DOMINIQUE PECCATTE; THE PURE ONE !

A piece of history! What I was lucky enough to examine and photograph last week, is a real piece of French bowmaking history. Not only Dominique Peccatte, but the most gruesome, true, and pure one !

Violin bow by Dominique Peccatte 1830-35

First of all, I would like to thank the owner of this beautiful bow, who, for safety reasons, prefers to remain anonymous, so let's proceed with its analysis.

As previously mentioned, Dominique Peccatte is absolutely one of the two most humoral craftsmen in the French bowmaking history, along with Francois Xavier Tourte. While in Persoit, for example, all shapes lines are treated with a maniacal attention and seem to be born from a caress, in Peccatte the furious impetuosity dominates and the more we go back to the beginning of his career, the greater is the anger.

In 1838, when after the  death of Lupot II he takes over the laboratory, his real career begins and from then on, while being very aggressive in character, he devotes more attention to details. The years after '38 are considered his golden age.

What we have here is an absolute rarity. The bow has no brand name, but it is very difficult to confuse it with other ones. It is one of the roughest Peccatte I have ever seen and this makes me think that it goes back to an exact moment of his life, the one when he was called to the military service.

As you may recall, in 1830, Dominique was recalled to the military service and J.B. Vuillaume, his employer, helped him to avoid it by using a state law that allowed to evade it by paying the relevant amount. It goes without saying that all debts have be honored, therefore Dominique was forced to build an unspecified number of bows for free!

The crudeness of the bows built in that period is unmistakable, the collar is never well-connected, the bevels and the line of the ridge are very coarse. What we have here is an example of this particular period.

One indication of the poor sophistication level is revealed certainly by the bevels. First, they are very different from each other; the left one, being Peccatte right-handed, it is the one built by the "good hand", it opens very much at the top and once it arrives on the shoe it closes , the right one is very tight from start to end and on the arrival on the shoe it is wider than the other one.

Between them both the precision level is very different. The left one is less academic and more irregular than the right one , this is because working on the uncomfortable side it increases attention, for the benefit of the precision at the expense of fluidity.

Another point where it is evident with which hand he worked, the speed and willingness with which he did so is the development of the cheeks.

Look at the huge difference that exists between the two cheeks. The right one , which is done by "the favorite hand ", is very rounded, the left one is nearly flat. Furthermore the proportions between left and right: the first one is nearly the double larger than the second one.

And now the real Dominique Peccatte's brand ; the wedge.

The bow wedge is the result of the development of the cheeks so it goes without saying that if the latter are not equal the centerline cannot be straight. What you see below is the authentic, unique and distinctive "S" by Dominique Peccatte. You will find it on every bow , meaning all his bows, if it is missing, it means that the bow was not done by him. Maybe by Simon or Henry perhaps, but not Him!

Specifications and sizes

Stick: very dense pernambuco, dark brown color , tangential cut.

72.9 cm as total length, 72.48 cm stick, 1.75 mm nipple, 2.45 mm housing

Diameter of the stick at the collar 5.6 to 5.8 mm

Diameter of the stick at the wrapping from 8.4 to 8.35 mm

Mortise heel 18.6 mm (from 17.2 to 36)

Mortise head 4.15 to 11 mm

Head: width 10.45 mm, height 21.20 mm (22.5 with a shoe and fiber), length 21.33 mm

Weight: 66.3 grams.

Unfortunately I could not see the other half of this wonder, the frog and dealing with Dominique Peccatte, I know I have missed the most and the best. But fortunately it was the owner himself who replaced it not to damage it so maybe I have the chance to show it to you in a near future.

PS: I enjoyed making a small composition, if you like you can download the file in high definition and print a nice poster!

Click and download the high-definition version

So long

Paolo