CHARLES LOUIS AND CHARLES ALFRED; THE LAST BAZINS

Charles Nicolas, which might be called the Great , is now an old Grandpa, who spends his days in a corner in his workshop handling horsehair and carrying out small restorations. It is precisely from that corner of the lab he owned and that was handed over to his son that we start telling the last chapter about the history of one of the long-lived bowmakers family ; over 140 years of activity !

Cello bow by Charles Louis Bazin, branded "Vanelli"

Out of the three sons had by Charles Nicolas, only the youngest, Charles Louis, will take his father's career. The other two, Gustave and Emile, respectively, will be respectively music teacher and luthier.

Charles Louis Bazin

Charles Louis was born on September 21, 1881 and, as mentioned above, he begins with his father, with whom he will study and with whom he will be side by side until 1906, when he takes over the business.

In the same year he marries Anne Rosalie Dubois, a dressmaker, and the couple will have two sons, René, a luthier and Charles Alfred, the last Bazin to be a bowmaker .

After his father's death, which occurred in 1915, business is good thanks to all the old customers he received as inheritance, and then he moves the business in a more comfortable residence in Rue Estivant. In addition, he also hires the best bowmakers in Mirecourt: André GRANIER,Paul LORANGE, Cloude TOURNIER, Marcel DELPRATO, Marcel LAPIERRE and Jean Claude OUCHARD.

Like many of them , Charles Louis Bazin's activity , was forced to an inevitable stop caused by World War I and he was called in the twenty-sixth Regiment of Infantry.

After his return, in 1921, he has eight people working for him even though they are no longer the same as before the war. For him worked : Andre Jacquemin, Edgar JACQUEMIN, Louis Dumont, Andre COUTURIEUX, Reymon RICHAUME; Auguste Bourgeois, Jules BONTEMPS, and Arthur HUSSON.

In these years his laboratory, as once his father's one , provides a wide range of products and accessories to both musicians and craftsmen and many luthiers, not just Parisians, offer its bows .

In '22 his son, Charles Alfred, the last Bazin bowmaker begins working with his father becoming soon his main assistant.

At the end of 1936, there are only four workers by Charles Louis; Arthur HUSSON,Louis DUMONT, André JACQUEMIN and his son Charles Alfred, who some years later, in '45, will open his own laboratory in Rue du Neuf Moulin

He will retire from work on October 25, 1952, and dies on November of the following year.

Charles Louis Bazin has worked for:

G. APPARUT, Jenny BAILLY, Léon BERNARDEL, Paul BEUSCHER a Paris, E. COIFFER, L. COURTIER, A. DEBLAYE, A. GRANIER,  J. HEL, M. LABERTE, J. LAVEST, A. LORENZI, MARISSAL a Lille, R. M. MILLANT, J. TOURNIER et Fils, Marcel VATELOT.

Charles Alfred Bazin

Cello bow by Charles Alfred Bazin

As already mentioned, he starts in 1922 with his father and after only a few years he becomes the first assistant.

In '39 he marries Anne Guinot and soon after, as occurred to his father, he is called in the Army and consequently his activity undergoes a temporary stop.

In 1952 he becomes director of his father's workshop and only a worker remains by him , Marcel DELPRATO, who will leave him as well .

The last one of Bazin's family is also the proudest of them all. He refuses to work for the luthiers ,as his grandfather and father did and only builds with his own name.

In 1960 he moves to Route de Vroville, later renamed Rue Charles Nicolas Bazin.

In the seventies he wrote to the Académie Francais asking to insert the word bowmaker in the vocabulary of the French language. But he received as reply only one letter from the secretariat of the Commission du Dictionnaire saying that the practice would start at a later date.

He went on building until the eighties and died on March 24, 1987, and with him died the last component of one of the most important families of the French bowmaking.

Charles Alfred Bazin has worked for:

Paul BISCH, CONE & FILS, DUPUY, MILLANT.

Their bows

As widely mentioned , the French bowmaking, and all string players, owe a lot to this century-long family of craftsmen. The average quality of their work was excellent and they could make a large amount of good bows at reasonable prices , but despite this there are some important points to be settled.

The first one is the difference in quality between the bows by Charles Nicolas II, and those of his son and his grandson. Nicolas becomes an orphan at a very young age, when his father dies he is just eighteen and this means that he could develop his job free from imposed guidelines thus creating his own identity as a craftsman.

For Louis, and even more so for Alfred, to be a bowmaker meant in some way, to eat pre-chew food , easier to swallow, but definitely less tasty. For them, bowmaking was not just a research but only a job they found at birth. This means that the quality level of the bows decreased gradually in both Louis and Alfred.

As final consideration, the Bazins are not surely as Tourte or Peccatte , nor Vigneron or Sartory but they gave to thousands of musicians good working tools and therefore their effort deserve respect .

So long.

Paolo