Bow ID

[nathan slobodkin]

Apologize for quick and dirty photos.

Purchased new in 1970s in USA.

My concerns are: 

Hard to see in bad photo but stamp is pretty crooked.

My understanding is Nurnberger would have been working in GDR at that time. Would a GDR product be stamped Germany?

Nice bow and I just saw a cello bow from the 80s which had a similar look but I don’t remember if it had a stamp indicating country of origin.

 

[Brad Dorsey]

“GDR” is East Germany, right?  I would normally expect a bow stamped “GERMANY” to have been made before World War 2, and a crooked stamp of a good maker/shop makes me suspicious.  But I know a man who says that he smuggled Nurnberger bows out of East Germany.  He paid for the bows with gold that he smuggled in.  I don’t know what year(s) he was doing this.  Maybe this bow is one that he, or someone else, brought in "under the table," and maybe they put the “GERMANY” stamp on specially for him to make it easier for him to sell by claiming it was made before the war.
 

For decades, this man (initials FM) was a well-known violin teacher/collector/dealer In the Boston area.

[Jwillis]

To my eye this looks like a nurnberger. Although the button seems slightly out of scale. But could be perspective of the photo. 

[Guido]

They didn't start stamping GDR right after the war. In fact there was some court ruling (I think during the 1970s) that required the GDR stamp to avoid confusion. It is only regularly found on bows for the last 15 years or so before the GDR was integrated back into Germany in 1989. I don't think there is a contradiction between being made in the GDR in the (early) 1970s and bearing a Germany stamp.

[nathan slobodkin]

2 hours ago, Guido said:

They didn't start stamping GDR right after the war. In fact there was some court ruling (I think during the 1970s) that required the GDR stamp to avoid confusion. It is only regularly found on bows for the last 15 years or so before the GDR was integrated back into Germany in 1989. I don't think there is a contradiction between being made in the GDR in the (early) 1970s and bearing a Germany stamp.

Thank you. This is good to know.

[Brad Dorsey]

5 hours ago, Guido said:

...stamping GDR...

I can't recall ever seeing a bow stamped "GDR."  Can anyone else here?

[Guido]

I have seen five of them, incl. a nice HR Pfretzschner.

But it was applied for a relatively short period of time only; and maybe relatively low production volume per year.

[Blank face]

On 9/9/2025 at 11:42 AM, Guido said:

before the GDR was integrated back into Germany in 1989

That's a good one. Probably many wouldn't agree that it was really integrated, nor that it wasn't before Germany, too, on both sides of the former Iron Curtain.

Otherwise I agree that also Markneukirchen bows were still and legally stamped Germany after 1949, and that there are only a few can be found being stamped GDR from the very late period. I would think that it has something to do with the equal membership to the United nations in 1973, which had also consequences regarding trade regulations.

[match]

I’m not sure whether you’re discussing the “GDR” stamp or the “Made in GDR” marking. To my knowledge, the designation “Made in Germany” was in Eastern Germany used from around 1950 onward – at that time, “Made in West Germany” or “Made in Western Germany” also began to appear in West Germany, but stamps with “Made in GDR” were already in use from this period as well.

From 1970, the “Made in GDR” marking was made mandatory by the East German government in order to distinguish their products from West German goods. Since “Made in …” still sounded too “Western” to them, shortly afterward the plain “GDR” stamp (without anything else) became compulsory, at least for industrial products.

That means the use of the pure “GDR” stamp can really be narrowed down to roughly 20 years. With “Made in Germany,” it’s much harder to pin down, since it had already been in use at the beginning of the century. By the way, “Made in GDR”stamped bows are not uncommon here.

[Blank face]

1 hour ago, match said:

 

I’m not sure whether you’re discussing the “GDR” stamp or the “Made in GDR” marking. To my knowledge, the designation “Made in Germany” was in Eastern Germany used from around 1950 onward – at that time, “Made in West Germany” or “Made in Western Germany” also began to appear in West Germany, but stamps with “Made in GDR” were already in use from this period as well.

From 1970, the “Made in GDR” marking was made mandatory by the East German government in order to distinguish their products from West German goods. Since “Made in …” still sounded too “Western” to them, shortly afterward the plain “GDR” stamp (without anything else) became compulsory, at least for industrial products.

That means the use of the pure “GDR” stamp can really be narrowed down to roughly 20 years. With “Made in Germany,” it’s much harder to pin down, since it had already been in use at the beginning of the century. By the way, “Made in GDR”stamped bows are not uncommon here.

Nice collection

Anyway I was informed at that time, right or wrong, that a stamp "made in Germany" especially at Pfretzschner bows would pinpoint them to the after 1949 period, because this indicates they were made for abroad export, meaning into "western" countries including FRoG and also West Berlin, while earlier bows didn't need that stamp as long as they were sold within the country. Or that those which have been brought illegally to the West as contraband didn't bear that stamp neither. 

[Brad Dorsey]

3 hours ago, match said:

…”Made in GDR”stamped bows are not uncommon here….

Where is “here?”

[match]

@Brad Dorsey
Sorry!: Germany