BAUSCH Workshop Violin Bow circa 1900

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Stamped:

We have over 500 violin bows in our violin show room for you to try. 95% of these bows are pernambuco sticks, many of these older pernambuco bows I collected as a young kid and into my college years growing up in the New York City area. My dad and I collected and sought out violins, violas, and bows from 1976-1984. If it’s an older European bow that you’re looking for, this might be the stick that checks all the boxes for you. The bow is light in weight, has gorgeous wood, definite fine workmanship with some extra fuss by me on the new silk and tinsel winding, and yes, the bow has a Bausch stamp, a good sign with the origin stamped on the pernambuco stick behind the frog.

To meet the demand of bows, the bow industry developed and rose out of a remote area of eastern Germany near the Czech border, a region known as Western Bohemia. The center of the instrument making industry was the town of Markneukirchen in the state of Saxony. The Bausch family, makers from 1804-1875, were highly regarded and esteemed in the bow making area of the violin trade. Their bows were known for their outstanding hand work and playability. The family made bows for four generations, beginning with Ludwig Christian August Bausch in the 1820’s. They made superb bows sold as their own and marketed unstamped bows to other shops in Germany such as the Heinrich Knopf workshop. “BAUSCH” branded bows were still being made while the Bausch shop was under the management of the Otto Paulus family from 1876 up to the 1920’s. This bow was made near or just before the beginning of the 20th century. The stick has the BAUSCH name and Germany stamped on the butt of the stick too. The bow simply would have been placed in a violin outfit headed for sale at a music company. These older German pernambuco bows are excellent sticks with very firm wood.

This Bausch workshop bow is from the late 19th or early 20th century, and it is a nickel silver mounted bow. I meticulously went over the bow, cleaning the stick after taking the old grubby winding and leather off. I replaced the winding with a silver tinsel with green silk as an accent, this was to ensure the overall gram weight stayed in and around 60.0 grams. A new silver winding in nickel wire would have pushed this bow up to 62.5 grams and offset the balance of the bow. The leather thumb is goat, and the frog sports a beautiful green/blue hue mother-of-pearl slide. The stick is well proportioned as the camber begins soon after the head. The tip area and tip of the bow as well as the frog are all original. This color is orange/brown, leaning more towards the brown and the stick is in round section. The tight grain is evident to the eye and has no flaws. The frog is a Parisian eye model nickel silver mounted in ebony. The lining is held in with a small bronze screw and the button is a solid nickel cap. The bow has German detail and craftsmanship and is easy to handle and create sound. The bow is fully restored and ready to be tried on your violin. A sleeper in our collection of bows. German quality, nice age, and a bow in great condition.

Weight fully haired 60.1 grams