Books › A catalogue of the Lyon & Healy collection of rare old violins, violas, viloncellos, bows of rare makes, 1929 › scan 132
Scan 132
A catalogue of the Lyon & Healy collection of rare old violins, violas, viloncellos, bows of rare makes, 1929
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 110. See the scan on archive.org.
1more intimate relationship ever existed than that of violin and bow, for it may truly be said, that the bow is the magic wand with which is drawn forth the beauty of the instrument.
3Francois Tourte was born in the year 1747, in Paris, and died in 1836. He worked at his bench, as did Stradivarius, almost to the last of his long and useful life. Aided by Viotti, who was also a student of violins and bows, as well as one of the greatest of violinists, and other prominent violinists of his time, Tourte developed a system of bow making which has never been equalled. The bow, as he found it, was a short arched affair which had been handed down from the time of the rebec, viol, and other mediæval instruments, lengthened it to its present proportion, invented the frog and screw. Marvelous to relate, he also invented a method of construction which has remained a secret ever since, for a Tourte bow draws a larger and more flexible tone than is possible with a bow of any other make.
5Paris became the world center of violin bow making, a distinction which it retained up to a comparatively recent time. The bows of Francois Tourte have always commanded comparatively high prices, and in recent years, owing to their great scarcity, have rapidly risen in value until now it is not uncommon to pay upwards from $1,000 for fine specimens.
7The keenest competition was created in Paris by reason of a great number of makers who followed Tourte. All of them copied him with the endeavor to find his secret. But notwithstanding the efforts of bow makers in England, Germany, Holland, and other countries, Tourte remains supreme even today, for no one has ever been able to match his skill. A Tourte bow draws from a good violin a larger and richer tone than does any other, and it is this fact, together with ease of playing, that made Tourte's reputation what it is.
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