In the rarified world of violin auctions and sales they call them "sleepers." Sleepers are instruments that may not look like much at first glance but later prove to be extremely valuable.
It takes instinct based on decades of experience to spot them, according to Rafael Carrabba, a Queen Anne resident who owns a stringed-instrument repair business at 405 W. Galer St.
That experience came in handy for Carrabba at a recent Christie's auction in New York City. "I went with the idea of not buying anything," he said. Carrabba changed his mind on his way out, though, when he spotted an old instrument that was listed in the auction catalogue as "an interesting violin, circa 1900," he said. It was valued at $6,000 to $9,000.
"I looked at it for maybe 10 seconds," Carrabba recounted. The casual glance was deliberate; he didn't want to alert other potential bidders at the auction because he thought it was a Ceruti, the name of a 19th-century violinmaker, Carrabba said.
The bidding turned out to be intense. "I though it might go up to $50,000," he said, adding that he put his bidding paddle up when the price reached $40,000. That wasn't nearly good enough as the bidding slowly crept up to $75,000, so he finally bid $80,000, which turned out to be the winning amount, Carrabba said.
However, that wasn't the final cost: Christie's adds 20 percent to a purchase price as a commission, which boosted the price to $96,000.
The violin was worth it.
Carrabba took the violin apart as a first step in restoring the instrument, and that revealed an inside label that made it even more valuable. "It turns out it was a Lorenzo Storioni," he said, adding that the label listed a 1776 completion date. "It's in very good shape," Carrabba beamed. "With any luck it will sell for $450,000."
But first it has to be checked out. That initially involves shipping the instrument to London to get the wood dated, he said. Also important is getting another company to provide a supporting document that vouches for the violin's authenticity, which will cost him another 5 percent of the price. "It's extremely important," Carrabba said of authentication.
Once the violin is restored, something that will take years, it will be marketed worldwide, he said, adding that he'll have to pay a commission to whoever makes the sale.
Carrabba has also dealt with the holy grail of violins: the Stradivarius. "Those are extremely rare," he noted. He chanced upon one - sort of - around 15 years ago when a woman brought in three violins to sell.
The instruments were falling apart, but once he took them apart, Carrabba discovered the top of one was made by Stradivarius. "But someone, probably in Prague, made the rest of the instrument."
That isn't exactly unusual. In the old days, people would buy a single Stradivarius and use the parts to make two violins, he said. But it is possible to find other instruments made by the master, something Carrabba has done, he said.
And that find can lead to a rebuild job that will make a violin a complete Stradivarius, Carrabba explained. It's an expensive proposition, and Carrabba has gone in on the deal with others, he said. The result will be an instrument that will probably sell for $1 million to $5 million, Carrabba estimated.
Carrabba, 54, has worked on repairing stringed instruments and bows since he was 12 years old, and he's worked for some big-name companies in the States and in London, he said.
There are seven staff members working for his company, Rafael Carrabba Violins Inc. "Most of our work is fixing other people's restorations," he said. "Very few people in the world do what we do."
His company has garnered an international reputation for its work, and there's a reason for that, Carrabba said. "We set extremely high standards," he explained. "We don't budge."
But as satisfying as restoring classic instruments can be, that's only part of the business he's owned since the mid-1980s. "How I make my money is the sleepers," Carrabba said.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309. [[In-content Ad]]
