German Fully Lined Sterling Pernambuco Violin Bow – Markneukirchen circa 1920

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This is a neat older violin bow, perfect for the player looking for something different with no maker’s name stamped. The bow was made in a workshop in or around the town of Markneukirchen, Germany. Historically, Markneukirchen was the German hub of the string trade for centuries. Because of the tremendous growth in violin making during the 1800’s, the bow trade followed and became just as well known. In this period many bow making families flourished, employing dozens of craftsmen to meet the need for bows. This is one of those bows from a family shop working in the early 20th century.

I collected all kinds of string instruments and bows from 1974–1985. This violin bow is about 100 years old and made it into my collection of many hundreds of items discovered in the New York City/New Jersey area, where I grew up. As a teenager my father would take me to many estate sales and auctions. We would purchase dozens of older instruments and bows. Many times, an entire group of bows would come with the instrument. Currently, I’m averaging one or two bows being restored each week. Restoring the sticks is just part of it. I then do the research and the write-up on every bow. I enjoy the detail of the bow work at my bench. Eash stick is analyzed for its firmness or strength, workmanship, and attention to detail. I go over the silver on the frog and stick and in this case, it is sterling silver fittings. The winding and leather work for each thumb grip is always challenging and almost always needs to be replaced. I love the preciseness of getting all 150-160 hairs at 28” in length placed in the bow not tangled. I love the complexity of getting horse hairs to stay just so and be fitted in a mortise to the thousandth of an inch. The wedge work is done in maple and has five angles cut in the wedge to make everything lock together and hold properly. The final wedge placed in a bow when rehairing is poplar wood, softer than the maple wedges which spread the hair into an even ribbon.

The bow is pernambuco, sterling silver mounted, and octagonal in section. The ebony frog is fully lined and has single pearl eyes. The solid cap is sterling silver completed in an octagonal. The wood is thin, strong, and on the dark side. I choose to add an old-world leather wind 76.0 mm (3”) long with a second leather also in goat to simulate the thumb grip. The bow feels great in the hand and by doing the leather wind and grip it kept the bow just under 60.0 grams. The bow is very well thought out and the choice of wood is very nice. The bow has been fully gone over here in my workshop, and this will make a terrific addition to a player’s arsenal of sticks. This is German craftsmanship, firm pernambuco, yet not a heavy bow. This is lightweight gem that has great bones and is easy to handle.

Weight fully haired 59.2 grams