5 November 2023
We have always included scans of any certificates when we list items for sale on the website but often these are written in French. Automatic translation can’t be trusted for something as critical as a certificate – we’re aware, for example, that Google Translate has a habit of translating ‘bel exemplaire’ as ‘beautiful copy’ rather than ‘beautiful example’. This is seriously misleading: a beautiful copy of a maker’s work is an entirely different thing from a beautiful example, and could even imply fakery.
It all comes down to context: ‘exemplaire’ would be appropriately translated as ‘copy’ if you were talking about a copy of a book or something else where multiple identical items are produced. Interestingly DeepL (which we use for automatic on-demand translation of the website) doesn’t make this particular mistake.
In order to avoid confusion, we have now started including official translations of the text of certificates. You will find these in listings that we have done recently, like this Sartory cello bow. If you would like to have an English translation of a certificate that we’ve not provided, we would be happy do this for you. If you buy a violin or bow from us you might want to keep a print-out of the English certificate text along with the original certificate – we will include this when we send out certificates, but if we forget, or if you would like a translation for something which you have bought from us in the past, please ask.
