Upside down scroll

[violinhunter 2]

If anyone out there knows which 18th century Italian luthier made a few (perhaps many) violins with the scroll turning downward instead of up, I am curious to know. A friend of mine has a violin like that which I have not yet seen. He says the label reads Gaspar Da Salo 1775 but it is obviously not a Da Salo.

[Rokovak]

Does it happen to look at all like this? This is a 19th cent. French viola in case you're wondering.

[C.B.Fiddler]

I bet it's hard to find a case to fit that.

[cjstuff]

One or more Chinese workshops ground out a bunch of low-copy VSOs with upside-down scrolls a few years ago, so be particularly careful when considering one of these. I don't know the name of the craftsman who originally decided this would be an amusing instrumental joke, but the Chinese copies I've seen have had a wide range of labels in them--usually well-known luthiers who never would have made these.

[polkat]

I know that a few of the Chanot guitar shaped violins had reversed scrolls, but I don't know if he did this with regular shaped bodies. If so, it was no doubt copied here and there.

[bean_fidhleir]

Does it happen to look at all like this? This is a 19th cent. French viola in case you're wondering.

And the French have such a big reputation in art, too.

Goddess, that is ugly. That is so ugly, a person could sell scrapings on ebay, if anyone would buy them.

[polkat]

Donno. Not to my taste maybe but it looks well done, and I've seen uglier normal scrolls. Sure looks like an easy A string change.

[sonnichs]

Eeeegghhh. Gives me the creeps.

I think something like this happened to the girl in "The Exorcist".

Fritz

[Daryl Price]

I know an old, old fiddler who loves to hoist a few single malts in the course of an evenings playing that I would just love to hand this fiddle near the close of the evening. I think he might swear off of Scotch forever.