FIRE BRANDING BY PECCATTE

We have tried to resolve the “Kittel” mystery for some time now, and in the meantime it just happened that an american reader has commissioned a post written by me on the branding used on the bows, which seems a perfect link between different worlds, genetically close.

Fire Branding by Dominique Peccatte

The reader has just bought a Dominique Peccatte bow and he has asked me to dedicate a post about the brands used by this craftsman. You will find the reason to this request in the description he has given me of the bow.

The Peccatte bow at issue has been mounted in nickel silver and the drawstring has been fixed with small tacks instead of screws, which is a rare choice by Peccatte. Someone has probably expressed perplexity on the object and owner of the bow is searching for reassurance asking information about the brands used by this craftsman.

Speaking about brands, I recall an anecdote about a woman who had found a violin in the ceiling. She brought it to an expert because she had found the writing “Stradivari”. The expert understood that the woman had no knowledge in violin making and explained to her that the bow was only a Boemo from the end of the 19th century. The answer to this information was: “Maybe he made it on a holiday to Boemia”. (It's a try story).

Experts, serious experts, give little importance to brands. Some craftsmen has provided work to other workers, still branding every produced bow with there own name. The German bow market is full of this and the French market isn't joking either.

Furthermore, the brands can lead to errors. You might recall last year when I had a bow certificated Dominique Peccatte in Paris, which previously had been attributed Pierre Simon. Who assigned the bow to Simon failed because the bow is marked “Chanot”. In the book “L'Archet” (Raffin/Millant) there is not mentioned any collaboration between Peccatte and Chanot, even if they knew each other and that Chanot and J.B.Vuillaume participated at the wedding of Peccatte. A real expert, like Mº Jean Francois Raffin, one of the authors of the book, has certificated the bow for what it is, and not according to the brand, because he knows very well the story of Dominique Peccatte and how he worked.

Fire Branding “Paris” by Dominique Peccatte (right side)

Speaking about the Peccatte family, at the time when Dominique and Francois was working branding the bows hadn't jet become an obsession. Often they didn't brand the bows at all o they branded the bows with the name of the buyer. These bow are often of the same quality as the bows branded with their own names as craftsmen.

The bows branded by Dominique Peccatte carry the brand “PECCATTE” on the left side of the stick and rarely a “PARIS” on the right side. You can also find brands like Grand, Lupot, Maucotel, Vuillaume and obviously Chanot as mentioned earlier.

Francois also branded his bows “PECCATTE”, similar if not identical to his brothers brand. He did so at least as long as he stayed in Mirecourt. After he transferred to Paris in 1852, he sometimes added “PARIS” on the other side.

Fire Brand by Francois Peccatte

Francois branded his bows even less than Dominique, probably because in the decade of time he stayed in Mirecourt, he gave work to 8/10 workers continuously.

Fire Brand “Paris” by Francois Peccatte (right side)

When Francois returned to Paris it is known that he worked by J.B.Vuillaume from '52 to '53 which is why it is assumed that there must be bows made by Francois marked "Vuillaume", even if not known.

We know more about how Charles, the son of Francois and nephew to Dominique, branded his bows.

He used two brands in his career. The first one “PECCATTE A PARIS” was used from 1874 to 1881. 1881 was the year his mother died, and the time he could finally break off relations with her lover, Auguste Lenoble.

Fire Brand Charles Peccatte 1881-1918

Charles Peccatte abandoned this brand for almost thirty years and simply used “PECCATTE”, similar to the brand used by his uncle and father. To the bows made exclusively by himself, he used two brands, one on the right side and one on the left side, on bows made in the workshop he used only one brand.

Second Fire Brand Charles Peccatte 1874 – 1881/1910 – 1918

From 1910 he began again to use the brand he used as a young bow maker to the bows made by himself.

Other that being one of the most transparent craftsman of French bow making, as he used different brands according to the different quality of the bows, he announced himself, in Bottin Almanach du Commerce in 1890, to be the only bow maker with the name Peccatte; probably because he wanted to stem off the old Lenoble who kept on published himself with this name.

Not having any photos of bows branded Peccatte, I have used images from the book “L'Archet”, which I thank the authors for.

So long,

Paolo