Dwight Brown

I’m with Martin here. I wouldn’t touch it as far as the pins go. Play it and enjoy. Unless I starts to come apart at a later date I would not have the head splined. DLB

# 8 is killing me! I think I will put that on my tombstone! That will keep them wondering!! DLB

Attribution It is not always known who painted a picture. An attribution is an assessment of who was responsible for creating a particular work. Attributions are made with different degrees of certainty, depending on factors such as style and documentary and scientific evidence: 'by Raphael' shows reasonable certainty about the attribution 'attributed to Raphael' intimates a degree of doubt about the authorship of the picture 'by the Studio of Raphael' means painted by a pupil of the named artist, probably under his direction 'a Follower of Raphael' is someone who admired the artist's style, but was not necessarily a pupil of his 'an Imitator of Raphael' is one who slavishly admired the artist, but may have worked at a much later date I found this list of attribution qualifiers from the National Gallery in London. Evidently there is an entire academic discipline dedicated to weasel words ;-) I found some lists that were much longer! DLB

I meant the experts that signed it are fancy. I see your point though. I'm not really sure what "School of" really means when you get down to it. DLB

Perhaps, but would you disagree with the experts that wrote the cert? They are kind of a big deal. DLB

https://t2-auctions.com/auctions/lot/?csid=2199732224&cpid=3799089152 This bow is at least a bit interesting given its fancy certificate. Any thoughts? DLB

https://www.galleriaaccademiafirenze.it/en/artworks/viola-tenore/ a Viola but given it's very large size it never got much use so I think pretty original. DLB

They had good pictures of everything but that! Tarisio does say they have four more pictures, maybe they have that. DLB

The heel of the neck seems to show evidence of nail holes on the back view but it is hard to be sure. DLB

They photos are pretty high resolution and they show no evidence of a neck graft near the head but rather unfortunately there isn’t a picture of the neck body junction. DLB

Sorry, the “Sleeping Beauty” was probably modernized by the Hills. Not the other two. We’re you able to see the article or did you already have that? DLB

I don’t know about this particular instrument but the “Messiah” and the “Lady Blunt” retain their original necks which have been extended and reset. DLB Probably by the Hills. https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/sleeping-beauty-stradivari/

They told me if I bought anything from Texas I would have to pay sales tax now. DLB It may not be every state.

It’s wonderful that it brought a good price! DLB

And now sales tax! yow! DLB

Safe travels. My niece lives right near there in Delft DLB

Full size. My Matsuda after the Lafont Del Gesu is 351mm and I'm not a pixie :-) I think generally most violin family measurements are done with a tape. Yes I am geeky enough to own a giant vernier caliper but I record stuff with some cool Starrett brand tape measures I have found. (anybody have a favorite?) DLB

I was thinking the frog looked rather low and the cut out seemed rather deep. Maybe I am just not seeing it correctly ? DLB

This fairly ordinary Finkle viola bow is up for auction at Tarisio. Did someone carve out the front of the frog on this bow. The area looks kind of odd. https://tarisio.com/auctions/auction/lot/?csid=2199617536&cpid=3815129088&filter_key= DLB

I believe that was a shop mark put there to keep the stick and the matching frog together on the bench. You may find the same mark on the stick. DLB

Perhaps William Johnson. There appears to be two notches one each in the lower corners of the head mortise. https://www.thehillbow.com/william-g-johnston/ I am no expert, I’m sure someone more qualified will be by. DLB

Agreed. DLB

It would be vanishingly rare to find a real Guarneri of any stripe, but not completely impossible. DLB

The first thing to do would be to take some pictures of the violin and let us see what it looks like. The label inside the violin is easily faked. DLB