Help me identify this bow?

[toman]

I'm wondering if somebody can help me decipher the maker of this bow. It's not really a big deal, since I'm not planning on selling it any time soon, but I'd like to know...

The stick is so old and worn that most of the stamp can't be read, at least by me. The only thing I can read is that it starts (on the left of the stamp) with a squiggly mark, like a sideways mutated figure eight. After that there is an 'H' and an 'S', and then some more letters that are unreadable. So it's either the initials 'H.S.' and the last name, or just the first initial 'H' and the last name starts with the 'S'. The first letter after the 'S' is a straight line sort of, so it could be an L or an I. Just can't tell...

The bow itself is old, and very worn. (obviously well loved, because it's an awesome bow) It's longer than most sticks by about an inch. It's apparently made of pernambuco, but probably low grade because it's a little funky looking. It's a round stick, and has kind of an odd taper toward the tip. The varnish (whats left of it) is a dark glossy brown, with a bit of a redish almost purple tint to it. The fittings or whatever are silver, and it has a mother of pearl eye and bottom piece, whatever that's called... The stick also has the number '180' scratched into it under the frog, so I assume it once belonged to an opera or school or something.


Maybe this is a long shot, but I'm really curious to find out what this thing is... I hope someone can help. Oh, and I can post pictures if anyone wants; dunnno if it will do much good though. All bows kinda look alike, and I've had a tough time getting decent shot of it.

[greitzer]

Is the H actually a capital H? If it's a lower-case "h", maybe your bow is an Erich Steiner? That would explain the h, then s, then a straight line (actually a "t"). Hard to know, though.

[toman]

Right, the H is definately capital, as is the S. The H is also definately the first letter, after the little squiggly.