Bow Valuations, Free and Without Obligation

Most of the time in a valuation the bow is brought along as an afterthought and it is always pleasant to surprise people that it has value.

We usually start at the head. It is the most individual part of a bow, with the shape of the tip, the chamfers and the way the throat is cut. It is where a maker’s hand shows most clearly. Much as the scroll does on a violin.

Then the stick. Pernambuco, and what grade of it. Weight and balance matter more than people expect, because between them they decide who will actually want to play the thing, and that decides what it makes.

I should add that recent legislation has made pernambuco really difficult both to transport and sell. We are resourced to do this but it can delay the process.

The mountings tell you something as well. Gold, silver or nickel, and whether the frog and the adjuster began life on this bow or arrived later.

Condition is where bows part company with instruments. A violin can carry an old repair perfectly honourably. A bow that has been broken at the head is a different conversation, sometimes to the point of only being valuable for its mounts.

We had a client turn up a few years ago with a terrible, terrible violin and a bow by Maire that made well over £20,000. It is wonderful when it happens, although never quite as often as I might wish.

Bring the case and everything in it. It costs nothing, and more than one person has come in about a violin and gone home talking about the bow.