Violin

Unsigned violin with festooned shaped body, scroll, tailpiece and f-holes. Spruce top (probably two-piece). Two-piece flamed maple back. Maple neck and scroll. Four ivory friction pegs and four strings (one silver-wound, two guts, one silver). Fine tuner on E string. Mother-of-pearl nut and tailpiece saddle. Ivory tailpiece and end pin. Bridge made in London by W. E. Hill & Sons. Extensively decorated with abalone and mother-of-pearl inlays. The edges of the body and scroll are bound with alternating segments of mother-of-pearl and abalone. Double purfling of dark-light-dark hardwood strips. The back is decorated on the lower bout with an extensive carved, and inlaid with mother-of-pearl and abalone, tableau depicting a German mountain top village along a river/lake (probably along the Isar valley), including a round tower in ruins, a castle, a church, a monumental tomb, a dock and a boat with a sailor.