A Rare Ebony Mounted Viola Bow By John Bolander, #204

John Alfred Bolander II (1892-1990) is remembered as the first American born achetier, a bow maker. Born to a musical family, he began his career in the trade repairing string instruments under the direction of his father when the family moved to San Francisco in 1915. He worked for H.C. Hanson, the Roehr Drum Shop, and P. Johnson before studying bow making with Alfred Lanini from 1943-1946. Though he established his own shop in 1946, he continued working closely with Lanini for a number of years.

By 1964, Bolander had made over 1000 bows and is credited with crafting over 3000 over the span of his career. His work is distinctive and easily recognizable by a number of characteristics. All his frogs are plain faced with no embellishments, with squared frogs for the viola bows, entirely hand made fittings and a personal hatchet-head design for the heads. Most of his bows featured locally sourced mountain mahogany for his frogs. However, he made a dozen each in ivory and tortoise shell, along with several dozen in ebony. Uniformly branded “Bolander.” He authored “Bow Making: 1000 Bows And A Tribute” and published a book, “Violin Bow Making” in 1969.

A rare historical example of early American bow making, branded with a serial number just forward of the silver lapping, and the maker’s stamp on the player side of the handle, “Bolander.” Hallmark hatchet style head, plain faced ebony frog, and matching 3-piece button. Though ebony has come to be the expected choice for fittings, Bolander reserved it for his finest bows, instead using mountain mahogany for the majority of his fabrications. With a final weight of 68.7 grams, this bow has seen its share of professional use and would be as equally at home in a performer’s case or a collector’s cabinet.