Howard's in Tune with the Demands of Valuing and Restoring Exquisite Stringed Instruments

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Byline: By Tryst Williams Western Mail

A violin shop that trades in some of the world's most expensive instruments is back in action - after almost having to bow out of the business.

From a sleepy Cardiff suburb, San Domenico Stringed Instruments has dealt internationally in exquisite instruments worth up to pounds 2m for most of the past three decades.

But from being on the brink of closure after having to move from its previous Pontcanna base when the building changed owners, one of the capital's most specialised stores has found a new home just around the corner.

'It's amazing really,' said owner Howard Morgan, 58, as he explained the global demand for his services, 'A couple of hundred years ago you would have thrown a broken violin away and asked for another to be made but today they're so valuable the work that can go into restoration is almost more than the work making it in the first place.'

The work of valuing and …