GUEST: I was taking lessons when I was a student in high school. My parents talked to my music teacher, who had been in Italy, and he mentioned a place in Bologna, possibly knew of Poggi, the manufacturer, the maker of it. And, fortunately, my grandfather was on a trip to Italy, and took a detour to Bologna to meet up with the, the maker.  

APPRAISER:  What did he pay for it?

GUEST:  The number that comes to mind as a kid was $600. 

APPRAISER:  Yeah. 

GUEST:  This instrument then became my instrument all through high school and college. 

APPRAISER:  And what do you know about the maker? I mean, your grandfather went directly to the maker in Bologna. 

GUEST:  Yeah. 

APPRAISER:  This is almost unheard of. 

GUEST:  Really, really. I don't know. I know he's prolific. I know he has certain renown. When I mention Poggi to other violinists, they smile. (chuckles) That's about it. 

APPRAISER:  Well, you know that the label says, "Ansaldo Poggi in Bologna 1967." 

GUEST:  Yes, yes. 

APPRAISER:  And so that date jives with your grandfather's trip to, to Italy. 

GUEST:  Right. Exactly.

APPRAISER:  Ansaldo Poggi is one of the most important of the 20th-century Italian makers. 

GUEST:  (laughs) Jeez. 

APPRAISER:  So he was a Stradivari enthusiast and he studied with a man, Giuseppe Fiorini, who bought all the tools and the remnants of the Stradivari workshop, and gave them to the city of Stradivari, which was Cremona, Italy. 

GUEST:  Yeah, right.

APPRAISER:   And so he studied with this man, Fiorini, who was one of the great, great makers. And you can see the influence of Stradivari through his entire career. Now, Poggi is known to be a very, very precise maker. He was a fanatic about the precision of his craftsmanship, and he was a fanatic about only choosing beautiful, beautiful wood. But because there aren't many marks on his instruments, he's copied a lot. 

GUEST:  Hm.

APPRAISER:  So my job is to make sure that the instrument is what it's supposed to be. You can see that the spruce on the top of the viola is very straight, regular grain, right? 

GUEST:  Sure. 

APPRAISER:  The back is a beautiful, beautiful flamed maple, and the flames go all the way out to the edge. 

GUEST:  Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER:   And it's a magnificent piece of wood. 

GUEST:  Yes, it is. 

APPRAISER:  And he used that same wood in the peg box and the scroll of the viola. 

GUEST:  Yeah, interesting. 

APPRAISER:  So it's, it's a handsome, very unified look. The other thing that makes me more comfortable with your viola is, it's got real wear on it. I can see that it's been played. 

GUEST:  Yes, yeah. 

APPRAISER:  It's an appropriate amount of wear. 

GUEST:  Cool. 

APPRAISER:  The other thing is that the label is absolutely correct for this period of time. 

GUEST:  Yeah. 

APPRAISER:  Ansaldo Poggi was born in 1893, and he started studying with Fiorini in the 1920s. And he lived until 1984. And this is the level of perfectionist that he was. So in the 1950s, he started getting really, really popular, and there was some demand for his work. He started buying back his earlier works and then rebuilding them according to the acoustical principles that he had learned in the meantime.

GUEST:  Okay. 

APPRAISER:  And he even destroyed some.  

GUEST:  Jeez, that's unbelievable. 

APPRAISER:  So we have a friend in Minneapolis, he was associate principal violist in the Minnesota Orchestra, and he, he was Italian, and he, he commissioned, uh, in the late '60s a viola from Ansaldo Poggi. But he didn't like the way it sounded. So he went back to Italy, and he showed it to Poggi, and he said, "Can't we do something? I'm, I'm not happy with the way this sounds." And Poggi said, "I don't like it, either." And he threw it in the fire. (both laughing) "I'll make you another," he said. (both laughing) On the inside, on this side of the viola is handwritten, "Ansaldo Poggi." 

GUEST:  Yes.

APPRAISER:  "Fece in Bologna, anno 1967." Fece... anno... That's his handwriting. 

GUEST:  Yeah.

APPRAISER:  There's no question about it. The other thing that I really love, in the 1920s, he started branding his violas, "A. Poggi." So I'm convinced that this, this is it.

GUEST:  That's nice to hear.

APPRAISER:  And have you had it appraised?

GUEST:  No. 

APPRAISER:  Do you have a sense of value?

GUEST:  As I say, I always carried it around as a kid. I enjoyed playing it immensely. It has a marvelous sound, but I never took it that seriously, I... You know, it was, it was my instrument and that was it.

APPRAISER:  His work has gained drastically in value because they sound, they have a big sound, a clear sound, with lots of color. 

GUEST:  Sure. Yeah. 

APPRAISER:  And he only made 41 violas. He made… 

GUEST:  Oh, my God! 

APPRAISER:  Right. He's known to have made at least 388 instruments over a career of, of 60 years, but only 41 violas. So this is a viola that's kind of come out into the light, which is extre, extremely exciting for me. 

GUEST:  (chuckling): Really? 

APPRAISER:  I talked to some of my colleagues about the marketplace. 

GUEST:  Mm-hmm? Yes? 

APPRAISER:  And they said, "You know what? In the United States, it's a little uncertain as to what the marketplace would be, but probably somewhere around $200,000 retail price." 

GUEST:  (laughing) I was thinking, you know, several tens of thousands, maybe. (stammering): $200,000, possibly? 

APPRAISER:  Well, here's the good news. That was the bad news. Okay. The good news is that in the Asian market and in the European market, the value for an Ansaldo Poggi viola in this kind of condition would be more like $300,000. 

GUEST:  Okay. (laughs) Okay. Well, I don't intend to sell it, you know. 

APPRAISER:  For insurance purposes, I would put this at $330,000. 

GUEST (laughing): Okay. Cool.