Continued...
Origin/size English had been considered almost immediately by many. The Purfling on the top has beed identified as "Northern Europe". That leaves France and England. As you may or may not know, many French makers worked in England and visa versa in the early 19th century and maybe earlier.
Some English Violins were acutally made by French makers working in English shops. Some other English Violins were actually made in France but completed and Labeled in England to fill demand.
My refrence: "250 Years of Violin Craft in Soho" by Adam Whone.
It pays to study! You can never read or see to much. We have a short life in which to learn about the 400+ year history of our Instruments, their creators and makers.
Pre-Panormo We were looking at early English from 1750 or after and maybe as new as 1825-1850 but until the top was off, the Mystery continued. One interesting thing is the Back repairs. The original Cross bars were replaced with an X-Brace system. Scars from the old Bars are visible. This Bass came here at least 100 years ago if not more but the X-Brace looks very old and from about 1850 if not earlier. This Repair of course was done in 19th century New England by followers of the Prescott School. The Maple Scroll, although varnished over in dark red is most likely original to the Bass as it matches in character as well.
Ruled out! Prescott was ruled out because it looks nothing like a Prescott. The Top has northern Europe style purfling. The back is un-purfled but has some faint spots of painted purfling. This has been identified as "English Ink".
The Wood is Extremely Fine grained Spruce of some sort. 350 growth rings within 14" at the lower bout. A bit too fine for North American Wood I believe. This is "Ice Age" type growth rings from Europe. The Back and sides are beautifully Quartered English Sycamore with Spaghetti type Flames.
I believe Prescott and his followers mainly used Wood from the New England area as he and Dearborn had their own lumber business.
This wood appears to have been expensive by comparison at the time this Bass was probably made. The Bass is also very big and may have been a special order. I can't imagine a maker building a Bass like this with near "full sized" measurements and such high quality wood usually found only on the best Violins and 'Cellos.
For these reasons, I don't think it was made in America but was brought here on a ship at least once if not twice possibly by a Musician playing on the Trans-Atlantic Ships as the previous owner came over later with the Bass "as-is". The Ship Musician may have had it repaired here on one of his journeys and took it back on his next trip after being fixed and then maybe sold to the Man that brought it over for the last time.
I speculate that due to a combination of being so big n difficult to play, being in dis-repair and it being cheaper and easier to get a regular sized easier playing Bass in good condition in those days. Maybe that's why the Bass has beed un-touched for the last 100 years or so.
This is all just a guess but a very possible situation or maybe just a fictional story...... Gee.."If this Bass could only talk" !! Oops....... sorry Stanley....lol
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