glebert

As a non-luthier I would put in a vote for not trying to touch up the finish to cover the repair, at least don't make it invisible. I love instruments that have warts and scars and a story.

I'll keep my eyes open up here in Portland.

Sounds like you have absolute minimal weight from bridge to endpin. Have you tried something with more mass down there?

Looks like there is a Jargar Special, but only for the A and D strings. There is also the Superior in full sets. https://www.jargar-strings.com/products/cello/ Looking around I don't see anything that looks like Larsen windings.

https://www.gilmerwood.com/products/188323-pernambuco-violin-bow-blanks Don't know if those are big enough for bass bows, but seem to me like they might be.

Call me crazy, but I think your bridge is positioned further to the treble side than before. The first picture your A string is almost perfectly straight with almost no inflection at the bridge, and in the after picture the inflection is almost as much as the C string has. Maybe the bridge position was compensating for the offset Brad mentioned.

If this is an instrument that is being advertised these may be the only photos they have, or maybe these were emailed by a customer or their crazy aunt Matilda. They did apologize in advance regarding them.

Veganism is not always limited to diet, many won't wear leather shoes, etc. Regarding the 14% stat if you include vegetarians that really is a different thing, since that is just diet. My wife has been vegetarian since she was 18, but wears leather shoes, eats honey, etc. Also, there are some cultures where vegetarian diet is almost the norm, e.g. 40% of India can be categorized as vegetarian.

I always wonder about copying repairs and alterations. Would they cause a crack and then put in a patch just to match the original?

For celli, I would go with congregation or congress.

If people are faking 20th century house brand violins, they need to set their sights a little higher...

Have you tried to contact the string companies and ask them for their input? What is their most dark, yet complex, vegan string that they would recommend? Maybe they would even send some samples (I know, unlikely, but it couldn't hurt to ask...)

Someone here told me that one of Strad's cello molds actually came from the Venice school (run by Gofriller?). I always like to think that they sold him the second-rate molds, so maybe they were marked B.

"Made in..." started in 1914. Also, I'm no expert on anything, but I think your violin looks better than many.

The US started requiring origin labeling in 1891, but in 1914 the laws were changed to require the labels to say "Made in ...", so it seems your violin would be in that time period.