Louis Joseph Morizot (père), Mirecourt, cca 1925

Octagonal stick of pernambuco, the wrapping is original, the face plate is later. Ebony frog with a parisian eye, silver mounting, solid button, Weight 62g. On the left side of the tip there is a noticeable repaired crack. The cheek of the head was probably broken off when replacing the hair. This damage has no impact on the playability nor the lifetime of the bow. However, the price was reduced accordingly.

Branded J. LAMY – PARIS on the stick. A certificate by the French renown experts Rafin-LeCanu-Bigot belong to the bow.

Louis Joseph Morizot and his sons are among the most important French bow makers of the twentieth century. Morizot père (father) and Morizot frères (brothers) established one of the most successful ateliers in Mirecourt.

Louis Joseph Morizot was born 1874 in Darney. He was the second bow maker in his family; the first was his grandfather Guillaume Maline (1792-1859). Apprenticed at Eugène Cuniot-Hury (1861-1912) and Charles Nicolas Bazin (1847-1915), the most influential master in Mirecourt. However, the most important influence came from Eugène Sartory (1871-1946), for whom he worked 1914-1919. Then he opened his own atelier. Louis won the Grand Prix and gold medal at the exhibition for the best workman of France in 1924 and 1927. He trained five of his six sons in bow making; none of them ever left the family’s atelier to work elsewhere. Their close family partnership was the foundation for the major success of „Louis Morizot et ses Fils“, and the company soon provided bows to all violin makers in Mirecourt and many renowned ateliers throughout France.

In 1937 the brothers took up the management of the family company under the name „Morizot frères“. The quality of Morizot bows was always kept high and it is impossible to separate the work of the father from that of his sons. After World War II, the Morizots experienced a ten-year period of extremely high productivity in which they achieved their greatest business success.

Their business went into decline starting with the death of the father in 1957. During the next few decades all the Morizot brothers died, the last of them in 1978.