cello bow
François Xavier Tourte “the Younger”
built in Paris in ± 1810
A cello bow, attributed to François Tourte in Paris, ca. 1810. Octagonal shaft, ebony frog, silver mount, unmarked.
History of this instrument
This Tourte cello bow comes from the famous “Max Rodriguez Collection,” which consists of four Italian master instruments and sixteen valuable bows. In 1992, the Rodriguez Collection was loaned to the foundation. In 1997, the owner decided to donate nearly all of the instruments to our foundation, with the exception of one cello and a few bows, which were purchased by the fund. It remains the largest donation ever made to the Musical Instrument Fund.
The first person to play with the bow through the fund was Judith Jamin. After her, Lidy Blijdorp played with the Parisian bow; it is currently in the possession of Antonio Dorado Salguero.
About the builder François Xavier Tourte “the Younger”
François Xavier and Nicolas Léonard Tourte are often regarded as the bow makers to whom we owe our modern bow. The younger of the two, François Xavier, is sometimes called the “Stradivari of bow makers.” For someone who worked as a...