Scan 65
Catalog of Rare Old Violins, Violas, Violoncellos, Bows of Rare Makes, 1919
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Gaspar da Salo and Maggini found the violin, in an undeveloped state, and by years of careful experiment finally developed it to its present perfect shape. No more intimate relationship ever existed than that of violin and bow.
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. He found the bow a short arched affair which had been handed down from the time of the rebec, viol, and other mediaeval instruments, lengthened it to its present proportion, invented the frog and screw, and marvelous to relate, 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 it is not uncommon that as much as $500 to $1,000 be paid for fine specimens.
7The keenest competition was created in Paris by reason of a great number of makers who followed Tourte, all of them copying him with the endeavor to find his secret, yet notwithstanding the efforts of bow makers of England, Germany, Holland, and other countries, Tourte remains today supreme, as ever, for no one has as yet been able to match his skill. A good Tourte bow draws from a good violin a larger and richer tone than
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