The Conservation, Restoration, and Repair of Stringed Instruments and Their Bows

This book’s 150 articles, 1,600 pages, and over 1,200 illustrations will be an invaluable resource for both craftspeople and scholars. The outcome of a rigorous selection process by an editorial board of prominent experts, it emphasizes conservation-minded techniques, presents alternative approaches for the same repair, and is groundbreaking in the extensive attention that it gives to the bow. The work’s innovative combination of theory and practice, with extensive cross-referencing, is intended to foster a stimulating dialogue between scholars, conservators, and craftspeople.

In the theoretical volume, conservators and scholars examine important issues concerning connoisseurship, collections, documentation, materials, surfaces, safety, and the environment. The more practical articles that follow in the other two volumes are meant to be considered in light of the ideas raised in these articles.

In the restoration and repair volumes, craftspeople and editors have collaborated to produce detailed technical articles that are generously illustrated with photographs and drawings. Complex processes are broken down into simple steps, and all of the tools and materials required are listed in order of appearance. Terminology and systems of measurement are standardized throughout the work to ensure clarity and precise meaning.

This book is guided by a conservationist approach that aims to safeguard our cultural heritage of instruments and bows for future generations, while its sale will help ensure the renewal of this heritage by raising funds for the protection of pernambuco trees. The heartwood of these trees, whose survival in the Brazilian Atlantic forest is under threat, has been used to make violin bows for over 250 years.

The Editor

Tom Wilder initiated IPCI-Canada in 2002 as the Pau-Brasil Conservation Project. A violin maker and restorer, he graduated from the Chicago School of Violin Making and apprenticed with Hans Weisshaar in Los Angeles. He is the founder and president of Wilder & Davis Luthiers Inc. of Montreal, Quebec, and Banff, Alberta. He is also vice-president of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers, a member of the Violin Society of America, and the Canadian delegate to the Entente Internationale des Maîtres Luthiers et Archetiers d’Art. Tom Wilder holds a master’s degree in Art History and Communication Studies from McGill University.

Archetype Publications

The Conservation, Restoration, and Repair of Stringed Instruments and Their Bows is being co-published with Archetype Publications, London, UK. Archetype is an academic press recognized internationally as the leading publisher in the field of the conservation of works of art and antiquities.

Visit Archetype's website.