Who here plays with a L Baush Leipzig?
I recently bought a bow made in the 19th century by Ludwig Bausch in Leipzig. It is nickel mounted and weighs 60grams. It is a fantastic stick and I am surprised they are worth so little. I realise the Baucsh name has been devalued by the flood of cheap student bows so stamped, but the playability of his original work deserves to be more highly recognised. Are early German bows a forgotten bargain? Does anyone here play with one of his bows?
Cheers Carlo
Replies (15)
I've tried nice ones but I've never loved any of them, personally.
I had an authentic Bausch, but the tip broke. I didn't want to spring for the repair and not have it play the same, so I bought another bow (a carbon fiber one). I loved the Bausch.
I think violinist.commie Smiley Hsu has one. But the Bausch name has a long history so even the real ones will be variable, I guess.
I think I read somewhere that the violinist/composer Spohr used a Bausch.
I tried a Bausch a few years ago, and didn't end up buying it even though I really liked it, and it was underpriced at 1500 bucks. I regretted it, but I have no idea if it would still suit me. I remember it being a great bow.
When you outgrow your equipment, sometimes you need to trade in for an older model ;)
David is correct, I use a Ludwig Bausch bow but it was not cheap. It is a lively stick and competently achieves spiccato and sautille strokes for competent violinists (not including myself in that pool). It also pulls a good sound out of my contemporary Italian fiddle; it adds just a bit of edge to help the mediocre projection of my instrument. I tried quite a few bows and found the Bausch to be just the right compromise of liveliness and control. It is a fine stick. My teacher tried it out last week and was very impressed. I agree that old German bows are undervalued compared to the alternatives.
Compared to old French bows, old German from the same era are absolute bargains. My new/old Bausch plays every bit as well as my old French bows for a fraction of cost.
This bow really matches the Amati and gives lie to the theory that the bow should be 1/3 the cost of the violin.
Cheers Carlo
A genuine bow by Ludwig Christian August Bausch (1805-1971), who was called "the German Tourte," or even a bow by one of his sons: Karl Friedrich Ludwig jun. (1829-1871) and Otto Julius Bausch (1841-1874) may be quite nice, but just because a bow is marked L Bausch doesn't mean it is genuine. It's just like seeing A. Stradivarius inside a violin. There are many early 1900s-1930s student-quality bows marked L. Bausch that are modeled after Bausch, but not produced by the dynasty which had died out by that time. I have a decent (not great, but not bad) bow marked L. Bausch that I occasionally use. Although it is quite old, I suspect it is probably one of the copies that came out in the early Twentieth Century, and is therefore probably not a genuine Bausch.
I didn't realize L Bausch lived so long. 1805-1971 would have made him 166 years old ;-)
I think I have a genuine L Bausch. I had it authenticated by Yung Chin and he provided a certificate. Anyway, for the price I paid, I hope it is authentic.
I just looked at the certificate from Yung Chin and it makes me wonder about authenticity. The certificate says that the bow was made in the Knopf workshop for the Bausch shop in Leipzig Germany and bears the stamp L. Bausch Leipzig. So, most likely, the bow was not made by Ludwig Christian August Bausch, but maybe one of his apprentices. Does that mean the bow is authentic or not? It would be hard to say whether L Bausch actually put the finishing touches on the bow or if he even laid eyes on it.
I think you can ask the same question of a Strad. There are hundreds of so called authentic Strads. But, it is well known that Stradivari had apprentices. The master himself didn't make all those instruments.
So the question is, what constitutes an authentic bow or violin? How much involvement did the original master have to have in the creation of the finished product? Is it still authentic if it was made by an apprentice -- perhaps the subject of another thread.
Antonio Stradivari was the overseer of the Stradivari workshop. He had assistants, especially his two sons, as well as other well documented workers. I am sure he kept a tight hands on control of the operation. The violins that left his premises were "Stradivari"s even though others had a hand in their making.
Cheers Carlo
It is theorized that Stradivari had apprentices besides his sons, but from what I've read, no hard evidence.
A modern violin maker here in London yesterday in a lecture mentioned that no one knew how Strad did his business. Caused a few unintentional laughs ... Apparently he had a small shop next to his house which he sold instruments from, and at the same time had small kids running around in the house and too many people (relatives) living with him ... it must have been bl**dy murder! And yet he made 18 instruments in one year!
I started another thread to discuss the authenticity of a violin or bow:
What makes a violin or bow genuine?
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September 26, 2016 at 10:47 AM · I've noticed I've mis-spelled Bausch in the title to this thread. This is no function to correct this now that it has been posted. Apologies for my error.
Cheers Carlo