jacobsaunders

At first sight, it would seem to be a vaguely Saxon Body, with a south German scroll

I think you will just have to ask any freinds out of Zimbabwe if his name is known, since it is obviously outside any "net" Henley and his ilk has, and doesn't look like a bought-in-the-white trade box

Could it not, just as well have been made by someone in (then) Rodesia using the Herron-Allen book

Originally it would have had a wedge shaped pine fingerboad, veneered with some stained fruit wood (pear for instance)

This was the typical making style/method in Vogrland untill mid 19th C. The through neck is very often higher than „the belly arching“. These violins had the ribs built on the back ie. without any form, inside or outside. Yes, it is the original neck, if manipulated in the interim.

Normally, one can write and request aditional pictures from an auctionier If it weren't slab cut, it would be "Birds stripe Maple

I rather like how Herrn Schmelz has translated „aus der Blüterzeit der Tiroler Schule“ into „from the flowering time of the Tyrolese School“

“Repairing” a ramshackle object that someone else has already ruined, that a customer “really loves” is dangerous, since if he doesn’t “really love” it afterwards, it is your fault. "Running a mile", is naturally a figue of speach, I would probably need the hospital afterwards

It seems a Little, as if someone had put something together out of Saxon bits, then stripped and re.-varnished it. I would run a mile before ageeing to "repair" that

Seems like a 19th C. Saxon one, with a post crack in the back. What is "interesting" or not is subjective.

A cheaper grade of pre-WWI Marknukirchen bow. I suppose a parket slide enabled them to use up MOP offcuts

You have one of the cheapest grades of Cottage Industry Instruments from Markneukirchen or Schönbach, imported by one of the American depatment stores of the time (Sears etc). Someone has fitted now decrepit patent pegs. Suitable for hanging on the wall.

One should bear in mind that there were some 40 violin makers called Hopf, and that the "Hopf Model" became an article in ist own right. Zobisch illustrates a "Hopf" stamp from the inventory of the wholesaler G.A. Pfretschner on page 105 of his book on the Hopf Family. They would have used it to dob thousands of "Dutzendware". All together, wanting to sort all the Hopf in violins to individual makers is certainly about as futile a persuit as one could imagine.

I always count till 20 slowly, ie. one elephant, two elephants…., then put it down somewhere where it will not be in the way of children, women with vacuum cleaners or any such, and don't go near or even touch it untill the next day.

Well, I'm unsure, although I personally have never seen a top hat motice on a non-english bow.