Jean Pierre Marie Persois
Encyclopedia
Jean Pierre Marie Persoit [Persois] - (b. ?Mirecourt, 1782–3; d. after 1854) was a great and intriguing French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 bowmaker
Bow (music)
In music, a bow is moved across some part of a musical instrument, causing vibration which the instrument emits as sound. The vast majority of bows are used with string instruments, although some bows are used with musical saws and other bowed idiophones....

 or Archetier
Archetier
A bow maker is a person who builds, repairs, and restores ancient or modern bows for instruments of the violin family. These include violins, violas, cellos, double basses, viola d'amore, viola da gamba, etc....

.

One of the first bowmakers to be hired by the young Jean Baptiste Vuillaume
Jean Baptiste Vuillaume
Jean Baptiste Vuillaume was an illustrious French violin maker. He made over 3,000 instruments and was also a fine businessman and an inventor.-Early life:...

.
Persoit seems to have worked in this studio for at least 15 years (1823–41 according to Millant; 1828–43 according to Vatelot).

It nevertheless remains difficult to recognize his work under the Vuillaume stamp.

His best bows, are remarkably close to the François Tourte
François Tourte
François Xavier Tourte was a Frenchman who, though trained as a watchmaker, soon changed to making bows for playing classical string instruments such as the violin....

 style (especially those with octagonal sticks), though there are small but telling differences:
the octagonals are not so sharply planed; the heads are rather more squared; the frogs are more solid and with shallower throats; and the distinctive buttons have unequally wide bands which cover most of the ebony.

Persoit’s round-shafted bows are more personal and generally bulkier than the Tourte ideal. Most are also slightly short.
His brand PRS is stamped on the stick under the frog and under the lapping, occasionally as many as three times, although sometimes not at all.
His work is only rarely seen today but much appreciated.
It is most likely that Persoit left Paris after 1854 either to retire or to be cared for.
"Some may not be aware that it was Persoit (Persois) who trained Dominique Peccatte
Dominique Peccatte
Dominique Peccatte was an influential French luthier and bow maker. He was apprenticed in Mirecourt and later worked with Jean Baptiste Vuillaume....

".
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK