Guido

Have you checked if it is fully blocked and lined, has real inlaid purfling; and if the bow has real horse hair? Then obviously it’s a master violin. The bow seems to be French, hard to tell if silver mounted, probably nickel recently polished.

Very cool two piece back!

Simple. If the violin would be worth more than the seller is asking, the label is fake. If you pay top dollar according to the label you might still be screwed. Best option is to buy from a reputable dealer you trust, and also look for independent certificates.

Another consideration is if you need to do anything at all. Do you have a buzz in anything you play? Or anyone could ever play? Playing the open G string as hard as possible isn’t called for in any repertoire I’m aware of. Else, I’d start at the string grooves both in the nut and the bridge, then everything else. And don’t forget to check for a grain of sand in the adjuster barrel of the chin rest :-)

What he said. The numbers would be inventory numbers, from a dealer or an institution having owned the instrument, like a school. The cleats seem to be on the centre seem, which is the usual practice with French violins. The Compagnon sits slightly above the Medio Fino in the line up, the blonde is somewhat more popular than the dark; and yours seems in rather good condition (many are quite beaten up). I wouldn't be surprised if the asking price is at the upper end of the range mentioned above; and I have seen them North of it, too.

So, I guess they are asking well over $200,000?

That’s the brand of Erwin Georg Volkmann.

Pondering this a bit I'm currently leaning to a thin CA glue, rather than a strong (and somewhat thick) hide glue. And I think I'll want to leave it at glue-only for the time being. Any major objections before I get the glue out of the fridge?

It's harder to see bow in hand than in the photo :-) The crack running with the grain extends about the distance between the two arrows.

Good idea, structurally. I’ve seen it a few times. But whenever I see a bow with a thread over a break/ lift I always assume the worst as you can’t see the extend of the damage anymore. I was considering possibly a pin; but maybe only if glue only fails. ”Concealing” is not an objective. I’d be quite happy for the break to remain visible for what it is, especially if the bow is to change hands in the future.

This stick has a break behind the head as indicated on the picture. I runs forward with the grain a couple of cm. Under hair tension the break flexes open ever so slightly. I'm thinking to glue with a strong hide glue in anticipation of further trouble down the road. My main concern would be to get sufficient glue into the crack. I'm wondering if a thin CA glue would be more successful initially (but more trouble down the road if it fails). Any opinions/ ideas?

Looks perfect. They didn’t have that when I was shopping around for mine a while ago.

It can be surprisingly ridiculous to get stuff shipped to OZ. I gave up when I was looking for latex (a while back).

Don’t remember where I got it. Random online. There are different width roles, my wrap is 50cm wide. Smallest amount available is a lifetime supply though. I like how thin it is given the strength.

You may want to undo this and set the neck to a proper angle. Projection looks awfully low. Curious what “clear violin glue” you may have used here?