A few notes and thoughts on making this instrument:

This cello is inspired by the 'Sleeping Beauty' Montagnana of 1739, previously also owned by Gregor Piatigorsky from 1939 to 1951. ( I just re-read his wonderful autobiography 'Cellist' , and recommend it highly ).

More recent notable owners were Aldo Parisot, Orlando Cole and Heinrich Schiff.
I say ' made after' or ' inspired by', because firstly it's not a ' bench copy' but made from well drawn plans.
Secondly, the very broad C- bout of some Montagnanas just like this one can be somewhat cumbersome to navigate with the bow, string clearance to the edges are tight, the neck set-up is tricky, and leaving some players to struggle.
Looking at slimmer cello's of the 'Mighty Venetian' (Charles Reade) I carefully redesigned the C- bout width to in-between the ultra comfortable Stradivari's B - Form and the original one.

But even with an original old instrument, the wood shrinkage, warp and wear will probably defeat most makers trying to make a 'copy'.
Many makers might also make a kind of antique model with the most obvious wear and some scratches to resemble the original.
This might look ok to the casual observer but how will it look 10, 20 or more years down the road?

I prefer a different, perhaps more subtle approach. The makers idea can't have been to make a highly asymmetrical, twisted instrument, this might happen slowly over many years of its lifetime.
It's more interesting for me to try to recreate an 'original' model, with a 'straight' varnish, sometimes lightly shaded with a natural texture and a touch a patina, rather than a billiard ball shine .