This is a violin I found at a garage sale a couple weeks ago, and I was drawn to the beautiful inlays on the back.
With a quick, online search, I found a translation. But it took Sugarwings to explain to me that it meant the tree itself was silent til its wood was used to create this instrument. That part went right over my head.
The case it came in is also lovely. 
To find out more info, I took the pretty piece into a local music store. I knew it was not in very good condition, but could also tell it was very old and well made. They agreed that the shape it was in was pretty bad, and said it would take thousands of dollars to restore it.
Which wasn’t in my game plan at all. I’m not a musician, I bought it for its delightful looks. And the appraiser agreed it was worth a few hundred as is, just for its antiquity and style.
He said it was made in the late 1800s in Germany by Neuner & Hornsteiner. If in playing condition, it would be a $10,000 violin.
I gather things for their beauty, not their worth, and have been lucky to be given a couple of old violins to Foof up with Guncle Randy. And now, here I find one so gorgeous, it needs nothing but admiration as is.
As a spectacular bonus, I found out that the music store often has old, trashed violins they want to get rid of! I might have a source for more that I can decorate! I am thrilled, because they make such an inviting basis for reinvention.
At present, I have one beat up, cracked fiddle to remake. I’d love to have a few more to do a holiday display with at Juju, along with white trees and angels. I cannot part with the two I already redid, so I need to have a few more to create with to complete the display. I will be bringing the fabulously vintage one in then also, as the star of the show.
It’s much too nice for me to keep, it should go to a true music lover.