Painted Purfling
I played a beautiful Forster (attributed) 7/8 Cello model Bass last year at Biase's in NYC with the typical Square corners and rich brown Forster Varnish. The Bass is in near mint condition. Last month I looked closely at it again and noticed that the Purfling is scratched in lines and painted in.
When my Mystery Bass was first looked over by Biase in NY, he saw a few spots on the back where there were painted Purfling lines. Paul said in a flash during the ID of the Bass, "English Ink" in response to the painted lines. In recent reading of the 18th century makers, it was noted that quite a few either used painted purfling or did so on their lower cost models in place of real Purfling. I have seen Violins like this as well from the early English.
I have also seen German and Italian Basses without purfling and scratched or painted lines in it's place if anything at all.
There is no set rule or period of Basses without purfling in England but b4 1800 is more common than after 1850.
Now my Gilkes has Purfling "to die for". The only purfling job I have ever seen to match it was on a 1690s Strad Violin I saw awhile ago in NYC. It was the regular 3-layer and inlaid to the 'tips' just like the Gilkes. The Gilkes however is 7-layers of thin strips glued together, 4 black and 3 white lines. It is written that S.Gilkes Inlaid Purfling like Strad did. After seeing the Strad and Owning the Gilkes, I can see first hand why.
The English made ALL Qualities of String instruments. Some have fooled the best experts into thinking they were the real Classic Italians and some were made for the trade without purfling or blocks and even with integral Bassbars. To survive in the early 19th century, they had to keep up with the cheaper grade German and French instruments coming into the country and make some of their own.
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