Grünke bowmaking Germany
Klaus Grünke
This is a cello bow in the style of Nikolai Kittel, made by the German bowmaker Klaus Grünke in the Grünke family workshop in Beubenruth.
- Stamped: KLAUS GRUNKE
- weight: 80 grams fully haired
- round stick of dark orange brown Pernambuco
- ebony frog with Parisian eye of silver ring and mother-of-pearl center
- three-part silver and ebony button
- fine leather grip and silver windings
Klaus Grünke learned the craft of bow making from 1975 – 1978 with his father Richard Grünke in Bubenreuth. He received important impulses for his further professional career in the years 1980 – 1982 at the H. Weisshaar workshop in Los Angeles, where he devoted himself intensively to the restoration and study of old bows. After returning to Bubenreuth, he began working in his father’s workshop, where he made bows in his own model under his own name. His basic models are based on models by D. Peccatte and F.N. Voirin, and after intensive study, his bows in this model of selected Kittel bows have been very popular for years.
At the beginning of his professional career, he participated very successfully in several international competitions and was subsequently appointed as a jury member in many competitions.
In addition to his work as a bow maker, Klaus Grünke is also very intensively involved with various theoretical aspects of his profession. In 2000, together with his colleagues Hans Karl Schmidt and Wolfgang Zunterer, he wrote and published the encyclopaedic work “German Bowmakers”. This work was followed in 2011 by a comprehensive publication on “The Bows of Nikolai Kittel”, which he published together with his colleagues Josef Gabriel and Yung Chin.
Klaus Grünke is a member of the Verband Deutscher Geigenbauer und Bogenmacher e.V. ( VDG) and the renowned international violin and bow makers’ association EILA, Entente International de Luthiers et Archetiers.
He also plays an active and leading role in the IPCI, International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative, which was founded by bow makers from all over the world in Paris in 2001. The aim of this organization is the protection and replanting of the rare pernambuco tree, which is indispensable for bow making, as well as the introduction of sustainable use.
price available upon request