MAIRE 1855 - 60I added another valuable piece to my photo collection. The musician who gave me the opportunity to take a pic of the beautiful Dominique Peccatte we spoke about last week, also keep, poor man , a magnificent Nicolas Rémy Maire, so ... here it is!
Violin bow by Nicolas Rémy Maire 1855 - 60 As already written in the post dedicated to him (see NICOLAS REMY MAIRE; THE HUMBLE), Nicolas Rémy Maire is, without any doubt, one of the best and most complete character of the great French bow making school, even if he had a rather eventful life . To know the various aspects of the craftsmen's life, whose bows we are going to analyze, is important for those making my job because every personal fact has inevitably an impact on the working life, setting the landmarks. For example, this allows us to give a fairly accurate dating of the bows. Take this one for example . The bevels are large and important and the geometry of the head is very angular, in a Peccatte-style. But the geometry is not quite as square as in Peccatte, the wedge tilts back, almost recalling Voirin. This tells us that, with a 99% chance, this bow was built after the mid-800 at number 35 Rue de Viarmes in Paris!
1It is quite simple to establish it, because, as may you recall, Maire was a pupil of the very young Etienne Pajeot, like Fonclause. But, while the latter left Mirecourt still relatively young (1830) to settle in Paris by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume and work alongside J.P.M. Persoit and D. Peccatte, Maire remained in his native city until Pajeot's death. Maire opened his first business at Mirecourt in 1826 and try to get bigger, so that in 1844 his laboratory was producing approximately 4000 bows a year. Unfortunately things did not go well and he had to return working by Pajeot. All these vicissitudes delay his arrival in Paris and, consequently, his knowledge of the new Pecattian stylistic taste. As the bow is clearly inspired (even partially ) to Peccatte, the depicted bow can not be built before 1849 ( Etienne Pajeot's year of death). But I wrote '55 - '60, and most probably by the late 50's; why? When he arrives by Vuilllaume in the '50, the style that dominates the fashion is still Peccatte, i.e. angular shapes but also square geometry. Something not much unlike from Pajeot. After the '55, with the coming of Voirin, the mechanical and stylistic concept is completely changed and the poor Maire tries to adapt to the new winds of modernization, but he does not succeed in it completely. As Maestro Navea Vera told me : "It 's like asking someone who was always a harpsichord maker to start building pianos." Even if also in this case he goes towards a triangular geometry, the mutation is still ongoing. The bevel is always very wide and the head height is too low to host a properly a Voirin style. After the 60's the influence of the latter becomes more present, the heads move up and become more rounded. We get now to the wedge. Same as for the bevel, this detail, as well, suggests the hand used by the craftman: the right one. The first part is straight, but as it descends towards the shoe it makes a very small S from left to right, this is because at that point multiple lines join and it is very difficult to let them converge in the center of the head. Specifications and sizes Stick: pernambuco of medium density and dark brown colour; ancient curve . 72,8 cm total length; 72,58 cm stick , 1,2 mm nipple , 2,0 mm housing Stick diameter at the collar 5,6 - 5 mm Stick diameter at the winding 8,7 - 8,55 mm Heel mortice 17,35 mm (from 15,3 to 32,65) Head mortice 3,55 - 9,9 mm Head: width 9,6 mm, height 20,7 mm (22,4 with shoe and fiber ), length 20,4 mm Weight 61,5 g . Unfortunately, even in this bow the frog was replaced, I hope to show it to you in the future.
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