Jules Fetique Violin Bow, Paris 1937

This is an unusually fine Jules Fétique violin bow made for the 1937 Paris Exhibition. It’s in top condition and it’s a great player with a big and velvety sound.

Jules Fétique is enjoying something of a moment right now – recently a very clean but otherwise unremarkable example sold at Tarisio for around £40K, and it seems that the market has finally woken up to his exceptional talent.

This is a beautiful bow made for the 1937 Paris Expo, branded “Expon 1937” on the audience side, and bearing the rare “Jules Fétique Paris” brand on the player’s side (so many of his bows were branded Albert Caressa, Caressa & Francais or Emile Germain).

The stick is of round section dark brown pernambuco, nicely figured and veined – mounts are silver and ebony.

Condition-wise this is the sort of bow we prefer to sell – unworn, unmarked, without defect.

I don’t think I’ve even been disappointed in a Jules Fétique – they vary quite a bit in weight and wood density but they always seem well considered and supremely functional. Fétique was clearly an important element in the success of Sartory’s shop, and it’s probably fair to say that the Sartory concept was best realised in the branded work of Jules Fétique!

This is quite a big bow at over 61 grams, but it feels absolutely right – the sound is full, deep and chocolatey, and it gets there without any loss of articulation of recovery speed.

Great projection, bags of volume, and a noble rounded tone – this is a bow for the big romantic concertos. It’s also a supremely collectable and rare example of this excellent maker’s work.