APPRAISER: I have a feeling this violin would sound fantastic if the bridge were up and it was ready to play. Would you be able to play it?
GUEST: No, no one plays since the owner, which was my husband's grandfather. It's been in our possession for quite a few years. It's just been kind of safely stowed in the closet, and this is the first time it's come out.
APPRAISER: Your husband's grandfather was a serious musician.
GUEST: Yes, he insisted he played the violin, not the fiddle. It was a real contention point; he was kind of a joker.
APPRAISER: So was he a classical player, as well?
GUEST: Yes, classical, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: The label that's on the inside of the violin says "Ernst Heinrich Roth, Markneukirchen, 1927. Copy of an Antonius Stradivarius, 1718." What that means is that a violin by Antonio Stradivari in that year, 1718, was used as a model for this violin. So the Ernst Heinrich Roth family, from Markneukirchen, were pioneers. They realized that as the market was dwindling in the 1920s, as you head towards the Great Depression, that there wouldn't be many buyers for student-level instruments. So they decided to make violins for rich people, and they called them artist violins, and they pulled out their best materials and their best craftsmen, and they entered the marketplace mostly and almost completely in America. The ones made between 1920 and 1930 are really highly sought-after because they sound fantastic. The Ernst Heinrich Roth family is still alive and well. There's Ernst Heinrich Roth III, and the family moved out of East Germany after the war and settled just north of Nuremberg, in Bubenreuth. But their quality dwindled, so that makes this period of instrument even more desirable. It needs a little bit of work.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: In the retail marketplace today, as is, this violin would have a value of $7,500.
GUEST: Oh, wow, that's much more than we expected.
APPRAISER: If you got it fixed up...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...which would only cost about $1,000...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: It might be worth as much as $9,500.
GUST: Oh, wow, that's amazing.
