goes all the way up, and then you've got these round patches-- one here and one here. I had never seen that before. And that doesn't help the value. Now, you told me in the 1990s, you'd had an appraisal of about how much?
GUEST:
$100,000.
APPRAISER:
$100,000. I think probably a retail value for this violin should be about... $140,000, but it perhaps would have been worth closer to $200,000 if it didn't have the wear and these condition issues, especially... Any crack in the back devalues a violin by quite a lot. The bow you've also had appraised, and I notice, written on the side, "$7,000." I think this is a very fine French violin bow of the second half of the 19th century of the school of Dominique Peccatte, but not by Dominique Peccatte-- one of the workers working in his style. Probably valued more in the range of $20,000, so $7,000 was a little cheap.
GUEST:
Wow. That's good.
APPRAISER:
Thanks for bringing it. It is...
GUEST:
Thank you very much. Well, that's terrific to hear-- makes my day.
Appraisal Details
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
