Featured Another antique Violin,

My thoughts: (by the way, the earlier post from Smallaxe about grafted necks was exactly correct. I have a violin from 1797, and the appraisal documents mention the graft, and the quality of the work, as helping to authenticate the label (Ficker family work, from Germany).
On whether the violin is worth repairing, I'd say there are two choices; either invest the money to have it repaired, and hope to sell for around $400; or give up on selling it, and consider it a wall-hanger, because I doubt you'd find a buyer in the non-repaired state. Might be able to get $50 for it unrepaired. Maybe.
Just my thoughts.
I personally would not embark on buying old violins in hope of a profit. Those who are able to make a profit at that are experts, and can in fact evaluate an instrument (I can't). And they generally buy only playable instruments, not trusting themselves to evaluate an instrument they can't hear. And then have to base their entire lives on attending music festivals in order to sell the instruments they've bought.
I'm not criticizing anyone or even giving advice; just a comment on my own business plan.

 

Thanks to everyone for giving your thoughts and experiences with these. After watching several videos on repair. I've ordered the parts and I think "I can do that"
Hopefully lol.
Mikey

 

Have a look to see if it has a sound post installed first mikey

It's a little wooden Dowell standing vertical.

You should be able to see it if you look through the right hand sound hole

If it's not there you will need to add one, before tuning it

I've managed to get one in before, but its bloody tricky(not impossible) without a proper tool

 

Right, Charlie; and not only is it hard to get the sound-post in, but the exact position for it is very important, and very hard for a non-expert to get exactly right - the sound of a Stradivarius could be ruined by a sound-post that is a few millimeters out of position.
My first violin was a Goodwill special bought by my parents; years later, when I had my good 1797 violin appraised I brought the first one in also....I'd always been intrigued by the odd tone it had.
The pros told me that the top had been thinned down by an amateur in an attempt to improve the tone, thinned so far that the tone was damaged; and that the sound-post was actually in the wrong place. But they didn't want to move it, reasoning that likely the amateur had tried several positions and had probably found the best spot to balance out the poor tone caused by the thinned top...their final opinion was "worth around $300, with an unusual harsh tone unsuited for classical music but possibly acceptable in country music."
It worked for me when I was in Junior High, and certainly worth the $20 my parents had paid long ago....but after that, no. And of course there is no way to remedy an over-thinned top.

 

Thanks for the additional information @charlie cheswick and @all_fakes .
Yes there is a sound post.
I need a bridge, strings and some hair lol
Mikey

 

...and that is kinda hilarious. No offense, country music.

 

Right!
But it really was a terrible tone, sort of buzzy...I played it for a few months when I was 12, then my violin teacher said "we've got to get you something better....I know this guy....."
And there was a violin dealer, well-known in Seattle at the time, who would go to Germany and bring back some violins. We got a 1797 violin from a known maker....now that one is a really nice violin, sweet in the highs and robust in the low.....I've been playing it for 60-plus years.
And found a bow from 1848 to go with it, pretty good bow.

 

If you wind up with a decent unrepaired violin you don't want, let me know. I played quite a bit with a student violin in high school but haven't for years. I'm a decent trim carpenter and could probably fix up an older violin.