Going for broke!

With the price of fine antique bows on an ever increasing ascent many string players have to make concessions when looking for their dream bow. At present a quality Sartory violin bow won't give you much change from £17,000. A bow by Etienne Pajeot would be closer to £30,000 and a Dominique Pecatte upwards of £40,000. With the average orchestral salary between £27,000-30,000 then the chances of ownership are virtually impossible. True, there are cheaper bows by lesser makers, many good German bows only command prices in the low £1000's, but these don't always share the finer characteristics of their French brethren that are required by players in top orchestras and ensembles.
There are of course many fine contemporary makers around the world. European, American and, increasingly, Chinese. At a professional level these range in price from £1000 upwards, though with the shortage of pernambucco coupled with the rising cost of quality horsehair many makers are having to raise their prices accordingly.
Many living makers also become 'fashionable' when famous soloists buy their bows, pushing prices up even more. Good business for the makers, but not much help for the buyers. French achetier Benoit Rolland has a client list that reads like a classical top 100 chart, with players such as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Christian Tetzlaf, Mstislav Rostropovitch owning his bows. Five years ago his bows were selling for around £3,500, now many are in excess of £7,500.
With the clear financial obstacles preventing many players from owning a fine old French bow, it is no surprise that many musicians are looking into alternatives. This is where a broken or ‘pinned’ bow becomes quite appealing. A broken bow need not mean the end of the road. If a bow breaks at the head or tip it is often possible to ‘pin’ it by fixing the broken section with a pin through either the top or bottom of the head, depending on the location of the break. Similarly if the break is in the shaft of the stick it is often possible to ‘splice’ the two sections back together. Often the section repaired is even stronger than it was before, meaning you have a kind of ‘reinforced’ bow. The value, however, plummets. A broken bow might be worth one third of its original value. This is good news for someone looking for an old French bow with a bargain basement price tag. Not so good for the owner who might have broken his/her mint condition Pecatte!
An increasing number of string players in London and across the UK have actively sought out a ‘pinned’ or repaired bow because of the great value for money they represent. Many are not too bothered about any resale value either, as a common consensus is that a ‘broken’ bow is bought to be used rather than as an investment. Though prices of such bows are now starting to rise, with many dealers realizing that these salvaged bows are actually in great demand.
The best value for money is still to buy a bow in the best possible condition you can afford. Within ten years the demand will have fallen so far short of the supply that buying a named old French bow will be the preserve of the wealthy oligarch or museum.