Paul Émile Miquel: fine French violin bow, c.1900 (certificate by J.-F. Raffin)

This lightweight French violin bow by Paul Émile Miquel is the work of an interesting master whose oeuvre represents modern French bow making at the turn of the twentieth century; his comparatively small but select body of work ranks amongst the rarities of his epoch. A certificate issued by the world-renowned expert J. F. Raffin included with this Paul Émile Miquel bow dates the piece back to circa 1900, a period in which Paul Emile Miquel hat long since become a skilled master of his art. During this mature phase of his work, he preferred to craft silver-mounted bows such as the one featured here; it interprets the influential template of the Bazin school, as opposed to the models of Peccatte and Vuillaume which he had focused on earlier. This re-orientation of his work coincided with his move from his home city of Mirecourt to Nancy, where he quickly made such a good name for himself with his repair work that it appears he had very little time to dedicate to making new bows. His entrepreneurial success can thus be regarded as a loss for the music world, as is evident in this lightweight "Mozart" bow of 51.9 g which is exemplary with a weight distribution of striking precision; the balance point lies centered slightly inclined towards the upper half of the bow stick at 25.2 cm. The finely crafted head and the outstanding silver mounting, the silver adjuster being a later copy replacement, reflect the high quality of this Paul Émile Miquel violin bow at a single glance and yet are not gaudy; they express an aesthetic promise that the bow’s large, typically French and pleasantly warm sound fully honours. Like all our fine stringed instruments and bows, delivered to your home with free shipping, a 30-day return policy and Corilon's trade-in guarantee.