The antique violin thread.

These pop up all over. I currently have one where the tag reads 1789 I think, it's in an old case, and has what appears to be a horsehair bow with it.

Anyone know of a pre-screen checklist for it before simply telling me "take it to an expert"

 

@all_fakes ... any hints ?

 

We've had these before....
the bow...can sometimes be more valuable than the instrument ..

look below for similar threads..

 

I'd be totally fine with that as well!

 

Best I could do on pic of date. Bow has no stampings on it that I can find but looks old as well.

 

Bow:

 

It looks much like this one:

 

Labels in violins are more often than not fantasy labels put there when made.
The bow appears to be badly cracked. That decimates value. I have an Albert Nürnberger bow (they are worth thousands) that has a crack that was professionally repaired. It's now not worth much more than the melt value of the silver wire and and other silver bits on it. It works great though, so we get the most value out of it by hanging on to it.

 

Thank you. Does mine look to you to have silver on it? I personally think it does, but not sure.

 

Sorry to be a downer...but violins are not something which can be evaluated or even discussed in any useful detail online. Show me a photo of a Martin guitar, I'll tell you lots about it; show me a photo of a violin, no, even though I've been fiddling for 65 years. "looks similar to" just doesn't work, for violins - they all basically look similar to anyone but an expert, and as mentioned, labels are very often fantasy, such as the millions of Stradivarius labels.
You need to take it to a violin shop, and not just any local music store. In the US, American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers - American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers will have a list of accredited shops.
(Most bows do have a small amount of nickel silver - generally not enough to be worth the work of removing and melting it)

 

Thank you for the info.