Car boot violin a real Bargain Hunt

When popular virtuoso guitarist and avid car boot enthusiast, Gordon Giltrap, bought a dishevelled violin for just £20, little did he know that he was investing in an original Guiseppe Predrazzini worth up to £30,000!

Yet that is exactly what happened when Giltrap successfully haggled £5 off the price of the intriguing instrument at a sale in Studley, Worcestershire. David Dickinson himself would be proud! The seller wanted £25 because it came in a nice leather case and it was, in fact, the case which had attracted me in the first place, jokes Giltrap.

It's not the first time that Gordon Giltrap, described by Guitarist Magazine as a modern day master of the acoustic guitar and collaborator with such stars as Brian May and Sir Cliff Richard, has bought an instrument in such circumstances. In recent years he's played to audiences around the country with a guitar bought for just £5 and in 2003 he paid the same amount for CB guitar No 2. Yet even he could not have expected the chain of events that would follow his latest purchase. Friend and Chairman of the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra, Geoff Olner, takes up the story.

My partner Cath and I had recently attended a week's holiday with Gordon when he first mentioned his purchase, explains Geoff. Gordon was interested in one of his orchestral projects, The Eye of the Wind, being commercially recorded with a live orchestra which was when I suggested our own orchestra, the Sheffield Philharmonic, prompting him to reveal his find. Yet it wasn't until I saw the violin shortly afterwards that events started taking a turn for the well unusual!

When we were first shown the violin, Gordon presented it in its weathered case. The violin was worn and had been dirty (he'd attempted to clean it with Duraglit!) - the sound post was rattling around inside and there was no bow in the case, but we agreed to take it to a workshop we used, to see if we could help restore it. The Sheffield Music Shop inspected the instrument and pointed out some repairs that were needed, they confirmed that Pedrazzini was one of the foremost modern Italian violin makers and suggested that although it could be an original (meaning that it would be worth £20,000) it was more likely to be made in his workshop by others, and instead worth around £3500. We agreed to have the suggested repairs carried out and the Sheffield Music Shop would seek a third party opinion to confirm just what it was. A couple of weeks later we collected a great looking violin that was confirmed as a workshop instrument with a value of £3,500-£4,000.

All the time we kept Gordon in the dark as to what was happening and the potential value of his modest purchase. After all, we wanted to be absolutely certain. We arranged to take the now restored violin to a larger dealer to get a second opinion, however, upon visiting our second dealer, at Turner Violins, Nottingham, we were to be left even more stunned! Steve Turner described the finer aspects of the violin; its nice F-holes, deep scrollwork and fine purfling. His excitement caused my partner and I great anxiety, and when he suggested we insure it for £20,000 we were in a state of shock. Not only that, but with some professional repair work Steve suggested the violin could reach additional value, by as much as £10,000!

After great debate we agreed to seek a third and final professional opinion to get confirmation of one of the previous assessments before telling Gordon and so it was that we visited J & A Beare. Steve Smith, a director of this eminent London dealer, was quick to confirm the quality of the instrument and, like Turners in Nottingham, agreed that it was indeed an original Pedrazzini and worth in the region of £20,000 + in its current condition.

ìWith the investment potential of the car boot violiní assured, we felt comfortable revealing the news to Gordon and his wife Hilary. Gordon & Hilary were coming to stay overnight en-route to a gig in Darlington, we showed them a video presentation we made about The Eye of the Windí that was shown to members of the orchestra, to try and sell the idea of performing it for the great man himself. The presentation was warmly appreciated, but Gordon was even more impressed when we showed him a video recording of the comments and valuations from all three dealers, at first revealing the price of £3,500 and then £20-30,000

The violin is now set to make a return to the stage next summer when, the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra will perform
Gordonís composition ëThe Eye of the Wind.í

Gordon's final part of the Bargain Hunt dream would be for the maestro, his good friend Nigel Kennedy to play the instrument sometime in the future.


For more information contact: Mike Judd at MJM on Tel: 0118 978 4589 Mobile: 07785 115496 Fax: 0118 979 0799
Email: mjudd@mjm-marketing.com

<< back