XXII. THE BOW.
The rank of François Tourte among violin-bow makers is as prominent a one as that of Stradivarius among violin makers. Each has supplemented the other. Tourte died in Paris in the year 1835 at the age of 88, after a life of usefulness almost as long as that of Stradivarius. He brought the making of bows for stringed instruments to such perfection, that those bow makers who have succeeded him, have never deviated very far from the models he left.
I shall here make a few observations on the characteristics of real Tourte bows which have crossed my path.
The quality, as well as money value, of a bow seems entirely to depend upon its shape, whether the stick is round or angular. The whole length of the bow from the point to the end of the nut should be 73 to 74 centimetres. The length of the hair from the lower part of the head to the nut should measure 63 to 64 centimetres; the height of the head, including the stick and little plate, should be 23 m/m.; the height of the nut with the stem to the outer ring where the hair begins 26 m/m.; the breadth of the hair on the nut should be 11 m/m. and on the head 10 m/m. Tourte used from 80 to 100 hairs for each bow, but now from 150 to 160 are taken.
The stick is made of pernambuco-wood and the nut of ebony; tortoise shell is however sometimes used for the latter. The decoration may be in German silver, silver or gold, according to the taste of the possessor.
The stick must be cut straight and lengthwise with the year-rings, and is manipulated in such a way that the side-view of the bow shows the horizontal lines. In this condition the prepared stick must be held over a charcoal fire, be gradually and equally heated, until it can be scarcely retained in the hand, and then it must immediately be bent across the knee to such a degree, as to allow the hair of the finished bow to lie upon the stick. To accomplish this successfully, a certain amount of practice and caution is required. The weight of a bow when finished should not exceed 54 to 57 grammes.
Tourte never polished nor varnished his bows, but only rubbed them smooth with pumice-stone and linseed-oil. If varnish or polish of any kind is ever found on one of his bows, it has been put there by other hands than his.
It has often been asserted that Tourte only left the bows unpolished and unvarnished from indifference, and I must confess that I also was once inclined to this opinion until experience taught me better. About 30 years ago I bought a beautiful Tourte bow which I handed to Herr Joachim to test.
It seemed to him a little too heavy and I, in my want of experience, imagined that I could easily meet the wish for diminished weight by a little work. I therefore commenced to work with a file upon this master-piece, but I found the outer layer of the wood as hard as iron, so that I had a great deal of trouble to lessen the circumference of the stick. This circumstance surprised me at the outset of the work, as in the making of new bows it never occurred to me before. I was in great fear, however, at the conclusion of my troublesome work, for I found that the bow had lost all elasticity and power.
Later on, the opportunity presented itself to me of proving that pernambuco-wood when exposed to the air hardens very rapidly, and I am therefore convinced that this fact was known to Tourte and that consequently he only rubbed his bows with linseed-oil, in order to leave them open to the influence of the air, so that the sticks might become hardened and strengthened.
If an old bow has become slightly twisted, which may happen with bows of the best make, this fault can be rectified by cautiously bending it back to its original form over a charcoal fire, and the bow will regain its former elasticity.
If any of my readers desire to study more closely the history of stringed instruments, I can recommend to them very highly the work upon the subject from the pen of Julius Rühlmann.
Göttingen, Druck der Dieterich’schen Univ.-Buchdruckerei von W. Fr. Kästner.