Violadamore

Just in case you're a jinx for more than AI, please stay away from SpaceX Starbase in Port Isabel, as well as Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg. Have you thought of visiting a Tesla plant, I hear they are interesting.

I've been unable to find any other examples of this, never heard of it before, and saw no mention of "commemorative bows" on any of the three different Pfretzschner family-related sites I know of. The eBay seller deals in an eclectic mix of yard sale, estate sale, or thrift-store type merchandise, without any emphasis on violins or violin accessories. Anybody else on MN ever see one of these?

Yup.

Yup. You're dependable as always, and it's a blessing we have you here.

Of course they had it available. They just didn't call it kaolinite, or montmorillinite, or palygorskite, or attapulgite, or china clay, or whatever. They would have called it the local equivalent of "fullers earth" [nibbles some Pecorino Romano, and grins]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulling Another, originally Renaissance-era, term to look for would be lithomarga or litomarga. It had various artistic and craft uses, well before Cremonese violinmaking. BTW, I'm not at all saying that the old masters actually did what Guminár suggests, but they could have if they wanted to, so it can't be ruled out on historic grounds (p.i.).

Since no one else has really responded, it's a form of violin or fiddle tablature, commonly called a "tab". They are written for first position, and show you which finger to use, rather than the note you play. More usually, they look like this: and are read like this: Tabs are more common for guitar and mandolin, and are used by many stage performers. There's a guy I play alongside occasionally, who worked for decades in Nashville, and who has a stack of written-out tabs similar to what you found. For reference, here's an example of a conventional guitar tab for "Red River Valley", https://www.flatpick.com/v/vspfiles/downloadables/FGM_Lesson_Sept_2020.pdf .

............and provide photographs of the darts as well as the board that was used. $100K based on what?? This whole scenario seems a little bizarre to me.

If it can confuse you with Licklider, it's "a clear and present danger". Funny that the guy who led us from SAGE to ARPANET, had previously done serious work in psychoacoustics. Maybe there's a violin hidden in there somewhere....... https://scilogs.spektrum.de/hlf/the-internet-chronicles-part-1-of-12-the-vision-that-started-it-all/ The series on Internet history linked above may be of interest to some of you. The topic is related.

I've noticed that except for @Dorisch there doesn't seem to be much AI experience on deck at the moment. Let's look inside the black box marked "AI" a bit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/machine-learning/machine-learning-algorithms/ https://www.ibm.com/think/machine-learning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_pre-trained_transformer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_AI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_artificial_intelligence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_agent Ruminate on that for awhile, and maybe the discussion will gather enough weight to dig itself a deeper hole, and produce some gold.

I trust what he reportedly told Steve Jobs, that equated the business practices of both with burglary. https://www.folklore.org/A_Rich_Neighbor_Named_Xerox.html

You've been around here long enough to know better than to ask that kind of question.

Congratulations!!! By equating creating cotton candy for the mind aimed at an uncritical audience, with producing professional recommendations that will affect weighty financial decisions in ways that can easily trigger prolonged and expensive litigation, you've generated perhaps the most absurd non sequitur ever posted in these hallowed pages. I'm impressed with your comedic genius. As regards the expected future of AI in violin dealing, if the trade decides to go in that direction, I'm in favor of it. When the more pretentious provenance-dependent firms collapse in the inevitable crisis of confidence, it can only improve sales for those of us vending attractive and sweet-sounding antique and vintage trade violins from our trunks and tailgates. Go on guys, "make my day".

AI isn't the root of the problem, but I just decided to not get into this discussion right now. Y'all have fun.

They can be good bows, even though they used to retail for under $100 USD. You'll have to play it and see if it suits any of your violins.

Just going by the wood grain and color, it reminds me of a Chinese made Pernambuco distributed by Howard Core.