Maryannette

Hi, I'm Mary (Formerly Cocker), my father made every item on his bows, I have recently posted information about his bows which might interest you. The bows, were all made to order and he worked long and hard to fulfill his order books. The light colour was intentional, to set them apart from conventional bows he did however, experiment with dyeing the cane but decided against it.

Lawrence Cocker made all the parts to his split cane bows, including all the parts to the frogs. He made the side and dots, the silver mounts and ferules and the thin silver lining. He made his own tools or adapted his original tools to meet the need. His ivory tips was sourced as off cuts from a piano manufacture in Long Eaton Nottingham. His hard woods and violin woods were selected and bought at the Liverpool docks by my father and a buyer from Fletchitt and Woolacot. My father made the bows for philantropic reasons, to provide a good bow for students, but it was the teachers and professional player who bought them When he died in 1982 he had a substantial waiting list of 2 years with many people ordering more than one bow.

I have just come across the article on split cane bows. My father Lawrence Cocker developed the bow as an affordable bow for promising students as apposed to the cheap and non flexible cheap bows and the highly priced good bows. He patented the bows, but did not re issue the patent as he was well advanced in making them and did not mind if someone else also tried. He made bows for all over the world. He never advertised, all orders were from personal recommendations.. He made bows for a full orchestra in Australia and when he died in 1982 a memorial concert was performed in Derby where all the player had Cocker instruments and bows. The heads of the bows were spliced into the bamboo shaft, which were constructed in a similar way to a split cane fishing rod ( he had made his own fishing rods and this was where the idea came from). The wood he used varied, his favorite being Kingwood, which was very hard to work. Coocobola caused an allergic reaction from the dust. Another hard woods he used was Rio Rosewood. He used mother of pearl dots and slides and had tried Abaloni shells,cutting and drilling out the dots until this too caused an allergic reaction. All the bows were hand made throughout, the ebony frog was mounted in solid silver. I am happy to provide any additional information if required.