Logos/names on bridges

Hey,

The other day I was looking at a brand-new violin bought by one of the new
2nd violinists in our community orchestra.  She's a real newbie, but was
excited about this violin.

I played it and found its strings far too high and the bridge was like a
plank.

I suggested she have the violin shop lower the bridge height and shave off
the bridge - she thanked me and took it back.

Now the violin is back and does sound better - though the bridge is about
30% thicker than mine - and here is my real question: the bridge's maker
logo faces the tailpiece, while my violin's faces the fingerboard.  On her
instrument I saw that the bridge angled toward the fingerboard, so I
straightened it a bit and warned her to make sure it was perpendicular to
the instrument top or angled slightly towards the tailpiece.  Oriented the
way it was, the bridge was firmly seated against the top of the instrument.
The bridge top was curved correctly, but it seemed to me that the bridge was
angled "backwards".

Is there a standard or historical custom for which direction the maker's
mark on the bridge should face, and are bridge blanks made to face a certain
direction?  And - how to tell whether a bridge is too thick?  This
instrument still sounds muted to me and I wonder if the bridge thickness has
a lot to do with that.

TIA,

Karl Perry