Ah, but in a fifty years time there will be a rumour going around that Loveri DID make bows, because there are some bows around with his name stamped on them!
Perhaps the Amati was attributed deliberately after a maker who never made basses??
Anyway, I'd be interested to see the appraisal. Have you seen it, Arnold?
OK Ken, I had mis-read that your tip that leaving the "shelf" under the bass bar was an inherently good thing, instead of just "working around the bar" to improve the thicknesses.
When I regraduated my own bass, I worked neatly right up to the bar, and in fact now you can see the bar and the original glue line raised above the level of the plate. The edges of the bar are sheer and clean right down to the new thickness. If I was to do it again, I'd remove the bar and put a new one on after regraduating. It was very fiddly working neatly right up to the bar, and replacing a bassbar is no big deal in comparison.