Part 2 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 16.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 17.]

Similar bows to the above appear to have been pretty general in the tenth century. In the eleventh century a little more variety is apparent, as will be seen in Fig. 18.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 18.]

Here are to be found the survival of the ninth century form shown in Fig. 17, and a remarkable advance in the form of the one at the bottom, which is doubtless the pattern intended to be shown in the sculptured bow, second from the top. The top one is merely given as an example of the perfunctory work the historian has to examine and yet retain his customary calm exterior.

Fig. 19 gives some examples of twelfth century bows as depicted by the artists of that period. The first two are evidently intended to represent the type shown in Fig. 17. The sculptor probably found the straight line of the hair inelegant. The third (which is from a MS.

in the Bodleian Library) and last show a return to the ninth century form in Fig. 16.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 19.]

This is a form that is found so continually through all the centuries, down to the seventeenth and eighteenth, that I am inclined to the belief that it is fairly accurate. It is very much like the outline of the modern double ba.s.s bow. In Fig. 20 are given some thirteenth century bows: the one with the curious sword-hilt is remarkable. In the others we find a return to more primitive lines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 20.]

The fourteenth century bows have very little to distinguish them from those of preceding ages, and I give the most noticeable examples I have found in Fig. 21. The second is a very advanced type. Against these must be set those in Fig. 22.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 21.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 22.]

These appear to me as being most probably conventional representations, or copied from older works as suggested above.

Of fifteenth century bows, the pictorial and plastic arts record those shown in Fig. 23, together with the usual atavism or return to earlier types.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 23.]

This atavism, if credible, is most marked in the sixteenth century as witness those in Fig. 24.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 24.]

Here are bows that take us back to before the Norman Conquest, drawn by artists who were contemporary with Gasparo da Salo and Andreas Amati. It is quite out of the question to suppose that such bows were used at that time.

The drawings of seventeenth century bows are more convincing. We then get a more definite idea of the nut, which was in most cases a fixture. Also, the head begins to mould itself into something approaching the form of the modern ”hatchet.”

Although there are cases of bows in drawings as far back as the eleventh century (see Fig. 18, etc.) showing great advances, it is not until reaching the seventeenth century, that one can say with any degree of confidence that the perfect bow is on the horizon.

CHAPTER IV.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN BOW--ORNAMENTATION--A POSSIBLE STRADIVARI BOW--THE MOVABLE NUT--THE CReMAILLeRE--THE SCREW NUT.

I find it a matter for extreme regret that there should be such a large element of uncertainty in what I am able to bring forward of the earlier historical aspect of the bow. Of its primitive use one can do little more than examine contemporary evidence in the East, and then a.s.sume, albeit with some show of reason, that the same forms have survived from remote periods. Coming to the mediaeval bow we appear to tread on safer ground; bows are depicted in miniatures, ma.n.u.scripts, paintings, etc., from the eight and ninth centuries onwards, and in nearly every case we can determine the date of the production and frequently its author. So far nothing could be more satisfactory, but as I have said above, there are very few examples that impress one as being accurate representations.

Proceeding to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, I am further frustrated in my attempt to elucidate the obscure pa.s.sages in the bow's history by a reversal of those conditions. I can now lay before my readers drawings and photographs of bows the accuracy of which I can guarantee, but placing them in perfect chronology is, unfortunately, little more than guess work. Such was the modesty of their makers that the early bows were all sent into the world nameless. Many of them are marvels of workmans.h.i.+p, and, though utterly unscientific in construction and unfit for the requirements of modern violinists, they are for the most part exquisite works of art upon which no pains have been spared.

Some of the fluting and other ornamentation is little short of marvellous in point of design and finish.