I had hoped to send this to Tarisio for auction and they had accepted it based on images I had sent them.  But I also sent images to Ifshin Violins here in Northern California and they told me that the crack I saw in the instrument was a sound post crack and they could not accept it for consignment.

I relayed this information to Tarisio and they came to the same conclusion.  This is odd because I did tell them there was a crack on the top.  I had no idea what a sound post crack was.

You can see the crack on the right hand side of the tail piece if you look closely at the second to the last image, 000_0194-2.jpg

So, it's off to eBay to a buyer who can do something with it, sound post crack and all.  Hopefully, what I get will be enough to get me into a decent violin.  We will see.

Now I have news that this is not a sound post crack at all.  It is a saddle crack, extending from the ebony piece of wood that serves to protect the body from the cord securing the tail piece to the peg at the end of the body.

Here is another image that shows it better.

And here are some sample saddle cracks taken from the internet: