French Model Bass Bow – GERMANY circa 1930-1940

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Stamped

You may be looking for a strong well-made bow to make sound jump off your bass. This could be it. The stick is firm and the bow handles very well. It’s a German stick, a restored bass bow with age. The bow is older than me by 30-40 years. I’ve had this stick piled in a large cardboard box in my home workshop with other cello and bass bows for 30-40 years. It is about time I got to the bow. Considering what has happed to pernambuco wood from Brazil in the last four years, the complete stoppage of use of pernambuco by the Brazilian government, it is great to see our older pernambuco bows begin to get restored, completed, and out to the showroom. I still have about 600 bows to complete. I’m on a one bow per week completion rate. 75% of my bow work is violin bows and 25% happens to be split between bass, cello, and viola bows. Restoration work can take many hours and/or weeks. Much of my own work gets put on the back burner when customer violins and bows need to be completed. Customer items come first. I love the details of bow work: tip/ head execution, leather work, wood working in the layout of the stick, mortise work rebuilds, jewelry work, and hair work.

The bow has beautiful pernambuco wood, dark and coffee color, with straight tight grain. This wood in this bow is older pernambuco, most definitely from the early 1900’s or even the late 19th century. It probably started in an old pernambuco wood pile, possibly hiding in a barn for years.

The bow is pernambuco, French model, round in section and has a nickel mounted fully lined frog. The workmanship is at a nice level, starting with a nickel silver tip. The tip helps the bow stand out because it is completed in nickel silver, not bone or ivory. The frog is interestingly made with less height, ebony with flecks of brown, and fully lined with single mother-of-pearl eyes. The frog has pinned work attaching the lining and the heel. The mother-of-pearl slide, which functionally covers the frog wedge and the knotted hair, aesthetically displays green and subtle pink hues. The mounts are simply nickel with a sterling silver winding finished off with goat leather lapping and thumb grip. The end button is three-piece.

The bow lays on the heavier side of bass bows, balances well, and plays off-the-string articulations very well. A sleeper of a bow, no makers name, just origin agreed on because of the butt stamp. I think it is great bow, made in workshop that took pride in their work. The bow is slightly different because of its strength, colors in the stick and the frog, overall weight and the silver tip. This bow is very much worth looking at.

Length of the bow 711.0 mm.
Balance point of the bow 258.0 mm.

Weight fully haired 139.1 grams