G. A. Pfretzschner Violin Bow Markneukirchen circa 1910

click picture to enlarge

Stamped:

I enjoy doing research and writing on the instruments and bows we restore here at the shop. I spent many hours with my nose in books and calling other makers to try to determine and identify. My home growing up was the New York/New Jersey area. With close to eight million people in that area and well before “Antiques Road Show,” my dad and I gathered quite a collection of instruments and bows with no help from cell phones or computers. With a decade of collecting, we gathered hundreds of violins and violas and over 800 very decent bows. Sometimes 3 or 4 bows at a time gathered dust with ravaged hair in a nice case. This bow has been in my large cardboard box of German bows for years.

Stamped G. A. Pfretzschner on the player’s side and Germany on the butt facet. The Pfretzschner family were legendary Saxon instrument and bow makers. The family dates to the mid 1600’s and brought many of the finest craftsmen of the region together to produce bows and stringed instruments for international distribution. They worked out of Markneukirchen and some of the more famous members of the family were Carl Friedrich, Johann Gottlob, Johann Carl, Elias, Carl Gustave Adolph, and Hermann Richard, the most famous bow making part of the family. The Pfretzschner family continued in the violin industry, especially in bow making, until the 1930’s. Carl Gustave Adolf Pfretzschner found the G.A. Pfretzschner Company in 1834. His first-born, Gustav Adolf, continued the company with great skill. The business traded musical instruments and bows in Gothenburg, Paris, London, Tokyo, Zurich, Philadelphia, and New York. The G. A. Pfretzschner firm became one of the larger musical instrument businesses at the turn of the 19th century.

The skill of workmanship is evident in this trade bow that is octagonal in section pernambuco specie. The wood color is almost a dark cherry, red/brown color. The layout of this stick is excellent, with the camber starting 35.0 mm. after the head. The ebony frog has single mother-of-pearl eyes and a one-piece heel. All the silver work is pinned, there are no screws. The bow is sterling silver mounted and finished with a three-piece silver and ebony adjuster. A German trade bow with much age in very good condition. A Pfretzschner stick that made it to America.

Weight fully haired 59.2 grams