Eldridge?
He's a cabinet maker? That might help explain the crude work, lack of Purfling (maybe) and the incorrect Scroll setting to the plane of the neck/Fingerboard. That Scroll will need to be cut and grafter to a better neck. A block possibly added if it's blockless and that's just for starters. I would be surprised if any professional Bass luthier could repair this for under $10k to a professional working bass.
Remember, 3-strings were still in use around the world in spots well into the 1920s. French and English shops were still offering them regardless of the fact that most had switched over to mainly 4-string.
Your reference to the links of basses at WOB makes no sense to me at all. My Batchelder has a slabish cut top and yet I make no claim of Italianism there. Just the available wood at the time. Crude does not always equal Italian. Crude = crude, period. It's not a school of making. It's a lack of schooling in the making!
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