Who can read and recognize this NAME?

[Lancelot]

Found on a viola, I cannot read correctly nor find a  name quite close, does somebody could help me? 

Many thanks  

[Jwillis]

Portofino?

[ClefLover]

Portoferraio? What does the rest of the viola look like?

[Nick Allen]

Porteafino?

[Quadibloc]

There's a Pierre Pacherele and a Michel Pacherele, but no G. Pacherele, and in any event, that name isn't really very close.

[ClefLover]

Portear is Spanish for carry, fario is Italian for brown

[Mark Caudle]

G Porte e fatto?????I don't speak Italian but maybe something similar.

[Nick Allen]

Porteafario?

[ClefLover]

Based upon the inside corner pictured, are there no corner blocks?  It’s darkened in the corner, but not where the linings/ribs are...

[Lancelot]

Yesvthey are corner block , I’m going to take pictures

[Lancelot]

11 minutes ago, ClefLover said:

Based upon the inside corner pictured, are there no corner blocks?  It’s darkened in the corner, but not where the linings/ribs are...

Here are the pics;)

[Quadibloc]

To me, it looks like Popleafaeis and I don't recognize the name at all.

[Delabo]

I have no idea what the name says, but the construction seems unconventional. Mitres to the upper and lower bouts,strange top and bottom blocks. I guess it all adds up to autodidact (amateur) made. The fingerboard looks to be rosewood,so maybe that's a clue to its country of origin ? maybe it has a through neck ?

[Rue]

I vote for Portobello - maybe he was thinking of dinner at the time...

[ClefLover]

15 minutes ago, Rue said:

I vote for Portobello - maybe he was thinking of dinner at the time...

Mmmm... I would have written the same.  I love Portobellos!  

25 minutes ago, Delabo said:

I have no idea what the name says, but the construction seems unconventional. Mitres to the upper and lower bouts,strange top and bottom blocks. I guess it all adds up to autodidact (amateur) made. The fingerboard looks to be rosewood,so maybe that's a clue to its country of origin ? maybe it has a through neck ?

The delta on the pegbox is about as big as I’ve ever seen!  My guess is Portoferraio, Italy.  As that is a port city, maybe it is a multi-cultural instrument with parts being from all over the region. 

[Michael Jennings]

48 minutes ago, Rue said:

I vote for Portobello - maybe he was thinking of dinner at the time...

Had them last night for tea in a nice fry-up!

[Lancelot]

5 hours ago, ClefLover said:

Mmmm... I would have written the same.  I love Portobellos!  

The delta on the pegbox is about as big as I’ve ever seen!  My guess is Portoferraio, Italy.  As that is a port city, maybe it is a multi-cultural instrument with parts being from all over the region. 

They were three men and three trees. The three men decided to cross the world with a pièce of three différent trees. And when they arrived by chance in the same port, they. Decided to make a viola, and this port was... PORTOFERRAIO;)

 

[Lancelot]

To me it appears, G Porte aSielo,  afielo,, afelo, afaelo,afeio, 

G porte/ , seems to be ok ? No ? 

but at this time, after the  votes, we don’t know the name  of the president!  

[glebert]

I think it says Pete Faris. You remember crazy Pete Faris, right? Spent 6 months trying to write his name on the inside of a violin through the f-holes? Yeah, that crazy Pete. 

[Lancelot]

47 minutes ago, glebert said:

I think it says Pete Faris. You remember crazy Pete Faris, right? Spent 6 months trying to write his name on the inside of a violin through the f-holes? Yeah, that crazy Pete. 

 !!!!    LOL

Finally my daughter, ten years old helped me, and now I think : GAorde  ———afilio afilis ???  

 

[Blank face]

The wood looks like half-slabcut birdseye maple in my eyes, sometimes seen at late 19th rather tradey instruments. The OP looks as if roughly from this period.

It has a through neck with a very distinguished carved "foot", but other details like the rib joints (prob. clamped and build on the back) more roughly, as well as the teethed plane marks at the outside ribs and the squarish bottom patches, the head and pegbox more roughly, too. This all points IMO to an autodidactical maker without any local tradition, so it could be made elsewhere. So it can be difficult to find the very blurred name registred somewhere in a violin makers dictionary.

[martin swan]

It's also rather dangerous to assume that a signature on the inside of the table belongs to the maker. More likely a repairer ...

Most self-taught makers are either inordinately proud of their work (big label) or slightly ashamed (no label).

[Ganymede Piggot]

I don't know what it says, but I do know it's a curse.

[Lancelot]

3 hours ago, martin swan said:

It's also rather dangerous to assume that a signature on the inside of the table belongs to the maker. More likely a repairer ...

Most self-taught makers are either inordinately proud of their work (big label) or slightly ashamed (no label).

Right Martin! , and your suggestion lead me to think that this is the name of the reparer. Look at the back of the table. Further more, it is probably the name of table’s maker. The table appears to be a recent work ,she has  not big  sign of use, wich is not the case of the belly. The body of the instrument had been totaly revarnished. The neck and back in my opinion would be from the XVII, with good signs of use on the belly, and of tools on the neck. The neck is of course « baroque » only glued (so not XVIII ), and the way it is done show that they were not as many rules  as later. Not an « amateur » but an unknown maker. 

You lead me to scrute the « paperwood » . In fact it is the original  label: I can see M.H faciat , or something like this, I go very carefuly for cleaning, I don’t like this, I fear the consequences of that. 

Let’s look at the pics. 

[sospiri]

Porterfield