Two examples of the bows of from the Stradivari period (1680-1740) are known and they both have screw mechanisms for their adjustment, dating them after circa 1710. Andrew Dipper make his Stradivari pattern bows according to the characteristics of the extant examples. The sticks are longer at 68cm than usual for the period 1720-40 and the heads are higher. Stradivari bows are made from snakewood and are fine and agile in design and dimensions. They can be cannulated as in early examples or can be simple round sticks. They generally weigh between 52-56 grams. There is a reasonable possibility that the development of the violin bow away from the short and stiff Corelli bow took place in Cremona in the period 1720-30 and was engendered by the influence and performance requirements of the two virtuosos Tartini & Gasparo Visconti.

Violin Bow: Baroque, A. Dipper, Stradivari Model – DVB259 (price $3,200)

The Dodd family produced some of the finest English bows of the 18th and 19th centuries. The models tend to be influenced by the designs of other bow making schools, in particular the Mannheim school that is associated with the career of the violinist Wilhelm Cramer and other models being influenced by the Italo-French school of Viotti. The use of British colonial woods rather than South American woods in their construction is an interesting factor in their design which led to measurements that mostly exceed their French model counterparts. This more robust quality followed the requirement for more volume and dynamic power in the English orchestral style.

 

Violin Bow: Classical, A. Dipper, Dodd model– DVB301 (price $3,200)

The Corrette bow:

Michel Corrette (b. 1707, d.1795) was a French musician and author of many musical method books. Andrew Dipper’s bows are of the type illustrated by Corrette in his violin tutor. This tutor depicts a bow with a so-called swan head which is an adaptation of the lower Pike-Head type of the Corelli bow This medium sized bow head allows for a hair ribbon barely wider than 7mm. The hair ribbon is also cambered by the shaping of the frog’s hair channel, which gives the bow very different playing characteristics than the modern bow with its flat hair ribbon. The Hill collection at the Ashmolean Museum, in Oxford, England has examples of this kind of bow. The weight range of the Corrette bow is from 52-54 grams and its frog is adjustable by means of the usual screw and button. The stick of the bow is regulated in diameter to enhance poetical expression within the music. The frogs on Dipper modern reproductions of these bows are usually made from amourette wood or various other hard and heavy tropical hardwoods because of the necessity for strength and the fine and accurate shaping of their geometry.

In the mid-1700’s, in order to achieve better expression in virtuosic performance, bows were lengthened from the 60cm length of the ordinary Corelli bow to around 68cm. The bows were finely regulated in thickness and more flexible than their predecessors. High quality snakewood (Brosimum guianense) from French and Dutch Guiana became the material of choice for French bows. Stick profiles could by completely cylindrical in the Italian style or octagonal at the frog end, slowly achieving a cylindrical profile before the balance point of the stick. Some high-quality bows were also cannulated.   The Dipper Corrette model bow demonstrates this mid-1700’s shift.

 

 

Violin Bow: Baroque, A. Dipper, Corrette Model– DVB307 – (price $2,900)