The Naked Cello Hunt

A random conversation with the friends the other week planted a seed of desire in the E's mind. One of them spotted a rundown cello in an antiques shop and thought it has potential to be restored. He thought that it holds the mark of good workmanship, and might be a decent factory piece from the 19th century. However, it's unusual because it has been stripped of its varnish. The dude's a cellist, and if he were more sure of its origin, he'd have bought it in a heartbeat, in spite of overweight luggage on the flight home. E's eyes sparkled and seemed rather taken with the idea of a mysterious unvarnished cello.

A few days later, E started a whatsapp chat with Y and I. It was decided that we should go take a look at this naked cello. Gleefully put down the date in the calendar as 'Naked Cello Hunt'. Dutifully, we went to the shop to take a look at it. Stripped bare of varnish, the seemed-to-be-less-than-contemporary-758mm cello bears a beautiful wood grain. Despite passing through so many hands, it's holding up okay. While the bridge, fine tuners, sound post, tailpiece, end pin, bow and all are missing, the fingerboard is fine. The pegs are well-made. There're cracks though, and even though it's troubling, they've been well-glued. It's structurally beaten. The maker and country of origin are murky. Short of sending the cello for a valuation, we'll never really know, I guess.

E purchased it. Hahahaha. She saw it, touched it, held it, and fell in love. The purchase isn't an issue. The restoration is. We brought it immediately to the restorer, and he has such a poker face that we couldn't tell what he thought of it. He indicated that it's restorable, and the instrument doesn't seem that bad, and if E likes that bare look, it could be left like that, but to layer it with a clear coat of varnish to protect it from the elements. It's probably not an expensive make to begin with, but E wants to buy a unique piece that tells a story, instead of walking into a shop to buy any of the middle-of-the-road pieces easily available.

Happy for E! Glad that she rekindled her passion for the instrument and is practising in earnest. Y has never lost touch with the cello and has always made us listen to her favorite Bach's cello suites non-stop. All six of them. Told E and Y that even if we don't have a viola on board, we could still do a piano-cellos trio thing soon for Christmas 2013, or just gather around and play whenever we feel like! Wheeeee.