1 mins
DATING THE BOWS
Assigning a date to a Voirin bow is, to some extent, guesswork but very educated guesswork. One clue is the placement of Voirin’s stamp, as the location changed between 1870 and 1885, the years he worked on his own. Initially the stamp was on the audience side, away from the player, very near the grip, as in this bow:
This is also where bows from the Vuillaume shop were typically stamped
ISAAC SALCHOW FOR SALCHOW AND SONS BOWMAKERS
Then, as can be seen on the bows in the top right, he stamped on the player side (which a right-handed player will see when holding a bow) very near the grip (bow A), but the stamp gradually moved back over the course of the decade to where it is in line with the back of the frog (C).
There is overlap between the changing of stamp locations and, again, exceptions. As with many developments, there was no ‘eureka’ moment where everything changed all at once, nor is one bow necessarily 100 per cent in accordance with the previous bow. In the Millant/Raffin book one can see four dated bows from the 1878 Paris Exhibition, and the placement of the stamps varies slightly although none are close to the winding.
Besides bows dated for exhibitions, Voirin made many inscribed bows with dated dedications (Isaac Salchow says he’s seen many commissioned by the Belgian Prince de Caraman-Chimay). By observing many of these and noting the dates and stamp locations, as well as many other details, experts have built up a base of knowledge.
On bows made by Louis Thomassin after Voirin’s death and sold by Mme Voirin with the ‘F.N. Voirin a Paris’ stamp, the placement of the stamp reverts to being very near the grip, on the audience side (bow D). This is where Thomassin stamped his.
Thanks to Isaac Salchow for most of this information