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Tarisio sold a Vuillaume violin in 2003 for $141,000 (£88,330), at the time a world record for the make. The same violin was sold eight years later for £156,600.

Sotheby's famously sold the Lady Blunt Stradivari for £84,000 in 1971. In 2008 it was sold for £6.3 million then, by Tarisio in 2011, for £9.8 million.

Tarisio said that typically, violins were increasing in value by between 6 to 12 per cent a year, but that investors would need around £200,000 to "play" the market.

Violas and cellos would be cheaper options, Mr Price added. He said: "Violins are unique in that they have existed for 500 years with no substantial modification to their design and form and this has created a unique collectible-playable market."

Wealthier Investors have been looking for alternative places for their money with interest rates at record lows. Interest in wine and fine art has also picked up and figures yesterday revealed 40 investors each tried to buy more than £1 million-worth of Royal Mail shares in the postal operator's privatisation.

Stefan Braegger, analyst at UBS wealth management, said: "If you get the cycle right and find the right asset which is seen as attractive by another buy you can make a good return. But if you get the cycle wrong then your return will be the music itself."