First off, I'd like to say that the lyre inlay on that tailpiece is seriously awesome!  So are those carved pegs.  Chinrest I am less sure about.  It looks kinda cool, but is it as comfortable to play on as smooth ones?

Second, it is a good rule of thumb to follow not only with violin, but pretty much any stringed instrument.  Violin, guitar, dulcimers, pianos, autoharps, harps, anything.  If you always take a little tension off the string and then tune it *up* to pitch, you'll save yourself some money on strings over time and have less tuning troubles.