JOSEPH ALFRED LAMY "PERE"-  THE LINK !

Studying bowmaking history, as after all all human manifestations, we realize that there are key characters who act as a link between various historical periods, without whom the evolution would have been much slower or would even have stopped. Joseph Alfred Lamy "Père" is a classic example.

Born in Mirecourt on September 8th, 1850 by Jean Joseph Lamy, occasional violin maker, and Caroline Francoise Gouvenot Victorie, Joseph Alfred began his apprenticeship in 1862, in the workshop of Charles Claude Nicolas Husson  when he was only twelve years old .

Already from his earliest period he is influenced, likely Charles Claude Husson and Arthur Joseph Vigneron, by the new dominant style that had almost completely replaced the " Peccatte School", the style "Vuillaume-Voirin."

In 1868, he makes a very important meeting for his career. Joseph Voirin, brother of the famous Francois Nicolas, who in those years manages the Maison Gautrot at Chateau Thierry, hires him. Between the two of them there is such a good relationship, that J. Voirin wants him to be the godfather at the baptism of his children.

On April 30th , 1870 he marries Elisa Emilie Josèpe Cuvillier, who will give him five children, two of them Hippolyte Camille and Georges Lèon, will become bowmakers . The latter dies at a young age during the First World War.

Obviously, this proximity with Joseph greatly facilitates the contacts between Lamy and Francois Nicolas Voirin, therefore he leaves Gautrot in 1876 and moves to Paris. From this moment and until Voirin's death in 1855, Lamy studies and learns the techniques of his teacher by completely adopting his basic stylistic concepts.

After Voirin's death, he opens his own business, in a small first-floor apartment at 34 Rue Poissonniere, and as Raffin tells, "at least in the first period the work was so little, that he even had to build some bass bows."

Other means of support were the famous " Voirin de la Veuve," which, as you will remember, the widow Voirin commissioned partly to Claude Auguste Thomassin and partly just to Joseph Alfred Lamy.

After 1889, his style is almost defined and in these years he makes a very important meeting for the French bowmaking. A kid with high hopes and incredibly fast and accurate hands comes from Mirecourt , and he taught him everything he has learned directly from his Master, who is the creator of the school "Vuillaume-Voirin." This will allow the child to develop the most copied style in the world. His name was Eugene Sartory!

In these years, comes the first official award, the Silver Medal at the Paris Exposition of 1889. For the second one, he will have to wait several years, he won the Gold Medal in 1900 always during the same event.

In the early years of the twentieth century, he gradually begins to hand over his work to his sons, especially to the older one Hippolyte Camille, who remains with him even after the death of his younger brother in 1915.

After his death occured in 1919, Hippolyte Camille, will continue to build bows with his fathers's brand "A. Lamy à Paris".

The style

Two are the main stylistic periods of Joseph Alfred Lamy. The first and earliest period is directed almost entirely to the style of  F. N. Voirin for both heads and frogs.

The heads are tall, slender and very open. The frogs become longer and the plates become more robust in comparison with Peccatte.

Later, in the late '90s and early nineteenth century, he goes through a long period of transition that will bring him closer to Sartory for the frogs , with the upper side of the throat that slides on the stick. But to take a direction diametrically opposite to the head, lifting the wedge profile and increasing the thickness , thus starting to take distances from his very first school.

The bevel is J.A. Lamy "Père" 's peculiaty . Usually straight, but with the top that opens widely, closing on its arrival on the shoe as you can see in both bows on the photo.

So lomg.

Paolo