Dolmetsch Bass Viol Bow: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This bow was made by Arnold Dolmetsch, Ltd. in Haslemere, England, in 1966. It is a bass viol bow, made of a fluted octagonal Pernambuco stick terminating in a pike head, with a plain open frog of ivory with an ivory button. The bow is stamped:

The Englishman, Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940), was a pioneer in the revival of performances of early music informed by period instruments and scholarship of historical records. A musician and craftsman, Arnold restored old instruments and built new reconstructions of lutes, viols, keyboards, and especially, recorders. In the 1920s he founded a school and workshop in Haslemere, England for the study and re-creation of performances in the period styles of previous centuries. The family workshop became a source of instruments for 20th-century musicians to experience and interpret early music.

This bow was purchased from the firm, Arnold Dolmetsch, Ltd. in 1966.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1966
• maker: Arnold Dolmetsch Ltd.
• Object Name: bow
• Physical Description: pernambuco (overall material)
• Physical Description: ivory (overall material)
• Physical Description: horsehair (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 1 7/16 in x 1/2 in x 29 11/16 in; 3.65125 cm x 1.27 cm x 75.40625 cm
• place made: United Kingdom: England, Haslemere
• ID Number: MI.66.344
• accession number: 272603
• catalog number: 66.344
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.