MORIZOT BROTHERS AND THE SUPER HEROES

Even if there were six of them, they had the "Human Torch" as well, like the Fantastic Four, but to say the truth they looked more alike to the "Seven Dwarfs" !

Violin bow Morizot Frères

Forgive me for the jokingly introduction but, considering how one of the main workshop in Mirecourt was composed of, it really seems to be in a Walt Disney movie.

The two-roomed workshop was in a Mirecourt suburb, a dark and austere cave, where some cartoon characters such as "The Chef", "The Fireman" or "The Little Old Man" worked in profound silence.

Inside the workshop, the roles were rightly shared and settled and "The Chef" resembled a little bit "The Number One" of the "T.N.T. Group", distributing tasks to the others.

As already mentioned, six were Louis Joseph Morizot's sons, one of them René, a luthier, and the other five followed the father's path and remained with him until the end of his career.

The work was organized as a production line so to increase productivity and decrease downtime at the utmost. All was conceived as a real and true factory.

The first one Paul Charles, born at Mirecourt on February 4, 1899 and died on September 16 at Epinal was, as understandable from his nickname "The Chef". Besides dealing with the buiding of the frogs, he assigned the weekly tasks, received customers and was the only brother owning a wallet, i.e. the only one with the authorization to sign cheques.

Louis Gabriel, born on June 2, 1903 and died at Vittel on May 26, 1988, aka "The Fireman" had the task to help his first brother with the frogs and to build bass bows.

André Auguste, born on September 8, 1907 and died at Mirecourt on February 6, 1978 had the most delicate tasks as the first bending of the sticks. He had studied a non-extremely refined technique, also not that effective, allowing him to bent a huge quantity of sticks in a short time, thanks to a carbon-powered forge.

Being the most skilled among the five, he had the duty to build the best bows that were then varnished and mounted by Paul Georges, fourth son, born on February 21, 1910 and died July 23, 1959.

Marcel Louis, aka "The Old Little Man " was probably the less skilled of the five ones. He had to take care of the hardest work: roughing out.

The workshop starts at the beginning of the twenties in '9oo but due to the crash of Wall street in 1929 causing economy crisiis in many countries in the world, and further the Second World War, the great success was reached only after '45.

The third phase of the process, reconstruction, is the best one to be in. The first phase is hard because the economic crash causes poverty and depression. The second one, the solution to the economic crisis, is terrible because it has to create the necessary conditions so that reconstruction may take place. At the end, after all destructions caused by war, it is necessary to reconstruct and to start again. This is the most beautiful step, on one hand for the joy about the end of the war and return to a a normal life and, on the other, for the financial aids coming to rebuild creating welfare and stability. The money is lent from the same economy in crisis who started this process, but nevertheless not affected by it, so the game starts again putting debts upon the survivors.

Oops, the Morizots ! Forgive my digression, think about it anyway.

The first twenty-year-period was not that easy, the brothers had to build bows also for other colleagues just to go on. For instance, speaking about Maison Laberte, from whom they bought the wood, not having the necessary money, they agreed to build bows for them and being paid with building material.

1945 sees the start of the golden decade for the Morizot family. The orders increase enourmously and the brothers reach a huge ratio bows/person: about five or six a day.

In 1955, after the father's death, the workshop face its failing. Within few years also Paul Georges (1959) dies and after Marcel's death ('69) and that one of Paul Charles ('70) the two left brothers decide to stop the business. André moves his laboratory in front of his brother's René, a luthier, where he went on building until his death ('78) and Louis retired at Vittel.

In less than thirty years the brothers have trained some new generations of bomakers such as Charles Alfred Bazin, Roger Lotte, Marcel Lapierre, and Bernard Millant, a very peculiar character and last heir of the French bowmaking school, I will talk about him in a few time.

The bows

Well, it is difficult to say something about the bows by the Morizot brothers. Among their father's bows, especially the early ones, it is possible to find nice things, such task is harder for the brothers' work.

Their bows are often second-rate and they are rarely worth the requested price. This because who does my same job, even if he is aware of what he proposes, prefers to profit ignorance and fuel the French myth, as he can enjoy it without getting tired with a plane.

This is the last great firm having worked in Europe, after the Morizots this production way moved to other corners of the world. At first it was Brazil, rich of good wood, and then China, rich in cheap labor force.

So long

Paolo