These bows were purchased new in the early 1980's by their current owner. They've been used in various orchestras, and show normal wear from decades of use, but remain in excellent condition.
The Zdzislaw Prochownik bow is not branded - apparently he didn't yet have a branding tool when he made this - and as he states on his website, he started making bows for doublebass in 1983, so this was likely made that year. The frog is from the maker's hand, unlike his later habit of using pre-made German factory frogs, and he has used a diamond shaped shell inlay. Freshly haired in 'fiddler' white hair, this bow has Prochownik's typical quickness accompanied by a strength capable of digging in powerfully. Hair length between frog and tip is 55cm, stick length of 69cm, and the bow is fairly typically light, at a 125 grams - I have seen his bows between 124 and 137 grams. Asking $2,000CAD.
The bow by Lawrence LaMay is numbered 542. An ad placed in 2011 for LaMay bow #572 was said to date from the late 1970's, so it seems likely this bow was made around 1978. LaMay made instruments and bows from at least the early 1960's, and several of his German style doublebass bows have sold for between $2,000USD and $2,500USD over the past decade. Asking $2,500CAD for this bow, which weighs 131 grams, - not his lightest bow, as at least one is mentioned as weighing 125 grams, with others as much as 142 grams. It has a strong camber and uses a dark, very resistant pernambuco with several whorls in the grain along the stick. Playable hair measures 54cm, stick from adjuster interface to tip is 67.5cm. The silver ferrule was worked rather too thinly on the inner half of the flat face and has at some point suffered a bend to the metal (probably by a careless rehairer) which resists smoothing out, and as a result the shell veneer has suffered some wear from the player's hand. A nimble bow, it has been freshly haired in 'fiddler' white.
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