Sir Walter will be turning in his grave to think that forgers, most often not 'men of letters', had *******ised his beloved language.
The words 'spelled' and 'spelt' are interchangeable when one is writing, or speaking, the Queen's English.
Were the guys who 'coined' this phrase, in this noble book, the grandparents of modern day 'txt speakers'?
Ken, my dearest friend, one cannot assume that everything written down in the past was spelt correctly.

What?
B@stard is a non acceptable word?
What have you yankee guys done to my language?

Ken, I have owned 2 of these "faked" basses in the past. One(a smaller 5/8ths which I had started a thread on TB with) had an older top on it. I had that confirmed by Heinls. The other one was a terrific sounding bass with an incredibly wide lower bout. They both were sold to me as turn of the century German instruments. However, the second one that I bought I knew what it was before paying for it. The prices were not inflated however, and tonally the prices were more than justified. Some of these basses are just wonderful sounding, and you would think they would be able to get the prices they ask just by advertising them as antiqued copies of master basses. Interesting stuff...

Re-Cap
 

Sorry to have left this out here but a couple of years after the Bisiach labeled bass was sold, I learned even more about the bass from some bass dealers from Hungary that visited me.


So, I just added this to the Bisiach page in the archives of my DB website.



Special Note: Some time after selling this bass we learned more about its possible origin and make. It is now believed to be a handmade bass from Romania (I have seen one other now) and then purchased by a Hungarian maker and 'Antiqued' to look older than it actually is. The bass is well made and with a beautiful sound, often preferred over older basses with pedigree origins selling for much higher prices. For sound, model and condition, this is a great bass to play and own. Ken Smith