Secure your invesTment

When you buy a house you have surveys, titles, contracts, and a vast amount of documentary evidence. When you buy a car, it’s registered with the licensing authority and comes with a certificate of ownership, and a logbook. These are all to give you peace of mind when it comes to protecting your assets, so why do you settle for a receipt (and in rare circumstances, a certificate of authenticity) when it comes to your instruments or bows?

You can do more.

isn’t a certificate enough?

A certificate is an invaluable document providing an expert opinion of authenticity. An INSTRUMENT•ID is different. We provide a bespoke document that records the fine details of your unique instrument or bow, providing accurate, archival evidence of the item’s distinctive characteristics and subtle nuances. If your instrument was stolen or lost, wouldn’t you want detailed evidence to contribute to an investigation? Or if it was damaged, wouldn’t you want proof of its previous condition?

This is much more than a certificate.

Think of it as a passport.

In horology, watch-restorers look for ‘witness-marks’: Minute indicators which help to identify previous repair, construction, or damage. Instruments will also acquire these unique witness-marks throughout their lifetime, the most common being the distinctive wear-pattern created by each player’s hands. Do you hold your instrument under your arm? Does your colleague hold it by it’s neck? You may not not see these with the naked eye, but the marks are there, and we will find them.

This isn’t authentication.

This is identification.

Maximum Detail

Most owners will have some photographs of their instrument or bow, but rarely of the highest quality. Certificate photos are predominantly good, however they are usually printed too small for close viewing. Your INSTRUMENT•ID will come with 4k resolution-equivalent photographs in a digital format for maximum detail and inspection.

Defining Features

INSTRUMENT•ID uses a pioneering new technique to highlight the defining features of your instrument or bow. Your instrument will be painstakingly checked over by hand to find all characteristic visible and hidden witness-marks that could help to protect and identify your instrument.

Varnish Mapping

Varnish is the colourful robe in which your instrument is clothed. Many varnishes can be replicated today, and countless beautiful bench copies exist of other instruments. To the naked eye, these can fool, but by using UV and Infrared technology, INSTRUMENT•ID can provide you with a pigmentation map of your instrument that shows the irreplicable map of it’s varnish.

What do I actually get?

If you own a certificate for your instrument or bow, then you probably paid somewhere in the region of 3-5% of the retail value of your instrument for it. This can run in to the thousands, and in the violin market, it’s worth every penny for expert authentication. However, a certificate is for authenticity, this is different.

INSTRUMENT•ID gives you protection and documentation for travel, insurance, theft recovery, and much more. Your Unique ID will include:

• Archival, accurate reproduction photographs in 4k resolution-equivalent quality.

• A visual map, depicting cracks, cosmetic defects, grain direction, and any other defining features.

• A Pigmentation map, depicting varnish pattern.

• Accurate measurements.

• A Unique ID code.

• An encrypted, password protected digital file.

• A valuation for insurance purposes sent directly to your insurer.