About

Bow & Bridge lists violin, viola, cello and bow makers, and the dealers who sold their work, as old books and trade directories printed them. Each maker page shows the printed lines, the book each came from, and a link to the scanned page. The town and year pages are built from those same lines.

The pages were read by a computer. It sometimes misreads a letter or a number, so open the scan before you rely on a detail.

The site does not say who was a good maker or whether a label is genuine. It shows you where to look next.

Everything here is free to reuse.

Download the data: JSON · CSV. The data is public domain (CC0): use it for anything, no permission needed.

Bow & Bridge is made by Roman Clarkson in Rocheport, Missouri. More about the project and who is behind it.