The Italian virtuoso Giovanni Battista Viotti (12 May 1755 – 3 March 1824) is renowned in the world of violinists for the reports of his exceptional power and tone. He was originally from Torino and later was active both in Paris and London. He wrote a short and incomplete treatise on his method of playing the violin. It is unfortunate that the chapter on the violin bow is lost. Viotti’s career covered the period in which the design and construction of the violin bow saw many novel forms as it transitioned from the early baroque style to the modern designs of the Tourte family.

No portrait of the virtuoso exists with enough detail to determine what kind of bow Viotti used, but we can achieve an idea from the examples that were in widespread use in London and Paris at that time. Andrew identified a bow, now in the National Music Museum, as a possible candidate for a Viotti period bow. The bow in question is unusual, with a hockey-stick shaped head reminiscent of the Manheim bow but with a flared profile and an unusually wide hair ribbon. This original bow-stick is fitted with a replacement ivory frog mounted in gold, with a modern ferrule to constrain and order the hair ribbon. Andrew’s copy reproduces the characteristics of the original bow with an open hair channel and without the later gold fittings.