Delabo

Have you worked out what the purfling is made from? It does not appear to have a centre section. Maybe two scratched lines with an ink infilling?

I only know the basics about the school, such as they can be built on the back in a trench much like French violins. They sometimes have whalebone purfling etc. Apparently they used glue as a ground underneath the varnish, and over time it produces a speckled appearance in the varnish which I noticed yours has. Maybe other schools used this same method and I am reading too much into it (quite likely!). The violin scroll picture that I will post is from a 19th century Dutch school violin and it has that speckled varnish that yours has..............

Dutch school?

I am not an expert, but I think its going to be either Salzkammergut (German) or English. I will plump for English, which probably means its the other one.

I was just thinking the same as you answered.

I am not an expert, and am thinking out loud. It looks a nice violin with its original varnish. If it was mine I would hope for it to be placed in the first half of the nineteenth century. It will be interesting to see what the experts say.

The rib is till the same length that it was when the violin was made, its the top and back plates that have shrunk across their widths.

I think he is trying to drive the price down because he secretly wants it !

I am surprised that an expert has not commented on this violin yet, it looks nice. I am wondering if the red varnish is original to the violin? A straight on picture of the bottom rib would help in identifying it.

I wonder if the person who bought it paid to see what W.E.Hill thought about it? Or maybe someone paid for Peter Ratcliffes dendro opinion? From a novice perspective the main things that I see that make it externally more interesting than a German violin with the limited views that have been provided, are the back wood, varnish, and Hill number. The scroll may, or may not be, original to the violin.

How much did it make in the end?

I wonder why this got attributed to Naples? It has more a look of Testore about than Gagliano surely?

Does it have an internal stamp?

Could the signature be "Adolf Andre Sandner"?

The crinkles in the label seem odd. As if the label was inserted though the f-hole. If it was put in before the top was put on it would have been stuck down properly.