Description
A good silver mounted German bow for Ernst Martin, Leipzig, circa 1900.
The violin-making town of Markneukirchen is generally known for mass production of instruments that are below the professional level, but it was also home to some superb bow makers whose work tends to be under-appreciated because of the association. Many bows including intermediate examples are made of old-growth pernambuco that is simply unobtainable today, and with the qualities of metal-covered strings that did not exist one-hundred years ago, some of these have really come into their own in unexpected ways.
I have seen a few bows that are stamped for Ernst Martin of Leipzig, a violin dealer who seems to have been quite diligent in his selection of Markneukirchen bows, because I have never seen one that hasn’t pleased me. This is a very unusual example which seems to be a consciously riffing off the Parisian work of Pierre Simon, in a manner that is very unexpected for Markneukirchen bows. Nevertheless it is firmly a German bow, and it’s lightness is typical for the kind of ‘Chamber Music Bow’ that seems to have been particularly popular amongst German clientele around the turn of the twentieth century – it is quite expected to find one of these lighter bows in a case with a fine old French bow when encountering a violin from that generation. It is a very easy and fast bow to play. It won’t dig very deep, but that can be compensated for by moderating bow speed. As a student bow it works a dream, and for the right player could be a bow for life.
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