ETIENNE PAJEOT: THE THOUSAND-HEADED BOWMAKER

As already mentioned last week, Etienne Pajeot was a Genius equal to few others, such as Persoit and Dominique Peccatte. Although if slightly different, he is a genius with the scooter !

Etienne Pajeot –cello bow 1820/25

This playful definition has been used by a colleague talking about that particular kind of genius, which owns a huge manual talent and an equally great inclination to trade. But trading and building huge amounts of beautiful bows bows is absolutely impossible, because we are all human beings and the day has only twenty-four hours. So at some point of the career they stop building and start doing other things. Although told with clenched teeth, the words of Millant and Raffin, induce to perceive that Etienne Pajeot was one of them.

As already mentioned, the small Etienne's birth is not too simple. His mother died six days after his birth and the father will follow her not long after, in 1804, when the child is only thirteen.

As customary at that time, Etienne starts to attend his father's workshop roughly at the age of ten years. But obviously, because of the untimely death of his father, he doesn't learn that much about his job as a bowmaker. It is believed that he completed his education by working in several workshops of violin and bow making located in Mirecourt.

After a decade of apprenticeship, in 1815, he began working on his own and stamp his own bows.

Despite all the bowmakers of France, except for Tourte, Persoit and a few others, have been born, or have studied in Mirecourt. Those who remained there to work lifelong were considered as second-class craftsmen and Pajeot could not stand this situation.

He was always updated by craftsmen and workers living in Paris about the innovations offered by his competitors, above all J.B. Vuillaume, trying to stay always one step ahead. There was a case in which things were different and it is also the main reason for which his relations with Vuillaume went from chilly to non-existent: the matter about the self-rehairing bow. This project stems from giving the musician the possibility to change bowhair by themselves, considering that not all corners of France were like Paris, that was crowded with bowmakers and furthermore, in those traveling was much slower than today.

Probably both of them faced this problem at the same time, Vuillaume solved it in a more brilliant way and he was the first to patent it in 1836. With not-so-veiled accusations of "industrial espionage", Pajeot finally broke his relations with his Parisian colleague.

In addition to the self-rehairing bow , Pajeot was among the first to introduce the metal slide covering and protecting the octagon of the frog, making it even extreme, having the metal to cover also the front part of the headstock. This special coulisse very uncomfortable for the musician to use , was practically not used by any other manufacturer.

Etienne Pajeot died in Mirecourt where he was born , in 1849 and in the certificate he is not given any activity. This clearly shows that having no children, he closed his activity, presumably for health reasons, a few years before.

The Character

Copy of  Etienne Pajeot frog

Pajeot is certainly a craftsman with a strong and determined character. When you look at his heads we are impressed by the net and open stretch of his hand and by the equally obvious lack of aesthetic education. The general look sometimes lacks of grace, even if it is full of that force that transforms the ugly into beautiful.

The frogs are architecturally perfectly planned and nevertheless they are affected by the outspoken character of the author..

The working proceed of the octagon is not aesthetically excellent, but the distribution of the curve and the thickness is perfect. Speaking about functionality Pajeot's bows are among the greatest ever built!

After '25

Everything I said about Pajeot's style is naturally about his own work, which was decreased sharply after 1825. He is now mature craftsman with a status , furthermore as I said, apart from making bows he must also deal with trade, patents, plans and he begins to behave as his rival Vuillaume, commissioning some work to young and talented bowmakers.

Looking at the style of the bows after 25-30, you may notice that some of them are made by one hand, others from another, and very often in any case it not Pajeot's one. Even if he was hiding it a little bit more, as well as Vuillaume he had more than a helper.

As his colleague he had a terrific keen eye to select the staff, not surprisingly many of his helpers also worked for the other one.

Among most famous Pajeot's cooperators there names as big as his, such as : Fonclouse, Maire, Maline, just to name the most important ones.

Although he did not personally carry out every bow, Etienne Pajeot has been and remains one of the four biggest bowmakers of all times. I happened to have a lot of his bows in my hands and none of them was a disappointment, nor from the aesthetic or mechanical / sound point of view, including this beautiful cello bow, although unfortunately not with the original frog.

So long

Paolo.