PECCATTE, THE GOD

Brilliant, histrionic, aggressive and angry: Dominique Peccatte, the most controversial and envied craftsman in the history of modern bowmaking.

Violin bow Dominique Peccatte

Speaking of Peccatte, at least for is not that easy. It 's probably the most prominent bowmaker along with F.X. Tourte, therefore or you limit to say that he is one of the greatest of all times , a undeniable claim or you dare to touch God, trying not to get electrocuted, so let's hope all goes well !

The history

First of two brothers, the second one is Francois who will become as well a bowmaker, was born in Mirecourt by Jean-Francois Peccatte, hairdresser, and Anne Chambry on July 15, 1810, and as customary at the time, started working in the activity of his father at a very young age.
Probably due to good family status , the father owned two vineyards, he got in touch with Nicolas Francois Vuillaume, and since the hairdressing job didn't fit him so much, when Jean Baptiste, asked his brother if he knew a smart and willing guy, he gave him the name of Dominique .

As mentioned, he arrived in Paris in 1826, and he is guided by Persoit, in fact in his early works one can notice more than an inspiration to the styles of the Master.
But if in case of Persoit, Vuillaume failed to change the aesthetyc , because of course when he met him, he was already a mature and complete craftsman, with Dominique things went differently. J.B.V found in his hands one of the greatest manual talents he ever know, owning an impressive speed of execution, and indulges himself by letting him do all what passed through his mind.

This way of working gave the young Peccatte an unmatched aesthetic flexibility, so to make it much harder for him than for others, to give an exact date to the bows. .1830 is the year in which Dominique Vuillaume was called to the army to avoided it by paying, as already mentioned. Of course, he asked some bows in exchange for this. The photos of some of these are in the book by Paul Childs "The Peccatte Family ", and seeing how they are finished, you can guess how happy he was in making them.

Of course they are always Peccatte, therefore full of character, but even more angriy suggesting that what you do is what you are.
On January 3, 1836 he married Madeleine Pillot, and the marriage witnesses are J.B.V. and the other important luthier Georges Chanot, a clear sign that the two were on good terms and that our Peccatte was already creating a small name for himself.

Always in '36, in an agreement with Vuillaume, he began his cooperation with Francois Lupot II, who is now at the end of his career, and when two years later he passed to a better life, he takes over the laboratory, at number 18 of rue Angervillers in Paris.
From then on, his reputation began to grow rapidly among both bowmakers and musicians. He will never interrupt his collaboration for Vuillaume and he worked as well for other bowmakers such as Gand and Maucotel.

In 1841, also Francois arrives in Paris and began working with his brother. At this time it is common to find bpws built in cooperation, the stick by Dominique and the frog by Francois or vice versa. However the collaboration did not last long,two years later Francois returned to Mirecourt.
In 1847, after a great career in Paris, he sells the workshop to Pierre Simon sells the laboratory and returns to Mirecourt.

From this point on, Dominique changes his life almost completely. He resumes, if only for the first few years, his relations with his brother and works with him, even if not directly. He maintains tight his profitable relationships with Vuillaume and shares his time between his work of bowmaker and the one as winemaker.

It seems business went evidently good, since in 1852, after spending several years in his mother's home, he buys one of his own er for 5.850 francs, not exactly a small amount for the time, and moves to Rue de Cloitres near Halles .

From now on, he greatly decreses his bow production, in 1872 he appears as no longer enrolled in the bomaking register book and will focus completely to cultivate his land, as evidenced by the many bottles found in his house at his death occurred on January 13 1874.

Dominique Peccatte is recognized as one of the biggest bowmakers of all times, as I said only two are at his height. Even today it is difficult to find a bow of his not working well but one of the things that impressed me most about him is his way of conceving bow making.

Unlike many (virtually all of them), he never saw this work as a mission or as a duty to perform until his last breath. In fact, when he was quite young he left from Paris (thirtyseven years), and at the end of his life he has also gone into a kind of retirement!
Next week we will deal with his character , one of the most interesting one , and style.

So long

Paolo