LOUIS HENRY GILLET; THE POOR MAN'S SARTORY

Almost as handsome as Sartory, almost as elegant as Sartory, almost mechanically excellent as Sartory. Louis Henry Gillet, the "almost" man ; that is to say the poor man's Sartory !

Cello bow in tortoiseshell and gold Louis Henry Gillet

Even if inside the blog, I gave many nicknames, this is not the case as it was given him by history.

Born in Nancy by Francois Edouad Gillet and Marie Anaise Evrot, on February 10, 1891, Louis become an orphan when he was young. Left alone at nine years, maybe also to find his roots, as his grandfather Charles Isidore was a bowmaker at Mirecourt, he decide to start the same job.

In 1906 at seventeen years, he is already working by Thibouville-Lamy, where he will stay until 1911, completing his apprenticeship.

During the First World War, he is called back to the Army in the Infantry, but he is wounded and transported to the hospital at "Chalon-sur-Saone". The little wound will bring luck to Louis, first because it meant that he could be discharged, sure to come back home alive and, second, because he met his future wife Jeanne Antoinette Aymard there. After the war, we find traces of him by the Maison Laberte, where he will remain until 1924, year in which he comes back to Nancy.

He marries in 1926 and he moves in his wife's hometown. He lives in a humble countryhouse surrounded by carrots and onions and he opens a workshop in a dark and depressing room, where he never opened the window-shutters.

In the following years and until 1934, he builds bows for different brands and in his stylistics we can perceive the Mirecourt school influence. In this period we can find some bows with "Lavest" brand.

1934 is the year of his small turning point. After having interrupted his coopeation with Jules Fetique, that lasted more than 30 years, left alone Eugene Sartory decides to work with the younger Gillet. From this moment and until 1946, Sartory's death year, the relationship between the two craftsmen become tighter and tighter and will involve also his private life, besides the working one.

Many times Sartory invites him to Paris or Nice, at his complete charge.

After Sartory's death, he will go on working for the brother-in-law of this latter, Georges Dupuy, but due to their stormy relationship, the cooperation damaged progressively until its end in the late '60.

He dies at Saint-Remy on March 27, 1970, leaving behind him a good amount of good bows and, even if not of the same level, we can perceive in almost all of them the undoubtful Sartory's influence.

His wife gave all his tools as a gift to the Mirecourt bowmaking school, that unfortunately was closed soon after his most famous teacher's death Bernard Ouchard.

The bows

Violin bow Louis Henry Gillet

Watching Gillet's production, it is easy to understand the reason of his nickname. Apart the very early period and the very last one, all his production has a tendency to be an imitation of his maestro, for whom he really had a real admiration, but he hardly get close to Sartory's elegance.

Generally speaking, even if among his bows we can find some nice items, most of his production reveals the limited talent of this author. Both the head lines and the frog proportions show that he was lacking a general vision of the shape. You can note, for instance, the non-perfect relation between the high part of the bevel and the housing,or the light out-of-center eye in comparison to the throat and the upper part of the plate.

All in all he was a good worker, whose biggest virtue was surely his humbleness.

So long.

Paolo