jacobsaunders

“Inadequate Workshop” sounds like a lame excuse

It seems to have remains of an (original) dark varnish that has soaked into end grain areas

Vogtland or North Bohemia, mid 19th c with replacement head, and probably varnish. Considerable condition issues, therefore not really worth anything

Too philosophical for Maestronet. If it was made, we can safely presume that there was a maker, after all, it didn’t grow from a seed

I would have thought it first half of 19th C

the buttons of fiddles of this type are typically fairly large. I has been wittled away by the primate who "repaired" the neck

With the help of a Schachtelmacher, a Halsschneider and perhaps someone who did the varnish, in about 12 hours, which doesn’t leave you much time to scratch around with your sandpaper

Another one with a wood screw through the button, seems to be a special American restoration method

Of course there was a “Maker”, if a wretched one. The building method, leaving a carved bar, rather than glue one in afterwards, wasn’t for speed. It is in my experience quicker to “hog out” (© Ann Abour) everything, then glue a bar in, than it is to carefully leave material for a bar over. This was the traditional method from that area. The “feine Geigen” from this area were made using the same method. I showed a Seidel violin made just like that, that has the most exact measurements here for contrast https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/339564-seidel/ For the OP, I see no advantage in re-graduating the belly, since it has no apparent damage, and will still be a cheap violin whatever she does, far more important will be getting the neck on straight

A mercy that one cannot smell anything on Maestronet

Yes, is curious that many people seem to think that violin repairing is something that anyone can do, if they are fairly good at putting IKEA furniture together. In fact, it is a profession that one must learn, should one wish to even improve such a modest widget. Far from being condescending, any trained violin restorer can only see all the disasters waiting to happen

Do you have Baroque violins without end pin holes in America?

I was going to reply to this thread by quoting the Marchi manuscript, but Andreas beat me to it. i.e. the sound post diameter is dictated by the sound hole width. If I may be excused telling anecdotes; I recently bought a violin my father made for a leading player in 1954 from his daughter. The violin is recorded in his log book, which I have. The label notes that it is a “copy” of the gentleman's Petrus Guarneri. It doesn’t remind me of any Guarneri, although I expect he would have copied some measurements. As I got it, I was very pleased, and was thinking to myself what nice violins the old man made, and took the strings off to clean 70 years worth of spit and sweat off it. It had a bridge on it with somebody's name stamp that I didn't recognise and a sound post that certainly wasn’t my fathers. The violin, presumably because of the “model”, had rather narrow sound holes, and some primate had forced a sound post of standard diameter through the sound hole, and obviously given up, since it was in incredibly tight, apart from not fitting, to the point where it had made a colossal dent on the inside of the fiddle. Then I noticed that this had caused a sound post crack in the belly. I thought, “Oh bugger, I will have to take it to a violin maker”. The moral of the story is that anyone who wants his violins to exist long term, should make the f holes AT LEAST 6mm wide, or have a son who will repair it with due care and respect 67 years later.

Just saw the neck off, and make a new graft

Saxon fiddle, 1880ish