A full size, beaver tooth carved, Czecho-Slovakia (Bohemia) Violin Made around 1919-1945

Not all violins that are beaver tooth carved with bass bars hurriedly carved out from the violin's table are Saxony (German) violins. This is a Maggini pattern full size violin made after WWI, when the official spelling of Czecho-Slovakia with a hyphen was first used in 1919. The hyphen was dropped in 1945. 

This is a typical Bohemia "trade violin", made for students. 

The instrument is well used and has suffered a lot of hard treatment. It is quite light in weight and narrow in the bouts. Perfectly suited for a smaller teenager or adult. The red varnish is chipped and chaffed and scratched in many places. This violin has been played a great deal. 

This violin has a flamed maple back, sides and neck. The table is fairly close grained spruce, widening slightly towards the edges. This antique student violin also has traditional Maggini double purfling on the top and back. 

Like so many Saxony (German) factory violins of the 19th and early 20th century this Bohemia instrument is lined, but it is not fully blocked in the corners and not blocked in the upper corners at all. 




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Purlfling on a violin is made of a small strip or strips of hardwood inlaid into the face of the violin around its edge. This is done to stop a crack spreading from the edge of a violin.  This violin has double purlfling. Even though the crack did not spread though the purlfling, it did spread both under and over it. 

At some point the violin was dropped onto its a end pin by the looks of things. This violin must have taken one hell of a bash on its endpin, because the endpin block was also cracked, almost certainly caused by the wider taper of the badly fitted endpin being driven into the block. It should have been fully in in the first place, so that could not happen. 

The end block is cracked, and the centre seam is cracked along the table of the violin, that damage emanating from the same point directly above the pin and end block. The face of the violin being glued to the top of the end block would then be pulled in two opposing directions either side of that split. And it looks like this is exactly what happened. How else could the end-block have split? 


















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