While I wait for my Uilleann Pipes to arrive…
A friend was gracious enough to loan to me her first fiddle for as long as I need it.
On the inside it reads:
JOHANNES THEIR
FECIT IN VIENNA ANNO 1824
My friend has not played this violin a very long time, so it looks to need a little maintenance. She recommended I get the strings replaced as the first item. She has no idea now old they were.
Ooo! I like it! It has character! 
The strings look like they could be Dominant…I’m not 100% sure though.
Is dominant a brand name? This violin is LOUD! Once I got it in tune and began practice the basic technique of bowing the open strings, the loudness was the first thing that hit me. When I take it for new strings, I am going to have the additional fine tuners added and go with gut strings. I have been told they are quieter than steel strings.
I’m not sure if you’re looking for a translation or not, but FECIT IN VIENNA ANNO 1824 means “Made in Vienna [the]year 1824”
Syntax is flexible in Latin, but FECIT IN VIENNA perfectly matches english syntax, which isn’t wrong but stikes me as somewhat odd.
Johnannes could be the maker’s first name, or it could be a latinized version of John/Hans/Jean etc. Their’s gotta be a surname.
Bear in mind that violin-makers have been putting fake labels in their work for centuries, so it’s unwise to take any at face value. Sometimes the label gives you a better indication of the school or design the maker was imitating rather than of when it was made.
That’s probably not what you want to do. Gut wound strings like Pirastro Gold are expensive, and are used more for orchestral playing than fiddling. They’re hygroscopic and quite sensitive to temperature and humidity, tend to break more easily, are harder to keep in tune, and they don’t have the “touch” that, say, ITM fiddlers like.
The most popular fiddle strings are synthetic core (in effect, synthetic gut) or flexible steel core. Thomastik Dominants with “perlon” nylon core in “middle” strength are probably #1. Reasonably priced (around $50), stable, responsive, long lasting. For the latter, something like D’Addario Helicores in medium (around $40) are good. They’re also stable and reliable, maybe a bit quicker in response and a tad brighter.
Some country and bluegrass fiddlers prefer regular steel core strings for the volume and brightness and stiffness and ability to withstand aggressive bowing pressure. But I’m sure that’s not an issue for you. Dominants or Helicores are plenty loud.
Of course, the E string will be plain steel regardless of the rest of the set. Or you may have a choice of a wound E string, but that’s less common.
It’s Johann(es) Georg Thier or Thir, not Their. It’s pronounced like English “Tier”, or “Tear” as in teardrop. The h is silent.
http://www.orpheon.org/oldSite/Seiten/Instruments/violine/vl-thir.htm
Since he died in 1779, either a) It’s a product of his workshop or apprentice that carried on after his death; b) It’s a copy of the Thier design made in 1824 by a different workshop; c) The label is a fake … Especially if it really says “THEIR”.
A combination of B and C is also possible - A fake label, but one which contains a strong hint that the maker was copying the Thier design and wants you to know it. However, in violin labels anything’s possible; these have been a locus for all manner of skullduggery for centuries.
My typo. THIER is what is on the label.
In any case, it played well last night. My friend told me that the tone should improve the more I play it, something about shaking the cob webs out of the fiddle and all. I don’t have a good enough ear yet to know the difference, so we shall see.
Good for it. There’s some nice ‘fiddleback’ figure in the maple back, so whoever made it wasn’t using the cheap wood. That’s a good sign.
Yeah, until you get fairly far up in the value of violins and start talking about investment and insurance issues, tone and playability mean much more than labels. Get some nice strings and play the heck out of it!
4 new strings installed. 4 fine tuners installed. Fiddle cleaned up and polished. It sounds just fine in my n00b hands.