Images(2)

Violin bow

Date1790 ca.

Place MadeLondon, England, Europe

Serial No.none

SignedBranded on stick and frog (away from player, the lettering oriented up]: BETTS.s[superscript "s" over period]
DescriptionThis bow branded Betts has the visually elegant, tall swan head popular in England at the end of the eighteenth century. Philip Kass has suggested this bow could have been made by Edward Dodd I.

Stick: round; pernambuco; uneven faceting at handle; visible saw marks on handle
Head: high swan head; t-mortise no chamfers on back
Frog: ivory; no slide; angled back corner; pointed leading edge at stick
Adjuster: ivory; flattened shape
Tip plate: none
Wrapping: none
Grip: none
Dimensions721 mm long
Stick length: 702 mm
Head height: 24.0 mm
Head width (bottom): 8.9 mm
Stick width near tip: 5.4 mm (top to bottom); 5.4 mm (side to side)
Stick width near middle: 7.9 mm (top to bottom); 7.7 mm (side to side)
Stick width at end of handle: 7.6 mm (top to bottom); 8.8 mm (side to side)
Frog height: mm (front); mm (back)
Frog length (top): 20.9 mm
Frog length (bottom): 15.1 mm
Frog width (top): 7.4 mm (front); 7.3 mm (back)
Frog width (bottom): 8.9 mm (front); 6.7 mm (back)
Weight: 44.6 grams

ProvenanceLaurence Witten acquired as a gift from Charles Beare, London, 1970.
Purchased by the National Music Museum from Laurence Witten Family, New Haven, Connecticut, 1984.
Published ReferencesPeter Walls, “Mozart and the Violin,” Early Music, Vol. XX, No. 1 (February 1992), pp. 7-29.

Credit LineWitten-Rawlins Collection, 1984

Object number03407

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