Other
Josiah Chapman
1880

This bow was made in 1760(ish) in England and then mounted in Italy at a later time. This bow has a unique decoration on the frog (where the strings are kept secure). The frog has carved and inked into it a little bit of music! On one side it has 3 lines of music in A major, with 'aria buffa' carved at the top, then 'Del Sig A Domenico Cimarosa', with the reverse also featuring music and the etchings 'in Napoli'. Cimarosa was a composer in Naples in the 1700s, and the music is from one of his compositions.
The bow came to be in the RNCM museum after it was part of the Josiah Chapman personal collection.