F. K. Müller Pernambuco Viola Bow, Bubenreuth Germany circa 1960 – Gorgeous Master Maker Viola Bow

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We have a branded pernambuco specie F.K. Müller (b. 1905 – d.1974) viola bow. Freidrich Karl Müller was born in Gralitz, Sudetenland and died in Bubenreuth, Bavaria. F.K. Müller worked alone in his shop in Bubenreuth after the war, without apprentices. Many violin and bow makers who were displaced from WW II settled in Bubenreuth, a hub of violin and bow makers. I received much of my information on F.K. by his friend Heinrich Schachinger of Erlangen, Germany. F.K’s workshop was initially continued by the well-known bow making family Richard Grünke & Sons. Müller mostly sold his bows directly to musicians and not through violin shops. Yehudi Menuhin was one of his well-known clients.

Müller learned his craft of bow making from Alois Klier between 1919 to 1921. In 1928 he took the final examination. Three months after the examination Müller was granted permission to open his own workshop. Müller worked independently in his home town of Graslitz until he was drafted into the German army in 1940. He became a prisoner of war in Russia soon into taking part in WW II. He survived the war and by 1952 he moved to Bubenreuth, built a home and established his shop for the rest of his life. F.K. Müller burned the side of his head as a branding stamp into his frogs which were all handmade. He burned his name in cursive on his bows beginning in 1960. He was considered a master bow maker and is honored in many German violin bow making books and there are numerous testimonies about F.K. Müller in the Bubenreuth Instrument Museum.

The bow is octagonal in section, sterling silver mounted, a three-piece endscrew. Sterling silver winding, leathers and a Parisian eye ebony frog with a wider 2.0 mm silver ring around the mother-of-pearl eye. The player’s side of the frog features an engraving of F.K.’s bust and the bow has GERMANY branded on the bottom flat of the stick.

Weight fully haired 73.0 grams.