Georges Barjonnet violin bow

Description

Georges Emile Barjonnet (1903 – 1987) trained initially with Emile François Ouchard at the Cuniot-Hury workshop in Mirecourt where he worked until 1937.  For the next three years, he worked for Emile François’s son, Emile August Ouchard.  In 1940, after Emile August moved to Paris, Barjonnet opened his own Mirecourt workshop until the Second World War forced closure.  From 1943 he was employed by the Jérôme Thibouville-Lamy firm until its closure in 1968.  After this, he worked in Mirecourt for Charles Alfred Bazin and Roger Gérôme.  Remaining in Mirecourt all his life, some of Barjonnet’s finest bows were made in this last period for Gérôme, including several beautiful examples mounted in gold and tortoiseshell.  This is one such bow from early in that period, and is almost identical to the example pictured on page 365 in Volume 1 of Etienne Vatelot’s “Archets de Français”.  Bought new by Australian violinist and Carl Flesch medal winner, Wilfred Lehmann (b.1929), after more than two decades’ ownership, he subsequently sold it to a younger colleague.  After another two decades, that colleague then sold it to a younger colleague who promised payment for more than five years, but failed to do so.  It has been returned to us, fortunately in very good condition, and is now again for sale.