Maker Background
Jean Joseph Martin was born in Mirecourt, France, where he most probably received his first training in bow making. In 1858 he moved to Paris to work in the renowned workshop of Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume. During the five years he spent in that prestigious atelier, Martin had the opportunity to study some of the finest bows ever made, and worked alongside leading craftsmen such as François Nicolas Voirin, refining his technique and his artistic sensibility further.
A dedicated and exceptionally gifted craftsman, Martin quickly distinguished himself in Vuillaume’s workshop. His bows, made in the Vuillaume style, soon ranked among the best the firm produced in that period.
In 1863 Martin returned to his native Mirecourt and opened a workshop of his own. There he trained several skilled bow makers, among them Joseph Arthur Vigneron père, who would himself go on to become an important bow maker. Martin produced a considerable number of bows, many of them finely worked in pernambuco of excellent quality. His work is valued for its balance, its reliability and its excellent playing qualities, and his bows have been used by numerous professional musicians, including the celebrated violinist Isaac Stern.
In the last years of his life, Martin actively supported the development of bow making in Mirecourt. Today Jean Joseph Martin is regarded as one of the most important Mirecourt bow makers of the late nineteenth century.
