Violin bows

This very short and strong bow enables clear and separate articulation, rhythmic precision and a direct, penetrating tone.Its sprightliness, due to its lightness and stiffness, favours the performance of ornamentations and fast, improvised passage-works. It is specially adapted to dance accompaniment
Stick made of service-tre wood (sorbus domestica), clip-in frog

This model is a direct descendant of the medieval fiddle bows. It is the most widespread one in the 16th century representations. Despite the big distance between hair and stick in the arched part of the bow, there is no wobbling sensation on the strings because the hand, resting on the shaft with the thumb under the frog, is close to the hair plane. Stick made of service-tree wood (sorbus domestica), clip-in frog.

Towards the end of the 16th century, the bows seem to become thinner and longer. The tip is notraised yet. This model keeps a clear articulation, great rhythmic precision and a sensation of lightness at the tip.
Stick made of service-tre wood (sorbus domestica), clip-in frog

The hair is inserted into the cap that is adjusted at the tip of the stick. This device, largely represented in the 16th and early 17th centuries, greatly facilitates the placement of the horsehair and the adjustment of its length. Moreover, it changes the balance of the stick : by giving more weight to the tip, it makes the bow more precise and powerful.This model is mainly used in the context of dance or entertainment.
Stick made of service-tree wood (sorbus domestica), clip-in frog, cap made of bone

Following the small Renaissance bows, this model marks the start of the Baroque period. It differs from its predecessors by the presence of a head. This brings more modulation in the performance while the bow keeps the dynamics of a short bow. The wood used is African blackwood (dalbergia melanoxylon), often mistaken for ebony, although it is a rosewood.
The bow is supplied with three frogs of different heights to allow variations of hair tension.

The liveliness of a still short stick, combined with the flexibility of the African blackwood, allows precise and subtle bow strokes, whose range is further widened thanks to a greater head height. This very dense wood brings above all a full and round sound.
The bow is supplied with three frogs of different heights to allow variations of hair tension.

Over the 17th century, the bow gets gradually longer and thinner, thanks to the use of dense woods such as snakewood. While remaining precise and fast, the bow acquires a greater variety of tones, a wider range of expressions and dynamics.
The bow is supplied with three frogs of different heights to allow variations of hair tension. Snakewood stick.

This type of bow is quite often the most pictured one in the hands of the musicians of La Chambre du Roy until the end of the 17th century. Despite its archaic appearance, it is recognizable in many engravings where we see that the hand laid on the handle is low, which confirms the idea that the stick comes down to the level of the hair (see on this subject my article published in L’orchestre à cordes sous Louis XIV).
Stick made of African blackwood (dalbergia melanoxylon)

Inspired both by the plate of Orcheography that Mersenne devotes to the violin family (1636) and by the musical instruments trophies in the music gallery of the Royal Chapel of Versailles (1708-09), this bow testifies that the model has barely varied under the reign of Louis XIV, as well in the shape as in the length (see on this subject the article edited in L’orchestre à cordes sous Louis XIV).
Stick made of African blackwood, frog made of substitute for real ivory. The bow is supplied with three frogs of different heights to allow variations of hair tension.

Despite the common characteristics with the Italian bows of the same period, such as the general shape and the height of the head, this bow remains very short, as it used to be in France at the end of the XVIIth century. The small size of these bows is inseparable from the low holding of the violin (see on this subject my article published in L’orchestre à cordes sous Louis XIV, p 114)
Stick made of snakewood. The bow is supplied with three frogs of different heights to allow variations of hair tension.

This bow is built after an anonymous bow preserved in the Museum of Musical Instruments in Brussels. The original has been transformed and fitted with a screw-adjustable frog, but it still shows the traces of the previous location of the clip-frog. This reconstruction restores the original tension system which guarantees great liveliness if the frog is tightly held by the hair at the rear. The button, besides its decorative aspect, has a balance function.
Stick made of snakewood. The bow is supplied with three frogs of different heights to allow variations of hair tension.

Designed from several iconographic sources, this model keeps all the liveliness of the clip-in frog bows despite the hair lengthening. The extra-length of stick beyond the frog provides a good balance.
Stick made of snakewood. The bow is supplied with three frogs of different heights to allow variations of hair tension.

This bow is a copy of a stick found under the organ floor of the Saint Martin church in Klosterneuburg in Austria. The history of the building allows its datation between 1683 and 1725. The stick is made of larch, unusually quarter sawn. The bow is very light and very lively and allows great subtlety of dynamics.
The bow is supplied with three frogs of different heights to allow variations of hair tension.

Based on an Italian model, originally with a clip-in frog but fitted here with a screw-and-eyelet system, this bow has kept the low head and the rather convex shape of the late 17th century bows.
Snakewood stick.

With a higher head than the Vnb9 model, it is a quite versatile bow.
Snakewood stick and frog.

Built on the same model as the Vnb11, this bow owes its lower cost to greater aesthetic sobriety and a simpler three-faceted frog fitting.
Snakewood stick and frog.

Built in copy of an anonymous French bow preserved at the Museum of Music in Paris, this model has two distinguished features : a very low frog with a quite high head.
Snakewood stick and frog

Inspired by several models by Nicolas Pierre Tourte, this bow offers fairly the same playing height at the tip and at the heel, which leads to greater equality of the up-bow and the down-bow than on previous models.
Snakewood stick.

This bow is made after a model by Nicolas Pierre Tourte. Fluting lightens the bow at the head without weakening the stick which keeps its edges (on this subject see my article Une histoire de l’archet de violon de la Renaissance au tournant du XIXe siècle)
Snakewood stick.

This bow owes its flexibility and its singing character undoubtedly to its quite high head. Balance is obtained with a slightly massive frog, typical of the time, to offset the weight of the head.
Snakewood stick.

Instrument of the dancing master, the pochette has been represented in several vanities by Simon Renard de Saint-André, always accompanied by the same bow from which this model is inspired.

Edward Dodd's original is kept at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is a rather early model which represents a real transition between baroque and classical bow. His head is light, which gives him a good balance. Its camber is not very pronounced.
Stick made of ferreol (swartzia panacoco) or of boco (boco prouacensis)

Iconic model of the last quarter of the 18th century, the Cramer model is characterized by a hatchet-shaped head and a finely cut frog riding on a flat ivory plate. Because of this type of attachment, the musician's hand was placed well ahead of the frog, which is confirmed by the length of the silk winding on old bows. It is also a way to offset the weight of the head.
Ferreol (swartzia panacoco) stick, mammoth ivory frog.

The original bow that served as a model for this bow is the fruit of the collaboration between Léonard and François-Xavier Tourte. The weight of the ivory frog allows this bow to be perfectly balanced. The use of ferreol, also called partridge wood at the time, is evidenced by invoices from François-Xavier and some preserved bows made by the two brothers.
Baguette en ferréol (swarzia panacoco), hausse en ivoire de mammouth ou en bois très dense

The lightness of the very slender head as well as the counterweight length behind the frog give this stick a comfortable balance. The playable hair length enables an extended repertoire.
Stick made of ferreol (swartzia panacoco) or licania alba, called long-leafed caraipe during the 18th century.

This model is the closest to romantic bow, regarding its head, its robust stick and its pronounced camber. It allows a rather late repertoire.
Stick made of ferreol (swartzia panacoco) or of greenheart (chlorocardium rodiei)

The original by John Dodd who served as a model for this bow is exceptionally elegant, thanks to the delicacy of its head and the perfect line of its stick. The aesthetic of the frog and the button is typical of the author.
Ferreol (swartzia panacoco) stick, mammoth ivory frog.