Brad Dorsey

Do you think that auction houses can increase sales prices just by increasing their pre-sale estimates?

Does anyone have any ideas about who made this bow?  I bought it with no frog.  The butt is stamped "LEON PIQUE," which is a trade name -- not the name of a real maker.

I have an idea of which maker/shop the bow came from which I will not reveal yet because I want to see if anyone else comes up with the same name, but I will say that I am thinking of a 20th century German maker.

 Leon Pique.JPG   69.05K   105 downloads

I have this Max Schuster, Markneukirchen, 1924, violin in for repairs.   It exhibits a construction technique that I don't recall ever seeing before.  In the upper and lower bouts of the back there is the expected flat surface around the edge that the ribs and linings were glued to.   But the hollowing of the back does not gradually ease into the flat platform the way I've always seen it in other violins.  Instead, there is a sharp vertical drop of up to about 0.8 millimeter from the rib/lining platform down to the hollowing of the back, as seen in this picture of the lower bout with the rib and lining removed:

 MS 1.JPG   64.41K   203 downloads

As I looked closer to try to figure out how this was done, I noticed small machining marks left by some kind of router bit parallelling the ribs as seen here in the upper bout:

 MS 3.JPG   55.6K   276 downloads

The machining marks are even more evident here at the corner block and lower bout:

 MS 2.JPG   65.5K   231 downloads

It is obvious from this picture is that the router bit traced along the inside of the blocks and linings as is removed wood from the back below the level of the seam between the back and the rib and lining.  This machine hollowing of the back left the rib/ling platform around the edge and cut the sharp drop at the edge of the platform.

This means that the ribs and linings were glued to the back before the back was hollowed out by machine, or at least before the final hollowing of the back was done.  I've never heard of or seen evidence of a violin back being hollowed after the ribs were glued to the back.  Does anyone know anything about this technique?

The hollowing of the top does not show this feature.

A customer of mine has a Victor Fetique violin bow whose butt, including the maker's stamp, was becoming worn, so she had me glue a leather butt protector over it -- something that I had never done before.  I applied a thin coat of orange shellac to the butt by the French polishing method.  I cut a piece of thin leather out of a fine leather glove that I have been saving for this purpose.  The leather was long enough to reach from the thumb leather of the grip to the end of the stick and wide enough to wrap around the butt except for the three frog-seating facets.  I glued the leather on the butt with diluted white (Elmer's) glue, and it came out looking like this:

 VF 1.JPG   64.62K   137 downloads

I welcome any comments from those with more butt protector experience or any suggestions for how I should perhaps do the next one differently.

The same bow is also becoming worn between the frog and the grip as seen here:

 VF 2.JPG   54.56K   127 downloads

Clearly some wood loss has occurred.  What would be a good way to prevent further wood loss while keeping the bow in use?

(I still chuckle when I type "butt protector.")

I just had a cello bow, that has been owned by its present owner for about 40 years, in for re-hairing.  In the butt mortise of the stick there was a little slip of paper bearing a typewritten dealer inventory number consisting of the letter "K" followed by a hyphen and a three-digit number.  Does anyone know who used this type of inventory number?