Skinner Auction of Fine Musical Instruments

Skinner, Inc. will host an auction of Fine Musical Instruments on October 10th in its Boston gallery. Along with fine examples of Italian violins, bows and guitars, the auction features a varied collection of raw materials in maple, spruce, ebony and pernambuco as well as more than 100 lots of violin memorabilia including signed and unsigned photos and cabinet cards from string players. This sale includes an unusual mix of desirable items for the trade and the public.
Featured are three examples from the most collectible period for American electric guitars, including a 1957 Gibson Les Paul “Goldtop” with “pre-PAF” humbucking pickups. Certified 100% original with all parts undisturbed for 50 years, its condition and sound are outstanding (lot 16, est. $60,000-80,000). Also up for bid is a 1958 Fender Stratocaster, also 100% original, with its matching Fender Deluxe “tweed” amplifier (lot 32, est. $12,000-18,000). A Fender Stratocaster from 1963 in the Olympic White custom finish with a rosewood fingerboard is another sale highlight (lot 9, est. $12,000-18,000). Detailed photos and condition reports for these guitars are available online or by request. Other featured fretted instruments include mandolins from Gibson, Lyon & Healy, Vega and Martin and Guitars from Martin, Rickenbacker, and independent maker Bill Comins. Finally, a very rare Gibson PT-6 Banjo, c. 1928 with gold plated hardware and a flat head rim is being offered (lot 17, est. $8,000-12,000).

Lot 16A (est. $4,000-6,000) is a very rare offering of original design templates used in the production of some of Gibson’s most famous electric guitars. These were the actual templates used for guitars like the 1959 Les Paul, the Firebird, SG, Super 400, ES 335, and many others. A full inventory is available by request or online.

Classical Italian violins offered include a Gennaro Gagliano from c. 1760 (lot 40, $70,000-100,000) and c. 1753 Lorenzo and Tommaso Carcassi of Florence (lot 49, est. $65,000-80,000). Modern Italian violins include examples by Gaetano Pollastri, Enrico Marchetti, Vincenzo Sannino, Giovanni Cavani, Giuseppe Pedrazzini, Luigi Galimberti, and Celestino Farotto. There is also a good selection of bows by French makers including Voirin, Martin, Henry, Fetique and Bazin, along with many good examples by Hill, Nurnberger, Pfretzschner, and Grunke.

Also featured are over 300 items of raw materials for violin and bow making from the shop of Myers-Halvarson, of Nashville, Michigan. Anders Halvarson worked for William Lewis & Son in the mid-twenties, and later founded his own shop, obtaining choice logs of ebony and pernambuco wood for bow making, along with a large supply of first rate tonewood from Germany and Czechoslovakia dated 1910 through 1950. These materials all represent a quality that is extremely difficult to obtain today.