More musical mending

My OH bought me another Violin !
He got it from Ebay for a tenner and had to go and fetch it.

This new, old violin is quite interesting.
It is a good 100 years old.
Inside is a label describing it as 'The Maidstone'
It came in an old black wooden box like a coffin.
The metal label on the box says 'Maidstone School Orchestra ASST London'.

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Apparently there was a smiley, kind, factory owner named Murdoch who wished to bestow his beneficence on the great unwashed by putting the ownership of violins  within their grubby little grasps.
He imported many Instruments from Czechoslovakia and Germany and then sold them to the plebs on weekly terms.

While that sounds like a wonderful thing to do, it does grab me by the ears and shout opportunist very loudly.
Thousands of these instruments were sold to people who paid for them weekly because there was no way they could afford them outright.
The resulting orchestras wowed the upper classes, (proving you could teach human Monkeys to perform given the right tools).

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It reminds me very much of the weekly payment schemes of modern life in which a £150 computer can become yours for only 36 monthly payments of  £10..
The cost to you is £360 and at the end of the two years you may still be able to use the machine for simple applications assuming that software is still compatible.
The antivirus and office packs included were of course either cut down versions or only free trials and the computers are the absolute bare minimum that can run the OS installed .

Or  the mobile phone you are on 24 month contract for, includes a tablet and the 'whole bundle is yours for just £50 a month.
You receive a phone worth about £80 retail or less, a tablet worth about £70 and a lot of phone use worth about £20 a month .The whole bundle worth under £400 and the actual cost to you...£1200

The companies that provide the 'deals' have bought them en mass and so can get a very good deal on them.
Possibly 100 for a laptop 50 for a phone , 40 for a tablet. Their company will claim every possible penny back through the tax man that they can.

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Suddenly that Violin man seems less smiley.

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Anyway...

My Violin as I was informed it now was, needed a little tidying up................
The varnish was scratched A lot!
The strings were unattached.
The cork on the chin rest was  wearing off
Only a thin layer of hair remains on the bow.

Of the box......
There was a big hole and some splits in the wood.
3 tiny woodworm holes.
The lid is not a good fit being about 1/4 inch smaller than the bottom.
The green felt lining is torn and there are places where it has  either pulled away from its cardboard or where the cardboard has torn off all together.

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Having examined it closely, I discovered that the chin rest is newer,at least bought since 1973 because it had £1.39 on a little sticker on its underside proving it was bought after the  decimal conversion.

The tail piece could be original and sports a fine tuner on the E string .
Three of the pegs look to be ebony throughout and the fourth is a little shorter with a pearl dot inset into one end,I think this is ebony too as it is just like the new ebony pegs I bought for the modern violin .

Although there are 4 strings and all are complete,they look brittle and feel rough.
One, the D string, is gut,the others are metal.

In the box is a little metal mute , a lump of hard rosin ,a padded, black velvet shoulder cushion with a leather strap and the bridge.

The box is heavy with a lock but no  key and a small ,thin ,metal ,trunk style handle .

So far I have tidied and restrung the violin .
It has a different tone to the newer instrument and plays nicely.
I will put photos up when I get around to uploading them from my phone.