Violin Bow by Emile Auguste Ouchard circa. 1930

Emile Auguste Ouchard is one of the most important makers of the twentieth century, a precocious talent he was a tremendously gifted maker.

He soon garnered a notebook for of orders from the most important players of the day. He was keen to use the best possible pernambuco and took his ingenious model to its furthest point to produce exceptional bows.

At his best he is nearly unbeatable, when confronted by one of his best bows the feeling is nearly unanimously ‘I love this bow!’.

He was always in demand and spent several years in the U.S.A. working for William Lewis and Son, Chicago (Established 1874 has since become a division of Conn-Selmer, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Steinway Musical Instruments.). However, every September he would travel to Paris to sell some of his bows to colleagues in the making profession for them to sell on under their banner.

image2.jpeg

Left is a photo of Emile Auguste as a young drummer, perhaps at this age he would glance over at his father, by this time occasionally wearing three pairs of spectacles at once (!) and think to himself ‘I think I can make a bit better than my father!

Emile Auguste Ouchard.jpeg

This bow was bought in such a way by the Laberte firm, founded in 1780 it was well known in Paris to all in the dealing world and run by Marc Laberte at this time.

Michael Taylor reminisces about Jean-Jacques Millant

There is little doubt, given the passage of time, that after the death of Eugene Sartory in 1946 the mantle of greatest living bow maker fell upon two very different personalities, Emile Auguste Ouchard and the reclusive Jean-Jacques Millant. In 1997, one year before Millant's death the renowned British bow maker Michael Taylor and the American bow collector Sidney Bowden paid him a visit at his shop in Paris.

Read More

London auction news

In what was generally a lacklustre auction week here in London there were however two rather exceptional bows offered.

The first was on Tuesday at Sotheby’s, a wonderful gold and tortoiseshell bow by Emile Auguste Ouchard from the late 1940′s. This bow was very good value at £16,000. The other highlight was a mint example Sartory circa 1930 it is indeed rare to see genuine ‘as new’ Sartory bows these days. This bow went to a top Japanese dealer who fought off several Parisian dealers to buy for £16,000, needless to say in discussion later he was elated with his purchase.

Generally French bows continued to climb in price, English bows remained static, the exception being a fine Hill Fleur-de-Lys bow that sold for £10,000.

Just what bows did the great players use?

This is a common question that occurs quite frequently from requests from all around the globe. So below is the beginning of the definitive list. Most players have a stable of bows (Oistrakh used to buy a bunch on his trips to Paris) but also tend to have a favourite that they use more than others

Read More