Kaston Viola Bow: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This bow was made by Henryk Kaston in New York, New York, in 1990. It is a viola bow, with a Pernambuco stick, tortoise shell frog and gold fittings, mother-of-pearl and gold inlay. The bow is stamped:

Henryk Kaston was born in 1915 in Piotrowk, Trb., Poland, a small town near Warsaw. The son of a violinist, he left Poland to advance his violin studies at the Paris Conservatoire in the mid-1930s. While in Paris, he became interested in sculpting, jewelry, and bow making, learning these crafts by working in various shops.

He arrived in the United States in 1941 and began his performance career in the Cleveland Orchestra. Within two years he had moved to New York City, playing in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and working as the bow man for the Rembert Wurlitzer firm. Henryk also worked out of his home, producing bows and jewelry for clients on request. In later years he executed jewelry designed by the artist Salvador Dali, and also became involved in the design and marketing of violin mutes.

Henryk Kaston did not keep records of his work, but he estimates a total output of 300 to 400 bows. The majority of his work was violin bows, which he did not always mark with his identifying brand stamp, sometimes utilizing precious metals and stones on the frog that capitalize on his jeweler’s experience.

This viola bow is from a matched quartet of bows was made in 1990 at the request of Dr. Herbert Axelrod for donation to the Smithsonian collections. Each bow has a tortoise shell frog and gold fittings. The mother-of-pearl and gold inlaid design is taken from the Stradivari “coat of arms” created in the 19th century which is sometimes used to decorate tailpieces of instruments labelled Stradivarius.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1990
• maker: Kaston, Henryk
• maker: Kaston, Henryk
• Object Name: bow
• Physical Description: pernambuco (overall material)
• Physical Description: tortoise shell (overall material)
• Physical Description: mother-of-pearl (overall material)
• Physical Description: gold (overall material)
• Physical Description: horsehair (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 1 1/4 in x 29 1/2 in x 1/2 in; 3.175 cm x 74.93 cm x 1.27 cm
• place made: United States: New York, New York
• ID Number: 1990.0696.03
• catalog number: 1990.0696.03
• accession number: 1990.0696
• Credit Line: Gift of Henryk Kaston
• 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.