1900s Caspar da Salo Copycat 4/4 Violin

Overview: Andy and I worked on this a year or two ago, doing some minor work. Since then it's been out in the world having fun. The owner bought it from Elderly Instruments some time back and it's held-up nicely for him and been a reliable player. It's a copycat of a Caspar/Gaspara da Salo violin and beautifully-built with the double-purfling and all. The top has fine-grain spruce and the back is a one-piece, gorgeous piece of flamed maple. While obviously being of nice quality, it has a subtlety to its looks that's pretty gratifying.

Interesting features: Clearly, the stand-out feature is the double purfling which can be seen across the room at a glance. The varnish has been applied with some care, too, to give it a nice, medium-brown glow to which rosin deposits over time have almost darkened-up into a light sunburst look. The tone is clean and balanced and very direct, which is excellent for a tunes-player because you definitely hear your notes and not a ton of back and forth bouncing-around in the body.

Repairs included: Since we've known it, it's only really needed minor adjustments. It's playing swell and ready to go.

• Weight: 1 lb 0 oz
• Scale length: 13"
• Nut width: 15/16"
• Neck shape: slim C
• Depth at first position: 45/64"
• Body length: 14"
• Body width: 8"
• Body depth: 1 1/2"
• Top wood: solid spruce
• Back & sides wood: solid flamed maple
• Bridge: maple
• Fingerboard: ebony
• Neck wood: maple
• String height: 3/32" bass 1/16" treble at octave (between fiddler and classical)
• Strings: unsure, something decent

Condition notes: It shows lots of light marks from handling for the last hundred-plus years, but it's overall in good shape with no cracks that I can find. The pegs, tailpiece, chinrest, and bridge are all newer replacements but it's otherwise original.

It comes with: It has a nice old hard case with a zipper dust closure and comes with a spare, mid-grade bow.

Consignment tag: DFRM