In memory of
Charles Beare

With the passing of Charles Beare, the complex world of fine musical instruments has lost a giant presence, and probably his like will not be seen again.

I have been in the musical instrument world for over forty years, beginning my career with Sotheby’s, and now as Chairman of Brompton’s. I am writing some words to express my sincere admiration for the life’s work of Charles Beare.

Charles Beare spent his entire working life dedicated to the difficult, but fascinating world of historic, classical musical instruments, and the musicians involved. Though a man of modesty, he was, without any doubt, the world’s leading authority, and has been for many years. Whenever an important instrument by Stradivarius is being sold, no matter where or by whom, his certificate of authenticity is usually required as a matter of course. Without his certificate, the normal question from a buyer (about to spend a huge sum of money) will be, but what does Charles Beare have to say about it?

In 1984 whilst a junior member of the Musical Instrument department, at Sotheby’s, I was tasked with taking a violin thought to be by the important Italian maker G.B. Guadagnini, to Charles Beare for his opinion. I was told that it was not by the master but a clever copy, but would I like to see a real one? Of course. What period would I like to see? At the time I didn’t know how many periods there were, and, fearing a trick question I asked to see all of them. Charles Beare laughed, and very kindly showed me four superb violins from Guadagnini’s various periods, and then explained the differences, and similarities between each example. I have never forgotten his cheerful, and generous lesson in expertise, especially to a person practically unknown to him, and of such obvious ignorance.

That first encounter proved to be a very good indication of his nature, and his willingness to impart freely his carefully garnered and unrivalled knowledge, to a fellow enthusiast, however callow.

There are thousands of dealers, luthiers and their ateliers, around the world, and astonishingly, all of them will know the name Charles Beare and his company, as a byword for expertise and probity, not to mention the countless musicians who have passed through the door of his company. Charles always wore his depth of knowledge lightly, yet a certificate from him confirming the identity of a fine instrument is accepted universally to be the pre-eminent guarantee that an instrument is genuine, thus conferring the associated value of that maker. This could mean the difference between a violin being an anonymous 18th century French instrument, worth a comparatively small sum, to a rare Italian violin by Peter Guarneri of Mantua, or by Antonio Stradivarius, lifting the value to hundreds of thousands, or many millions, as long as his recognisable signature is on the certificate.

Naturally enough with such a reputation, and with such enormous figures involved, there has always been intense pressure from owners wanting their instrument to be certified as ‘by’ a certain maker, and that Charles Beare had only to sign a certificate to make it so – what could be easier? I know that he deftly and scrupulously resisted these pressures, turning away thousands of instruments supposed to be by important makers. Always careful of his name and reputation as a serious expert. Importantly, he has ensured that the value of his certificates as academic documents, will survive any amount of scrutiny, securing the value and historic attribution for future generations.

Charles helped so many great musicians over the years to identify the right instrument to launch their careers, often loaning it to them if money had been lacking, sometimes for years. Yehudi Menuhin, Jacqueline du Pré, Itzhak Perlman, Corina Belcea, to name but four, have all come to Charles for advice and help, the list is enormous.

As an unrivalled authority in his field, Charles Beare contributed enormously to the body of knowledge known about the rarer makers of Italy, in particular those of Venice. A long-awaited book on this complicated school is shortly to be published; the culmination of over fifty years study. His high minded and scholastic approach has burnished the historic tradition of expertise in London that stretches back to the great 19th century company of W.E. Hill & Sons.

It is almost impossible to overstate how much influence for good, Charles Beare has wielded in the world of fine and rare musical instruments, and on the myriad numbers of musicians and colleagues in the business, who have relied upon his honesty, sage advice and knowledge.

For his vast contribution and services to his profession, and for his many generous acts to musicians, and for many other good reasons, I feel Charles Beare is worthy of the highest recognition. I know that my sentiments will be echoed by all my friends and colleagues around the world.

Peter Horner