How to use gold, tortoiseshell and abalone in copies of works by the ‘father of the modern bow’

BY VICTOR BERNARD

Bow maker based in Brussels, Belgium

Lutherie

Makers reveal their special techniques

The pictures above show a gold-mounted F.X. Tourte violin bow from the beginning of the 19th century. We can see this bow in the first volume of Bernard Millant and Jean-François Rain’s seminal book L’Archet. I have never seen this bow in real life but I really like it: the head and frog are particularly elegant. It is a gold-mounted bow with a typical Tourte eye – a gold ring with tortoiseshell and abalone. Tourte used abalone for most of his eyes, though not all. Most bow makers now opt for Parisian eyes, but I would like to share the process I have developed for making this specific type of eye.