Like fathers, like sons

The Ouchard family of Mirecourt can accurately be described as a dynasty. This great family helped shape almost a century of French bow making and spread its influence far across the globe. Through its main characters, Emile Francois, Emile Auguste, Bernard and Jean Claude, we can trace the development of the Ouchard bow making style, from its humble origins in bows produced within a larger firm, to a distinctive model setting an example for generations of bow makers to come. In this article we take a particular look at the double bass bows of the Ouchard family, an often overlooked but intriguing part of the Ouchards’ rich history.

At the end of the 19th century, the Ouchards were known only within their native Mirecourt as a family of lace makers and lathe workers, although being in such a centre of musical instrument production they would have doubtless been acquainted with the numerous luthiers and bow makers operating in the town. It was in this trade that Emile Francois Ouchard was apprenticed at the age of 13, working with local bow making firm Cuniot-Hury under the guidance of Eug筥 Cuniot. Emile Francois had been born to single mother Adele Marguerite Ouchard on 30 April 1872, and it was perhaps this lack of a father that prompted Adele to seek employment for her son in the bow making business rather than encouraging him to follow her into the traditionally feminine career of lace making. It was here that the young Emile Francois flourished, soon mastering his technique and producing a large number of bows under the Cuniot-Hury name.

Emile Franpois stayed at Cuniot-Hury for 24 years, and was by all accounts firmly settled in his life. He married Josephine Collin on 9 January 1896, and over the next decade the couple had one son, Emile Auguste, and six daughters, Marguerite-Eugenie, Jeanne Juliette, Madeleine Maria Augustine, Louise Josephine, and Marie-Therese. Josephine Collin may well have been a relative of Mirecourt violin maker Claude Nicolas Collin, as it was not unusual for violin making families to unite through marriage. Marguerite-Eugenie, for instance, was married to bow maker Franpois Lotte, and Marie-Therese wed bow maker Paul Morizot. Work at Cuniot-Hury was good; although bows were produced under the company brand, individual bow makers were allowed a degree of independence in their work and Emile Franpois might well have stayed an employee of the firm for all its benefits, had it not been for the death of Eugene Cuniot in 1910, whose sole child was only eight years old at the time. The business passed to Cuniot’s widow, Franpoise Hury, and as one of their most talented employees Emile Franpois was invited to help in running it, allowing him to enjoy an even greater artistic and, crucially, economic freedom than he had previously experienced.

The next few decades were extremely prosperous for Emile Franpois. From 1913 he began training his son Emile Auguste, and in 1923 he was able to open a new workshop for himself at 1 rue Canon. Three years later he had fully assumed control of the Cuniot-Hury business, and by 1936 he was employing 15 assistants, including Emile Auguste. It was during this period that the very first stamped Ouchard bows began to appear. While Cuniot had been alive, all of Emile Franpois’s bows had been stamped with either ‘CUNIOT-HURY’ or ‘C.H.’ (or supplied unstamped to other companies), yet after his death the ‘Emile Ouchard’ stamp started to feature with some regularity. The ‘Cuniot-Hury’ brand was phased out soon after he took control of the firm, though even in the late 1930s the Ouchard workshop was still supplying unstamped bows to other firms to be sold under their name, such as the c.1938-40 Emile Franpois bow pictured here (top right) with the stamp ‘TASASCOUI’. Emile Franpois’s own personal style, too, became more pronounced during this period. Ouchard bows from this time still display the production-line approach of Cuniot-Hury, but the double bass bows are generally of a very high quality, featuring short, steeply sloping heads with either round or octagonal sticks.

Although the Ouchard workshop under Emile Franpois produced quality bows, it was not yet known on the international stage, and indeed the real strength of the workshop at this point was in its teaching. Passing through the workshop in the mid-1930s were a number of talented bow makers who were to ensure the continuation of the French school, including Louis Brugere, Raymond and Andre Richaume, Franpois Lotte, Pierre Audinot, Georges Barjonnet, Camille Remy, Marcel Massicard, Robert Pitton and Marcel Mangenot, not to mention Emile Auguste. Unlike the Cuniot- Hury business, Emile Franpois gave his workers less individual freedom in their work, and the bows coming out of the Ouchard workshop were more refined and consistent in their model. Anecdotal accounts tell us that Emile Franpois was a strong character, and while this may have benefited his teaching it was perhaps ultimately his undoing. Emile Franpois refused to give preferential treatment to his son over other workers, and when Emile Auguste took over the family business in 1937 Emile Franpois was reluctant to give up control, leading to frequent disputes and an eventual rift in 1941 when Emile Auguste left. The Mirecourt business began to shrink over the next few years, and by the end of his career, Emile Franpois had just one employee and an apprentice. He died on 27 February 1951 at the age of 78. To the player, the bows of Emile Franpois tend to have elegant though slightly small heads with finely worked sticks and compact frogs. Many players love them for solo and chamber playing; Thomas Martin, for example, used one for all his solo recordings.

All bows shown in this arti cle are double bass bows

ALL PHOTOS TUDOR PHOTOGRAPHY

Emile A. Ouchard, octagonal stick c.1938-40. Small silver pearl mounted, with three-piece button and smaller single pearl eye, octagonal stick. Elegant, more upright head with well-defined point to the tip. Stamped: TASASCOUI PARIS

Collaboration between Emile Ouchard (pere) and Emile A. Ouchard (fils), c.1934-36. Silver mounted, with solid silver button and ring and eye, octagonal stick.

The head clearly shows signs of the father Emile Francois Ouchard (pere), with a more swept-back top of the head, and slightly elongated, declining point of tip. Stamped: EMILE OUCHARD

Emile A. Ouchard, stamped 1945 under the frog. Silver mounted, with solid silver button, ring and eye, octagonal stick. The head, although still upright and elegant, has a delicacy and beauty to it. Frog has a standard, taller height, and a more curbed heel. Stamped: E.A.OUCHARD A PARIS

Collaboration between Emile Ouchard (pere) and Emile A. Ouchard (fils), c.1930-35. Silver mounted with three-piece button and larger single eye, octagonal stick. Although a collaboration, this bow shows the influence of Emile Francois Ouchard (pere), with its slightly more petite head with curved throat and more delicate frog. Stamped: EMILE OUCHARD

Although Emile Franpois provided the foundations for the family legacy, it was Emile Auguste who truly propelled their name into the history books. Born on 24 July 1900, Emile Auguste started his training at a young age and was soon one of the company’s most productive employees. He married Andree Marie Charlot Petot on 2 September 1922 and the couple had four children: two sons, Bernard and Jean Claude, and two daughters, Colette and Anne-Marie. Bernard, born on 15 February 1925, was the eldest, and began his training in Mirecourt in his early teens. Although Emile Auguste’s early bows show the clear influence of his father, even at a young age he began to experiment. His father’s and his own early bows had all featured pinned underslides, yet from the mid-1930s he was encouraged by fellow bow maker Max Millant to adopt a modified version of the Hill underslide, though this feature never seemed to make it into his double bass bows. It was around this time, too, that he began to produce more ornate frogs featuring Parisian double rings, and the short heads featured in his father’s bows slowly started to develop into a more elegant, swooping curve. Many of his bows produced in Mirecourt were stamped with ‘E.A. OUCHARD FILS’, earning him the nickname ‘Ouchard Fils’ and his father ‘Ouchard Pere’. The two also collaborated on a number of bows during the late 1930s, and a number of examples exist with stick and frog made separately by father and son.

The independence of his craftsmanship from his father’s model was perhaps symptomatic of his more general relationship with Emile Franpois. Emile Auguste, too, was a strong-willed character and inclined towards rebellion against the family company. His father’s unwillingness to back down proved the final straw for Emile Auguste, and in 1941 he and his family relocated to Paris, working at 54 rue de Rome where Bernard began to assist his father in earnest. It was here that Emile Auguste was able to build up his reputation as a skilled maker, acquiring an international clientele and winning the Grand Prix at the 1942 International Paris Exhibition. His bows made during this period are among his finest, and are stamped ‘E.A. OUCHARD PARIS’, sometimes with the year stamped underneath the stick near the mortise. Although his professional work in Paris was flourishing, his personal life was becoming difficult. The Nazi occupation of France during World War II had made life in the country a hardship, and his relationship with his wife had turned sour. Thus, when Emile Auguste received an offer in 1946 to work for Lazare Rudie in New York, he seized this opportunity with both hands. With the help of Yehudi Menuhin, one of his clients, he was able to gain immigration rights to the US, and on 4 September 1946 he boarded the USS Oregon bound for New York, leaving his wife behind but taking with him Lucienne Franpais, a friend and former carer for his children.

LEFT BOW TUDOR PHOTOGRAPHY. RIGHT BOW JOHN MILNES

Emile A. Ouchard (fils), c.1937-40. Silver mounted, with three-piece butt on and larger single eye, round stick. Although clearly Emile A., both the slightly delicate head and lower frog date this to the Mirecourt years prior to his departure for Paris. Stamped: E.A.OUCHARD fils

Emile Ouchard (pere), c.1930. Silver mounted with three-piece butt on and large single eye, round sti ck. Although more robust in style, the head sti ll has the sweptback, curvy form. Also note the lower style of frog with sharper curve on the heel. Stamped: EMILE OUCHARD

Emile A Ouchard’s Brazil immigrati on document from 1955

Emile Auguste lived first above Rudie’s workshop at 100 West 49th Street, and a few months after being joined by his niece Elisabeth Massenet in February 1947, moved into his own apartment at 140 West 57th Street. Here he continued to work as an independent maker, stamping his bows with ‘EMILE A. OUCHARD - NEW YORK’. The following year his daughter, Colette, arrived from France, and quickly set about learning English, a skill that her father was never to attain.

After residing in New York for only two years, in 1948 Emile Auguste signed a contract worth $10,000 per year with William Lewis & Son in Chicago, giving the firm exclusive rights to his bows. He bought a house in Batavia, IL, where he remained for the next three years, producing a large number of bows for the company. Despite the exclusivity of his contract, during his annual trips back to France Emile Auguste was able to sell a number of bows privately to former customers, and there are also a number of double bass bows from this period that were sold in the US, yet not listed in the Lewis & Son catalogue, suggesting he was also able to make private sales closer to Chicago. The bows made independently during this period continued to bear the stamp ‘EMILE A. OUCHARD - NEW YORK’, although the ones made for Lewis & Son can be identified by their serial numbers: as their 1950s catalogue states, ‘each bow sold under the name ‘Emile Ouchard’ is registered, branded, and bears an identifying serial number. It also carries with it a certificate of authenticity, signed by the maker’.

For reasons unknown, on 22 August 1951 Emile Auguste sold his house in Batavia and moved back to New York to work for Jacques Francais, living at 1030 Summit Avenue in the Bronx and later at an address in Forest Hills. Despite his move, his contract with Lewis & Son was never formally closed and remained valid even up to his death. It was at this point that Emile Auguste dropped ‘NEW YORK’ from his stamp, and all of his bows throughout the rest of his career were stamped ‘EMILE A. OUCHARD’. During this second New York period, Emile Auguste was visited by his son, Jean Claude, who arrived in 1954 and worked in the Francais workshop alongside his father for four years before returning to France.

In 1955 Emile Auguste travelled to Brazil, boarding a flight from New York to Belem on 7 December and returning on 22 December. The purpose of this short visit was to secure a quantity of pernambuco, though whether this was an errand for Jacques Francais or a personal business trip is unknown.

Emile Auguste finally returned to France in 1960, settling in the town of Gan in the south-west Pyrenees-Atlantiques department, where he opened a workshop on the Route de Rebenacq. It was here that he met Gan native Renee Marie Flaux, and after officially divorcing his long-estranged wife Andree the two were married on 26 January 1963. The couple spent some time in Cognat-Lyonne near Vichy from 1963, where Emile Auguste continued to produce bows in his garage, but a stroke suffered soon after his return to the country greatly affected his ability to work. He continued to make bows, but those few produced in these final years are of lesser quality. Emile Auguste died on 14 February 1969 in Gan. To the player, the bows of Emile Auguste tend to fit more into the mainstream of the double bass bow. With larger heads and more robust sticks, they make great all-round companions for the bassist, lending themselves to the variety of tasks the player confronts.

Emile A. Ouchard (fils), c.1937–40. Silver mounted, with solid silver butt on and large single eye, round sti ck. Again although clearly Emile A. Ouchard (fils), this shows obvious signs of being from the period prior to his departure from Mirecourt to Paris. Stamped E.A.OUCHARD fils

Emile Ouchard (pere), c.1930. Silver mounted, with solid silver butt on, ring and eye, octagonal sti ck. A wonderfully elegant bow. Head has a slightly longer, sweeping nose, and rather delicate throat. Well-proporti oned, elegant frog. Stamped: EMILE OUCHARD

The Ouchard family line continued after Emile Auguste with his two sons, Bernard and Jean Claude, though the careers of these two bow makers were not quite as international as that of their father. After accompanying his father to Paris in 1941, Bernard was interrupted in his career by World War II, during which he enlisted as a soldier, though he returned to bow making with his father soon after. Like his grandfather, Bernard also found himself unable to work alongside Emile Auguste owing to his father’s strong-willed character. Bernard was said to be more introverted, and the pair parted company when Emile Auguste emigrated to America.

WITH LARGER HEADS AND MORE ROBUST STICKS, ȍILE AUGUSTE’S BOWS MAKE GREAT COMPANIONS FOR THE BASSIST

Bernard’s career took a positive turn in 1949, when he was recommended by Marcel Lapierre to be taken on by Pierre Vidoudez in Geneva. Lapierre had been in the employ of Emile Auguste, roughing out sticks in the Ouchard workshop, but after his departure to New York had travelled to Vidoudez’s workshop in order to train further. He returned after only one year, but recognising Bernard’s skill as a craftsman convinced him to take up the post instead. Bernard ended up staying with Vidoudez for 22 years, and his time spent here afforded him the opportunity to research the bow making traditions of Franpois Tourte and Dominique Peccatte, which greatly affected the style of his own work. While Bernard’s early bows were crafted in much the same style as those of his father, throughout his Geneva period his bows became more and more divergent. Notably, throughout his career Bernard exclusively used octagonal sticks in his double bass bows

rather than the round or elliptical sticks sometimes used by his father and grandfather. His bows made during his time in Geneva were stamped ‘VIDOUDEZ GENEVE’. Clearly, Bernards strengths lay in research and pedagogy, and in 1971 he was invited to become the first professor of bow making at the Ecole Nationale de Lutherie in Mirecourt. Here, he became responsible for the next generation of French bow makers, including such important figures as Benoit Rolland, Jean-Franpois Raffin and Stephane Thomachot. He continued to make some bows in his spare time in these final years, branding these ‘OUCHARD’. Bernard died on 2 June 1979. To the player, Bernard’s bows tend to echo those of his grandfather. They are very consistent, with beautiful yet finely worked sticks, classic frogs and well-modelled, smallish heads. They are very sought-after for solo playing. The Italian virtuoso Franco Petracchi, for instance, has used an excellent example for most of his career.

Emile Auguste’s younger son, Jean Claude, was born in Mirecourt on 6 May 1935 and appears to be the only Ouchard family member not to have begun their training with their father. When Emile Auguste immigrated to the US in 1946, Jean Claude returned to Mirecourt, starting an apprenticeship in the firm of Louis Bazin, and later with Jean Claude’s uncle Franpois Lotte, who was married to Emile Auguste’s eldest sister, Marguerite-Eugenie. Apart from his time in New York from 1954 to 1958, he had little contact with his father, instead spending most of his professional life working with bow makers trained by Emile Auguste. After 1958 Jean Claude began working for Marcel Lapierre, although on 2 March 1959 he relocated to Amsterdam to assist in the restoration workshop of Max Mor, remaining there until 31 January 1968. It was here that he married, on 14 April 1966, with four children born from this union: Jean-Paul, Bernadette, Marie-Jose, and Marian. He returned to France in 1968 and settled in Carmaux in the south of the country, where he was hired to train handicapped people to make bows in a semi-industrial process, though he also produced some bows of his own, stamping these with ‘J. CL. OUCHARD’. He returned to Mirecourt in 1978 to open his own workshop, where for the next decade he produced under his own name, stamping his bows with ‘OUCHARD JC’. He was hired by a local music business, Cable, in 1989, staying there until he retired in 1993. Jean Claude died on 21 June 2012.

Bernard Ouchard, c.1960. Silver mounted, with solid silver button and ring and eye, octagonal stick. Very typical of the bass bows made by Bernard for Vidoudez. Upright head with a nose that abruptly heads to the tip after straight sweep down. Well-proportioned frog with slightly longer, thinner nose and slightly abrupt and upward curve to the throat. Stamped: VIDOUDEZ GENEVE

ALL PHOTOS TUDOR PHOTOGRAPHY

Emile A. Ouchard, c.1930. Silver mounted with a solid silver butt on and single eye, rounded stick. Elegant, petite head, well balanced with a graceful symmetry. Again, note the lower frog. Stamped: E.A.OUCHARD A PARIS

BERNARD’S STRENGTHS LAY IN RESEARCH AND PEDAGOGY, AND HE BECAME RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF FRENCH BOW MAKERS

The authors wish to thank Richard English, Roland Terrier, Arthur Dubroca and BromptonS Fine & Rare Instruments for their help with this article