I was recently offered a bow by someone called "Vincent" initial F I think. It's pernambuco stick, a nice feel and weight for £500, I was considering buying it as a second bow as I liked the feel, but having looked him up on the interweb have found little about him. Does anyone know anything or have one of his bows?

Thanks, boogiecat

I have a copy of the William Henley 'Dictionary of Violin and Bow Makers'. I'll have look later on to see if an F Vincent is mentioned.

However, if you like the bow, why not take it to a dealer and ask for an opinion on the price. Is it silver mounted or nickel mounted?

Whatever anyone else says, at the end of the day it's you who's using it, so if you like it, buy it. If you were spending 100k plus, then yes, you'd probably want advice on investment value, but £500 is a low enough sum for you to go on your own gut feeling.

Thanks, that's really helpful!

I like the bow, but I was planning on spending a little more, I was looking at a Cuniot bow previously but I prefer the Vincent to play. The man who is selling said that Vincent is a "very good, relatively unknown bowmaker" but of course he would!

I don't think it's silver mounted, at least it wasn't mentioned.

Thanks again!

A Google search throws up quite a few references - looks like it may be a brand name of Daber?

nick

I got that far too, but the Daber website I found is no longer going so got stuck after that. Some of the pages were dead, and nearly all American!

If you can afford to pay a bit more, I would strongly recommend John Clutterbuck's bows. I think he charges around £950 for silver mounted. As good as many (most?) Hill bows (he was one of the last makers to work for Hill&sons), but substantially cheaper.

Nothing in the Henley book I'm afraid, but if this is a modern maker - someone who set up post 1960s - then they wouldn't be listed in there anyway, as the last time the book was updated was sometime around the early 60s.

I think Nickjones8 is right. They are made in Jean-Francois Daber's workshop in Lyon, and Vincent is a brand name, not the maker's name. Just googling, btw, no insight to offer

I agree with DiscoPants. John Clutterbuck bows are wonderful. I bought one for my daughter last year and she absolutely loves it. It has made a great difference to her spiccato too!
Violinma