For sale here is a good vintage violin bow, as pictured.
Description: This is a full-size bow measuring 29 1/4 inches long and weighing 60 grams, which many consider to be the ideal weight for a violin bow. The ebony frog and button have sterling silver fittings. The round stick is made of fine pernambuco. This wood, which grows only in Brazil, is what most professional-grade bows have been made of for the last two centuries. The stick is straight, strong and well cambered. The bow is not stamped with a maker’s name or a country of origin, but it was undoubtedly made in Germany before World War 2, probably in the 1920s or 1930s.
Starting in the late 1800s, hundreds of thousands of bows were made in German workshops for export to the United States. Most of these were cheap student-level bows made with beechwood sticks and nickel-mounted frogs. A small fraction of the production were high-quality bows like this one, made with pernambuco sticks and sterling silver mountings.
Condition: Despite being around 100 years old, this bow is in excellent lightly used condition throughout. I recently installed a new head plate and a new silver wire grip, and I bushed the inner screw hole in the stick to properly align the screw. Then I rehaired the bow with good quality unbleached white horse hair, making it ready to play.
This bow is well-suited for an accomplished player who wishes to acquire a fine quality European bow as an alternative to one of the new Chinese and Brazilian bows that are widely available.
Because trying a bow the only way to determine if it is comfortable for the player and well-matched to the instrument, this bow is sold with a 14-day trial period. The buyer will have the option to return it for any reason. The buyer will be responsible for the return shipping cost. I will refund the purchase price after I receive the bow back.
The bow will be shipped by USPS Priority Mail inside a sturdy PVC plastic tube to ensure safe delivery. (You could even keep the tube to use as a bow case.) Free shipping within the United States. Due to international restrictions on pernambuco, it cannot be shipped outside the United States.
Check my feedback; I have had many satisfied bow buyers. I studied bow rehairing, bow repairing and bow making with several master bow makers at the University of New Hampshire's Violin Craftsmanship Institute, and I have been working on bows professionally for 35 years. I seek out fine quality antique bows, do whatever is required to put them in tip-top playing condition and sell them to players, collectors and dealers all over the United States.