Fine bows

[Thomas Erickson]

I was going to post this in the thread about the Nicolas Maline bow for sale at 45k, but decided not to derail it... anyway -

I don't know much about really valuable fine bows, but then I don't think many of us do - perhaps someone who does can help out. Personally, I'm curious - with these sort of bows, where exactly is the value? What I mean is, for example with good basses, usually it is pretty apparent why an instrument is worth what it is - in material, tone or both. Obviously though, as we see (especially) with instruments other than basses, there are other less tangible factors involved - pedigree, history, etc.

So does the value in these bows tend to come more from these sort of academic qualities, or do they really have that much to bring to the party, so to speak?