Bert SMITH

Auction price history

Highest auction price

£4,370

Type	Details	Sold	Price
Violin	Two-piece back of medium fine curl, varnish of a reddish brown colour on a golden ground	March 2025	£976
Violin	Two-piece back of faint medium curl, varnish of a light reddish brown colour on a golden ground	March 2024	£1,708
Violin	35.4 cm Coniston Lans, 1961	December 2009	£1,104
Violin	35.6 cm East View Coniston Lancs, 1967	June 2008	£882
Viola	41.9 cm 1953	November 2006	£960
Violin	35.5 cm Coniston, 1967	February 2006	£840
Viola	41.9 cm Coniston, Lancs., 1966	February 2006	£960
Violin	1967	September 2002	£460
Violin	1965	September 2000	£633
Violin	1951	June 2000	£1,380
Viola	40.3 cm 1966	March 1999	£4,370
Violin	1970	March 1999	£1,380
Violin	1967	February 1997	£978
Violin	1954	March 1993	£1,430
Violin	1953	October 1991	£572
Violin	1962	September 1989	£748

Biographies

John Dilworth

SMITH, Bert Born 1910 Sale, Cheshire, died 1973 Coniston, Cumbria UK. Apprenticed as a motor engineer in Bowness. Began violin making as a self-taught amateur 1938. Later employed as an engineer at the slate quarries of Coniston and from 1958 worked full-time as a luthier. Used the 1716 Stradivari ‘Messie’ and 1742 Guarneri del Gesù ‘Vieuxtemps’ violins as models. Some contralto violas and bows for both instruments. Very accurately made with golden-brown to red-brown varnish. Name branded beneath the back button. Relics of his workshop currently in the Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal. Facsimile Antonius Stradivarius Made by Bert Smith East View, Coniston, Lancs. 19.. [Davies]