I have watched in some amazement over the last couple of years as the bow market has stubbornly rejected the recession and continued to climb. As a dealer I had hoped that prices might stumble but it seems that the market has an insatiable appetite for quality and is in no mood to change. This is partly due to investors looking for safer areas to invest, as well as players who have always needed fine playing bows.

The fastest growth is in the classic bows circa 1820 to 1860, i.e. Peccatte, Adam or Pajeot. These are closely followed by Sartory and Vigneron. The market has also become much happier to accept damage since the scarcity of certain makers means that a damaged bow is the only way many people can now own such treasured items. Players are learning that a restored bow is a still a great playing bow.

Sometimes in the past dealers have sought to dissuade players from using damaged bows with any number of horror stories about what could occur. This was so the dealer could then persuade the player to spend more money than necessary buying mint examples. Thankfully we live in more enlightened times, since mint examples are not necessarily the best playing bows…