Musical Instruments & Memorabilia
The craftsmanship involved in the most prized musical instruments affects the quality of sound they produce as well as their appearance. For example, string instruments made by the Italian Stradivari family – and particularly Antonio Stradivari – in the 17th and 18th centuries are said to produce a sound that has never been replicated even in similar designs.
Those instruments created by Antonio during his ‘golden period’ (1700-1720) command particularly strong prices. More recent instruments, such as electric guitars played by pop music giants of the 20th century also pull in large prices – such as Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock Stratocaster, which was bought for a Seattle museum for $2m.
![Giovanni Grancino cello](/media/7767/giovanni-grancino-cello-auction-2251nedi-19-07-16.jpg?rxy=0.505,0.67&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462557250000000)
Cash in the attic - Grancino cello and Voirin bow sell for £173,000 at London auction
19 July 2016A cello by Giovanni Grancino made in Milan in c.1710 was one of a number of ‘attic finds’ that led Brompton’s latest musical instruments auction.
![The Steinway piano being sold by Abbey Road studios](/media/7459/steinway-piano-2246cal-14-06-16.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462557140000000)
Steinway piano leads key sales of musical instruments
14 June 2016One of the main attractions at Piano Auctions’ upcoming quarterly auction at the Conway Hall in London on June 23 is this Steinway with celebrity status.
![Steinway grand piano at Chrisite’s](/media/7013/16-02-29-2231ne07a-steinway-grand-piano-sting-christies.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462556890000000)
Steinway grand piano in high demand at Sting’s £3m Christie’s sale
29 February 2016A Steinway grand piano sold for a double-estimate £95,000 on February 24 when Christie’s King Street held a £3m, 146-lot sale of items from the former Queen Anne’s Gate home of musician Sting and his wife Trudie Styler.
![15-09-18-2208IE05D Boccaccio.jpg](/media/1106/15-09-18-2208ie05d-boccaccio.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462557950000000)
Rare Boccaccio manuscript at Florence Biennale
18 September 2015Florence’s longstanding Antiques Fair, the ‘Biennale Internationale dell’ Antiquariato di Firenze’, opens next week in the city’s 17th century Palazzo Corsini, running from September 26 to October 4.
![15-03-17-2183NE01A voboam guitar.jpg](/media/1235/15-03-17-2183ne01a-voboam-guitar.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558140000000)
Sweet music makes £120,000
17 March 2015Bath auctioneers Gardiner Houlgate (20% buyer’s premium) set a new house record on March 12 with the sale of a guitar by the celebrated French luthier Jean-Baptiste Voboam (1658-after 1731) for £120,000.
![15-03-13-2182LS01A spacewalk.jpg](/media/1298/15-03-13-2182ls01a-spacewalk.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558160000000)
Space photos star in the saleroom
13 March 2015“Most of us will never experience space, which explains why space-flown items are in such high demand. Their travels imbue them with an almost mystical aura.”
![15-03-11-2182NE04A George Frederick Handel.jpg](/media/1474/15-03-11-2182ne04a-george-frederick-handel.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558150000000)
Handel manuscript emerges at Berlin auction
11 March 2015Only one other major George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) manuscript has come up for auction in the last 40 years, so Stargardt in Berlin can be assured of an international audience for the extensive autograph work they will offer on March 24-25.
The model for all electric guitars comes to auction
09 February 2015The Black Beauty, the prototype for all Gibson Les Paul guitars, will appear at Guernsey Auctions’ February 19 sale in New York.
![14-07-25-2151NE01A Nicole Freres music box.jpg](/media/1797/14-07-25-2151ne01a-nicole-freres-music-box.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558270000000)
Bidders fly to Hampshire to hear music box sing at £22,000
25 July 2014Selborne, Hampshire, auctioneer Hannams produced a YouTube video to promote the presence of this very early key-wind musical box by Nicole Frères in their inaugural sale.
Sale date set for the stolen Stradivarius
13 December 2013The Stradivarius violin which was stolen from Euston station in 2010 and recovered earlier this year will be offered at Tarisio auctioneers this month.
![Wallace Hartley Violin sold for £1.1m.jpg](/media/2183/wallace-hartley-violin-sold-for-11m.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558610000000)
Titanic violin sells for a record £900,000
24 October 2013The violin played by Titanic bandmaster Wallace Hartley as the ship slid beneath the waves on the morning of April 15, 1912, was always going to a) attract massive worldwide interest and b) bring in the big bucks at auction.
![13-10-04-2110NE01A gardiner houlgate.jpg](/media/2398/13-10-04-2110ne01a-gardiner-houlgate.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558610000000)
Matteo Sellas guitar strikes a £48,000 chord
04 October 2013There was a great deal of international interest, particularly from institutions, when this five-course baroque guitar by Matteo Sellas of Venice, from the second quarter of the 17th century, was offered at Gardiner Houlgate’s September 19-20 sale in Bath.
Courts hand down sentences to auction house raiders
16 September 2013The organiser of a string of burglaries that targeted various auction houses claimed a Klotz violin taken from a saleroom and then discovered at his home had actually been found in a skip.
![13-05-23-2094NE09A Amati violin.jpg](/media/2026/13-05-23-2094ne09a-amati-violin.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558700000000)
Amati violin hits the right note at inaugural auction
23 May 2013The inaugural sale held by new London-based musical instrument auctioneers Ingles & Hayday generated a £2.26m total from 150 lots.
Rediscovered Beach Boys archive comes to auction with $10m price tag
02 April 2013With a $10m estimate, what is being billed as the most important single lot of rock and pop memorabilia ever to come up for auction goes on view in London on April 18.
![13-04-02 2085NE04B Elvis Memorabilia.jpg](/media/2446/13-04-02-2085ne04b-elvis-memorabilia.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558740000000)
Elvis and The Beatles top charts again
02 April 2013If ever there was a single record that could lay claim to truly starting the Rock and Roll era, it must be Elvis Presley’s first single ‘That’s all right (Mama)’, recorded in Memphis in July 5, 1954.
![2074AR03A-13-01-18.jpg](/media/2138/2074ar03a-13-01-18.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558890000000)
Buffs tune in to Marconi’s answer to a radio rival’s jibe
18 January 2013When in 1903 the Marconi Wireless Company began a public demonstration of its systems, an unwelcome message began to appear via the Morse printer: “There was a young man from Italy, who diddled the public so prettily…”
![2072PV01C-12-12-21.jpg](/media/3304/2072pv01c-12-12-21.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462559500000000)
Swiss musical bird box in Hampshire
21 December 2012Included in George Kidner’s sale in Lymington, Hampshire on January 10, is this 19th century Swiss enamelled musical bird box decorated with landscape scenes.
![2081LS01A-15-12-12.jpg](/media/2907/2081ls01a-15-12-12.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462559500000000)
George Harrison’s jacket tops The Beatles lots at Bonhams
15 December 2012When it comes to rock and pop memorabilia, and The Beatles in particular, if the provenance is not only right but of the first magnitude, prices can soar.
£110,000 of antique violin bows go missing
22 October 2010A COLLECTION of 11 antique violin bows valued at £110,000 is now feared stolen after they were left on a train.
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