Guido

Would be nice to have a household name like Raffin, Guillaume, or Salchow... But yes, I indeed suspect a Sam Allen. Thanks Martin. It's a customer bow and I'd just like to give her a couple of names to stop by on her travels when convenient. Europe will be much more likely than NY.

Where would you go for a top notch certificate on a late 19th century English violin bow, preferably in Europe for travel reasons (that is, not go to NY for Salchow).

Thanks Martin, yes it goes all the way around and I think it might be a “standard” repair approach for broken out cheeks; akin to a chevalled frog. Here is another example:

Broken heads and splines have been discussed often… and one has a feel for the devastating consequences on value by observing the market. Just wondering how this (pic) damage to the head compares. It is certainly more forgivable, no? What percentage depreciation would you see c.p.?

Thanks for the linked discussions (and the links in these). I might take a micromesh file to the worst bits and see; but will pretty much leave as is. Btw on my violin only the top is affected. The back has a little case rush indicative of the soft oil varnish.

We have seen and discussed a few examples of this over the years... usually there is a discussion if the violin was in a fire. Seems to be natural aging of a type of Mittenwald varnish that can sometimes end up looking like this. Anyhow. I like the look of it, but I appreciate it would be an acquired taste, and suspect none of my potential customers will have had a chance to acquire this taste. I would very much like to leave it as is, rather than try to improve the appearance. But would be happy to hear what others think... and if there might be a conservative way, how to approach it.

As it was made of plastic I didn't break the glue bond with heat but rather filed the face off. The newer photo is half way through to show/ illustrate that the plate and insert were indeed one piece. Not sure why/ how there was a line in the original photos that looked like there was an insert separate from the face plate. Maybe it was to indicate the size of the plastic at the front of the mortise.

When all else fails, date by perloid slide shrink rate... This one is rattling lose but not yet ready to fall out.

Not cutting new mortices every day. Will probably want to enlarge it a little more.

And after removing it I can confirm the face plate and the mortice insert were out of one piece of plastic!

I feel like this is the best answer regarding what is going on at the head. As the face is quite worn and the tip broken off I will soon take a chisel to it. Just wanted to learn a little more before digging in (and probably make some pernambuco inserts to have a ‘normal’ mortise.

More plastic inserts in the frog. At least it seems to all belong together and be original. But given this is a silver mounted French bow, I'd assume it is from a time when plastic was new and someone thought it was the bee's knees. As mentioned before, the frog also has the perloid slide. It does look sufficiently unique that if someone has seen it before... they could let me know.

Looks a bit cobbled together. Is that a plastic frog?

I have seen five of them, incl. a nice HR Pfretzschner. But it was applied for a relatively short period of time only; and maybe relatively low production volume per year.

They didn't start stamping GDR right after the war. In fact there was some court ruling (I think during the 1970s) that required the GDR stamp to avoid confusion. It is only regularly found on bows for the last 15 years or so before the GDR was integrated back into Germany in 1989. I don't think there is a contradiction between being made in the GDR in the (early) 1970s and bearing a Germany stamp.