I learnt to respect this superb maker in 2009 when on a visit to rural France searching for bows and bought one, simply because I had the funds and needed stock. I went up into my hotel room to practise and was shocked at just how much I enjoyed using the bow, a revelation.

A few weeks later I was in Paris visiting Bernard Millant and Jean-Francois Raffin with some bows. I said to Jean- Francois without thinking ‘Francois Lotte is a great maker’ he just looked at me with a smile and said ‘Yes!’

He made beautiful long elegant bows out of a very interesting pernambuco, a specific type that is very fine for articulation and tone.

Here is a very special bow made during the Second World War circa 1940, war bows are often very special, I have sold several from Eugene Sartory from this period, making bows in a war setting clearly concentrated the minds of these fine makers. Perhaps even more so with Lotte as he was a prisoner of war during the First World War.

Notice there is no ferrule, this style harps back to almost a century earlier and is a delight to see on this bow, it makes it a very rare and beautiful example. Metal was in short supply and Lotte was aware that as long as the channels were correct in the frog this would be fine. The pernambuco is particularly fine of this historic example.

I think you can tell, I like this bow!