French Viola d'amore Bow: Museum Object and Cultural History
French Viola d'amore Bow: date made: 18th century. Object Name: bow. Physical Description: beefwood (overall material).
The object in the museum catalogue
This bow was made by an unknown maker in France, in the 18th century. It is a viola d-amore bow, made of a round beefwood stick, with a transitional head, fluted hand-grip are beginning 7.7 cm from the button and extending to 15.9 cm on the stick, open-faced ivory frog, and a 19th century bone button.
While it is difficult to be certain how a bow was used in the past, the elongated thinly graduated stick with low frog placement lends this bow well for the gymnastic movement required by the literature and bridge geometry of the viola d’amore.
Materials, dates and provenance
- date made: 18th century
- Object Name: bow
- Physical Description: beefwood (overall material)
- Physical Description: ivory (overall material)
- Physical Description: bone (overall material)
- Physical Description: horsehair (overall material)
- Measurements: overall: 1 1/8 in x 1/2 in x 28 5/8 in; 2.8575 cm x 1.27 cm x 72.7075 cm
- place made: France
- ID Number: MI.69.09
- accession number: 281385
- catalog number: 69.09
- 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.
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