Dominique Peccatte Cello Bow, Paris circa 1845

This is a fine Dominique Peccatte cello bow from around 1845 – it’s a supremely elegant swan head model in great condition, original in all parts.

Dominique Peccatte is one of the most sacred names in French bowmaking – a supremely talented maker who we could think of as the del Gesu of bowmaking. His work is intuitive and exciting – he worked at speed, no two bows are alike, yet all are suffused with his personality. Bows by Peccatte can be found in the hands of many soloists, and we can attribute this to his choice of wood and his unique skill in approaching the stick, constantly innovating to achieve maximum power while retaining elegance.

This is a very characteristic bow from Peccatte’s middle period – it has a pronounced swan head, made more dramatic by the heavily rounded chamfers to the back of the head. The stick is of round (ish) section orange-brown pernambuco of exceptional quality, with a random flame and marked veining. Typically for Peccatte there’s a knot in the middle of the stick – it’s clear that Peccatte looked for very different qualities in his pernambuco than modern makers do, and there’s surely a lesson to be learnt here!

The condition of the bow is very good. It’s a musician’s bow not a museum piece – there’s some minor wear to the facets of the handle and the frog has two near-invisible full length repaired cracks below the underslide, but it’s still rare to see such a well preserved Peccatte.

The ferrule is engraved for an Auguste V… but we have no way of knowing if it was sold like this by Peccatte or engraved after the fact – a nice touch nonetheless.

I can’t tell you how this bow plays since I would struggle to play Happy Birthday on the cello – however, it’s available for trial to any seriously interested parties.