Blank face

If the inside is covered with old dust and dirt it can be sometimes hard to distinguish if the end of the lining is cut off or disappearing in the block, But in my eyes there are other features, the form of the block or that french blocks usually are heavily concave rounded (very good to see in all the photos), while the surface of inside mould blocks are more or less straight. All this very generally spoken.

Not morticed, but the tips glued over the blocks. For the form longer in the C bouts and subsequently the construction method ompare here:

Exactly what I had in mind, thanks! Could you give a link to the thread this was posted in?

I was very generally speaking, in a wider context and regarding to an older discussion, so no reason to get excited. The log means the piece of wood the belly was once made of, nothing what will hurt physically. In this particular case it might be more economical to order a mail report than to travel from Texas to Cremona, won't it (though this can be educational)?

I vaguely remember that in a thread a while back it was Jeffrey (?) describing different methods of the 20th century italian makers to use this "mixed" mould constructions. Maybe somebody else does remember, too?

In this case the money spend on a dendrochronological report could save exactly the difference in price between a 17th century Cremonese and a 19th century damaged Mirecourt (what's quite significant), so supposed to make one slightly more happy. Sometimes there's no other way to convince believers than a knock with a log. I guess that Martin's remark about hardwood linings is aiming at the french production of a defined period only, otherwise there are lots of fine fiddles lined up with pine/spruce.

Some people might say , if you're suspecting a 1600ish date, the first thing to do is a dendro. For my part I'm in a line with Jacob. The scroll, if original, has nothing to do with Cremonese curving, but a lot with more straight and broad chamfered french scrolls, especially at the narrow throat, and the varnish looks much too opaque. But I'm neither expert nor appraiser.

It would be naive and stupid not to expect this, at least from the hundreds of readers who aren't necessarily members of MN. I would be more concerned about the legal implications of using copyright protected photos without telling the source.

To copy and paste photos from Ebay or other auctions here with comments like "I was offered by a friend etc." appears to be a common behaviour here, so I can see no reason to condemn the OP more than other posters doing this regulary; I was always assuming everybody is recognizing this. I told my opinion reg. the violin (a fine and original Mnk varnish of the period as it looks like), the bow is silver mounted and decorated, but there were several saxon workshops producing such stuff (Zoephel f.i.), we call it a "Blender". Don't forget that the seller is most highly professional.

Ah, the "broken in" man. Now, he actually knows what he's doing. I'll write you a certificate.

I rather thought of professional ignorants and pretenders playing alleged Italians on stage only. There are some multipaged threads about this phenomena running in the Pegbox actually.

A rather low grade but at some points (scroll) nicely made Vogtland or Salzkammergut with beech wood neck and bottom. A proper repair of the bottom sound post crack would surely be extremely uneconomical, otherwise it could be used as a beginner's baroque, a folk fiddle etc. What's a half neck?

This looks like a most decent Gütter family (Johann Gottlob or Georg Adam) violin from the early 19th century in a fine condition. I don't really get it why it shouldn't be used, but it might depend from your defintion of "professionals".

I won't go deeper into the matter of "Tyrolean", but it was often and detailed discussed before that there was not much violin making in Tyrol beside Stainer and the Albanis of Bolzano, and all of them used an inner mould construction, which the OP clearly has not. This construction and looking at the very distinct "pineapple" (?) decoration and diamond alike patterns, taking into consideration the time frame mentioned by Peter, it seems very likely IMO that the cello belongs or is close related to what's known as the Allemannische Schule, located in Switzerland (Krouchdaler) and Black Forest (Straub family). For comparison look here https://www.booklooker.de/B%C3%BCcher/Olga-Adelmann+Die-Alemannische-Schule-Archaischer-Geigenbau-des-17-Jahrhunderts-im-s%C3%BCdlichen/id/A02idtMk01ZZP?zid=266270195bc1e57ca6d6bfb6e102da97 or here https://www.sim.spk-berlin.de/bildergalerie_mim_sammelschwerpunkte_708.html Edit: I've seen that this origin was mentioned before by Andreas: Because the decoration is here just painted, not inlaid anymore like in the older instruments from the late 17th century, may sort the OP cello into a "degenerated" epigone period, using and integrating elements of other origins, too. The later Straub family of Friedenweiler or Röthenbach produced much more simple instruments with inked purfling only, so this could be the first step into this direction. It would be interesting to hear more about the instrument from @Ratcliffiddles

Reg. the OP inside photos, I have the impression of equilateral triangular blocks with the ends of the C bout linings glued over them. This confirms in my experience a french style of making. It looks as if there are diagonal tool marks across some of the inner ribs, could it be right?