Guido

I get plenty of people thinking the sound is the only thing to worry about when deciding what to fix. Violin just fell off the chair, large crack, still sounds the same, why repair? Guess that's still the same as forty years ago.

Bridge looks good. If you keep the string grooves lubricated and keep it straight you'll get another 100 years out of it. The varnish chips could do with a dab of shellac. Five minute job. Looks like the tailgut could be shortened.

Re bridge perpendicularity. Conceptually I follow the downward force of the strings with the bridge, resulting in the bridge leaning backwards slightly.

Thanks Jacob. The violin isn't a Steiner/ Klotz model; possibly Luettgendorff got something right in his entry for Johann Chrysostomus Wackerl. Looking at the year closely there was something more faint under it consistent with the inscription. Too bad the repairer wrote over it in 'bold' (and may or may not have gotten it right).

Trouble reading this. Help appreciated. Johann XXXX in Mittenwald and der Isar. The year is either traced or added later - looks like the pencil of another 1910 repair inscription.

Obviously, metal faces are regularly seen on English bows, sometimes seen on some older German bows, but French bows? Would that be quite unusual? And if there is a metal face on a French bow (and should it be original), would it substantially narrow down a possible origin/ maker?

I have heard he had a number of violins build in China to his specs in an effort to experiment with graduation patterns.

Just wondering if anyone has experience using wood other than well matched pernambuco for head splines? I have seen carbon fibre sheets, but am more interested in alternative woods if you don't happen to have any pernambuco pieces around.

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.

I was expecting replies along the lines of all of the above... But was also hoping for the off-chance it might be original to this bow form the plastic-is-fantastic time. It also sports the shrinking plastic pearl slide in the frog. I know we have a different perspective on this stuff today and rationalise accordingly, but this is a silver mounted bow .

Probably DRGM (Deutsches Reichsgebrauchsmuster).