GEORGES EUGENE URY OR CLEMENT EULRY?The history of bow making obviously isn't made only by Tourte, by Peccatte , and a few other superstars; the city of Mirecourt was full of less noted bow makes. You can easily understand why they were less noted by looking at their work, unless we are talking about Our Man. Mr. Ury/Eulry, was a craftsman with great skills which is probably why he was left as a mystery – certain stars tends to pulverize their surroundings.
Violoncello bow school Ury/Eulry 1840 c Even though Clément Eulry, was a well known name in the French tradition of bow making, you can't find any trace of him in the registers of Mirecourt (“L'Archet” by Mº Bernard Millant and Mº Jean Francois Raffin). The book propose the theory that the name Clément Eulry, is partly a mistake of transcription; in the registers you will find “Eulry”, “Eury” and “Ury” and it seems that there is also a part of the name of his wife; however, his children and nephews carried the name “Eulry”. Georges Eugéne, was born in Mirecourt, on the 10th of August 1821, son of Claude Ury, and Anne Elisabeth Mollot. Claude Ury, was a violin maker and taught his son the basic knowledge of the craft. Georges Eugéne, moved to Paris in 1840. He probably worked by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, for a period, where he associated with some of the stars I mentioned earlier. Whereas he had the possibility to study with the best craftsmen at the time, in return they had a craftsman working for them with excellent skills. In fact despite he has worked for thirty years, the rare bows you can find are similar to the bows made by his more known colleagues – but let's move on. As described in “L'Archet”, after a period by Vuillaume, Georges Eugéne, had found clients near home and returned to Mirecourt, in the end of the 1840ties, where he started to work on his own. But who could be the customers of Georges Eugéne? In Mirecourt, there wasn't many musicians and usually the orders were made by merchants or more established colleagues. Often retailers didn't leave immediate confidence to newcomers, therefor the good Geroges Eugéne, was left with his colleagues. To sustain this hypothesis is the choice of material. Besides Pernambuco he often used materials which was considered inferior, like snake wood or iron wood, and with the mounting in nickel silver. Second level bows to a minor market. And now: Do you remember the name of the superstar who was close to Vuillaume, and who left Paris, and his workshop which had previously been owned by Francois Lupot II, to return to his Mirecourt, in 1848? Very good. Dominique Peccatte – obviously. In fact Ury, was inspired by of this last one. Now a funny story. About a year and a half ago I got to meet a soloist of international fame, and besides letting him play with a bow made by my colleague, I obviously wanted to see his bow. This level of instrumentalists has only very nice things and I couldn't lose this occasion to make mental archive. -”Excuse me”-, I asked -”Does your Peccatte have a certificate?”-, -“Yes of course”- was the answer, and added the name of the expert, a quite accredited expert, who had prepared the certificate. -”Did they tell you the year of construction?”-, -”Yes, 1850.”-,-”Oh.”-, -”Why, do you notes something strange?”-, -”No, no, my compliments, the bow is very beautiful.”- The bow is really very beautiful, but I believe I made him have some suspicion – I am not able to disguise anything, and one reads it in my face. When a bow doesn't have a certificate or, as in the previous post, the bow has been assigned another craftsman, it is possible not to recognize Dominique Peccatte. However when they tell you it is a Peccatte, the first thing you do is look for the typical “S” shape, the movement of the line of the wedge which is to be found on all his bow heads. The fact that the “S” wasn't there, and the year of construction, made me think that the bow might hadn't been made by Dominique Peccatte , and that who made the certificate had had to know. This is, by my opinion, the main reason of the lack of notoriety – as mentioned, stars burn if they come to close. We know very little about the rest of his life. He married Anne Joséphine Clément, on the 23 of october 1850, and they had a son, Georges Joseph Eulry, who became a violin maker. Georges Eugéne Ury, died in anonymity on the 1th of May 1900, at the age of 79. He has made an enormous amount of bows, branding only a few though. Even the end brought mockery, he had so much to do that he had to wait for Labor Day to find the time to die. His bows are branded “Clément Eulry” To read more about this topic: FRANCOIS XAVIER TOURTE 1820-25 BERNARD GEORGES LOUIS MILLANT; THE KEEPER OF TIME JEAN FRANCOIS RAFFIN; THE CHOSEN ONE VIOLIN BOW - COLLABORATION BETWEEN PECCATTE AND HENRY 1840-45 PECCATTE; THE SILENT REBELLION DOMINIQUE PECCATTE; THE PURE ONE So long, Paolo
|
   |
