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Your bow is stamped Sartory, with a 'y'. Funnily enough, there's a violin bow stamped Sartori on another forum right now. Yours has at least the right spelling.

This has just gone up on You Tube: a 55-minute film concerning the Guadagnini violin that belonged to the mostly-forgotten virtuoso Raoul Vidas. It was bequeathed to the Paris Conservatory in 1996, especially for the use of students there. The Conservatory then commissioned three copies to be made by three luthiers, and all four violins are shown, heard and discussed. Some fine moments of music, as well as much detailed comment by luthiers and musicians— much of which will be hard for some of us to follow.

Thanks for that information, TVB. And thanks to you too, Lorna.

My N & H had a German (not Latin) label and was dated 1907. But the label was printed with 18 and a space for the rest of the date, so the 18 was crossed out and the full date written above. I had to wonder how many labels they had ordered from the printer back before 1900.

I wonder if there is some confusion here (and elsewhere) of Auguste Delunet (1867-1939) and Auguste Delivet (1861-1928). Delivet worked at Williams in Toronto, and a couple of his violins appear in the stock list on the Riedstra shop's website: https://www.riedstrasviolinshop.com/violins.htm

"USask’s four Amati instruments were originally acquired by grain farmer Steve Kolbinson in the 1950s." Wow! Who knew? It isn't clear from the story though whether the instruments have been played at all in the past 70 years. Hope you'll be there for the concerts, Rue.

Every time I send a photo by email the mail program has me choose among several sizes. So I mail them to myself to size them, then put them on the desktop to upload.

Bow maker Andreas Grütter has a detailed discussion of how bows work in the "book" presented on his website. Damping is one of the topics he explores in detail. Hope you'll find it useful, Mat. https://www.andreasgrutter.com/a-bow-on-the-couch/

They're probably remembering their Latin class, where they learned that the Romans used 'V' (whether vowel or consonant) when writing in capital letters, and 'u' for the same two sounds when using the (newer) lower case letters.

Fantastic, Stephen, thank you! A haunting live performance by The Improbable Beasts, an ensemble of 14 bass clarinettists. Improbable indeed. The group Sequentia were always champions of Hildegard's music, and I see they now have a Complete Works set out on nine CDs. Lots more medieval listening fun!

If the violin looks like it could have been built by l'Humbert and then finished or refinished in 1934, it may be important that l'Humbert died in 1933. (Leaving who-knows-what unfinished or abandoned projects.) S. O. by the way is for Seine-et-Oise, the old department name dropped in 1968. St. Leu is now in the new Val-d'Oise department.

Can't help with the violin, but I'd love to see a full shot of that sculpture!

That's a pretty different look from the varnish on my Jackson (now long gone).

Sounds OK to me. Are you noticing a change since the rehair? Or since the new strings went on? If so, can you describe the difference for us?