English Viola da gamba Bow
date: label: date made
content: 1740-1760
notes: label: Description
content: <p>This bow was made by an unknown maker in England, around 1740-1760. It is viola da gamba bow, made of a round "horse-flesh” wood stick terminated in a modified pike head, with an open ivory frog and button.</p>
label: Description
content: <p>The material of this bow remains unidentified in our time but is commonly known as “horse-flesh” wood, in recognition of the many extremely long open pores and pithy nature of the wood. Bows of this material, not uncommon in the 18th century, are almost exclusively round or oval, without ornamentation or fluting and of unusually large diameter. Extra mass and thickness were required to approximate the weight, balance and resilience of heavier traditional woods, i.e., snakewood, ironwood, beefwood and even Pernambuco. The ivory frog with a “snow-plow” ornament on the front edge is an ornamental reminder of earlier bows with clip-in frogs. The ornament was used to locate and fasten the frog on the stick, creating tensioning on the bow hair. This bow is in an excellent state of preservation, retaining the frog, eyelet, screw, and button intact.</p>
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Music & Musical Instruments
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MI.69.10
label: accession number
content: 281385
label: catalog number
content: 69.10
objectType: label: Object Name
content: bow
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: "horse-flesh" wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ivory (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: horsehair (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 9/16 in x 29 in x 7/16 in; 3.96875 cm x 73.66 cm x 1.11125 cm