Workshop Violin Bow Stamped Vuillaume circa 1935 Czechoslovakia

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Stamped:

This is not a French bow, just a marketing system used by many in the bow trade to sell bows, especially after World War I. To survive makers used famous French and Italian bow maker’s names to sell their bows. Bows were made very well in the now Czech Republic and many thousands of them landed in German violin outfits. Many of the bows were made in the Schönbach area about 25 miles from the German border near the town of Markneukirchen in the German state of Saxony.

This stick has been in my collection of bows since the early 1980’s. When I wasn’t practicing violin or umpiring ball games my father took me around to various places in New York City, New Jersey, and Connecticut. He was my financial source to purchase hundreds of instruments and bows as a young teenager and into my college years. This is one of those bows which was probably in a case that consisted of a violin outfit.

The bow is made up of tight grain pernambuco, is mounted in nickel silver, and has no flaws. It has a rounded frog, which is different; the frog shows a little sign of playing wear and the frog feels great in the hand, smooth with no crisp edges. I’ve gone over the entire stick. I cleaned the wood, replaced the facial of the tip with tip armor, replaced the nickel wind on the stick, and then added a new leather thumb grip. The stick is subtle but also firm. It has a nice fight. The frog is ebony, and we call it a blind eye frog, no pearl eyes. The mother-of-pearl slide is brand new as the old pearl was totally gone. The ferrule is rounded on the sides and at the top and the frog and has no back heel. The lining is held to the frog by a single pin, no screws. The bow is completed with a sold cap nickel button in octagon shape.

Weight fully haired 59.0 grams