Violin shop guys all like cool old cases. These days there are special shipping cases that aren’t long enough for and don’t have bow space, which makes them easier to carry on airplanes or fit in small boxes, but I didn’t know until I saw this that the idea isn’t a new one. This one has a little name plate, just below the middle hinge, from the George Gemunder shop, so it’s at least 100+ years old.
It used to be lined green, as you can see from one less-bleached spot under the violin’s lower back, and it has a leather cover. Unfortunately, the covering leather has red rot, the result of a tanning process which was used for a very short period only in the last half of the 1800s, and there’s nothing that can be done to stabilize the leather.