Pierre Aloysius Josephs: the primary bow maker of the San Francisco Bay Space | Focus

The following excerpt is from the November 2021 issue of The Strad entitled “Bay Area bow makers: Bows on the bay”. To read it in full, click here to sign up and log in. The digital magazine and the print edition from November 2021 are available now

The very first bow maker in the San Francisco Bay Area was Pierre Aloysius Josephs. Born in New York in 1833, his father was a well-known builder. Pierre moved west with his family and probably studied violin in St. Louis, Missouri in the early 1850s. At this time he developed a keen interest in violin making. Eventually the family moved to Elwood, Kansas, where he fought for the Union in the 1861 Civil War, a lieutenant in the First Regiment Kansas Volunteer Infantry. He registered his occupation as a “jeweler” in the 1863 Kansas Military Design, a demanding and precise art that would determine his skill.

According to the family, he honed his skills as a violin and bow maker during a series of business trips to Paris between 1864 and 1872, where he spent some time in the shop of Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume. This claim is supported by an 1864 Ellis Island document; the influence is also evident in its processing. As early as 1870 he was working as a violin maker in St. Joseph, Missouri, as recorded in the local directory. He worked in the St. Joseph area until 1876, when he boarded the newly constructed railway line from St. Louis to San Francisco with his ninety-year-old parents, his second wife and their seven children. He initially settled in Oakland, California and moved to busy San Francisco in 1877. He soon settled at 1412 Kearny Street as a violin and bow maker in a three-generation household.

While his main motive for moving west was to take care of his active, older parents, he may also have been motivated by the mild weather. In a newspaper article from 1886 he attributed the success of his instruments to the climate of California and briefly mentioned his bow making in San Francisco – the first mention of bow making in the region.

Pierre Aloysius, who was also called Peter, worked alongside his work as a violin maker in California on various occasions as an employee, salesman and businessman. However, Vuillaume was enough to recommend him to August Wilhelmj as the best craftsman in the West; The great violinist raved about Joseph’s skills in a letter dated December 8, 1881: “I really wanted to tell you … about the extraordinary success that your work has achieved.”

The evidence shows that Pierre Aloysius was a successful violin and bow maker in the early years of San Francisco. During his time there, he made frequent trips to New York and even Europe – a huge and expensive undertaking at the time. In 1885 he returned from a trip to Europe, during which he undoubtedly worked with his Parisian violin-maker and archetypal contacts. He stayed in San Francisco for eleven years and returned to New York with his second wife and younger children in 1888. He died there in 1898.

Pierre Aloysius had two sons from his first wife who stayed in the Bay Area, where they took root. John was a noted violinist and founding member of the San Francisco Symphony in 1911. His other son, James Arnold Josephs, born 1859 in Elwood, Kansas, learned violin and bow making from his father. They worked together in San Francisco until he took over the shop when his father returned to New York in 1888.

In 1898, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, James had “earned a reputation as a maker of fine violin bows”. This was an important achievement. From 1877 onwards, James made violins and bows and was associated with his celebrated father. James did not advertise his business. Customers knew him through word of mouth, the quality of his work, and repairs, which enabled him to stay in business for decades. His reputation was certainly bolstered by that of his violinist brother John.

Josephs continued to work on Kearny Street in San Francisco from 1877 to 1902 when he moved his residence and workshop across the bay to Alameda and later to Oakland. A reliable presence in the stringing world of East Bay, James worked there with a brief respite from around 1930 until his death in 1943 at the age of 84.

Photo: John Birkard

Although Pierre Aloysius is known to have made bows in San Francisco, none have yet been found. This sheet, which was created after moving to New York, shows the clear influence of the Voirin School. The head is elegant, almost delicate, with a long nose. The bevel is crisp and clean. The frog is well proportioned. The collar of the button goes perfectly with the stick, although the rest of the button is slightly larger than the end of the stick.

Photo: John Birkard

Stylistically, this bow is not as elegant as the other, but Joseph’s perfectionism comes into its own. Also made after moving to New York, this bow has a short nose in relation to the head. The bevel is quite clean. Since he was not a full-time bow maker like his mentors in France, he had the freedom to experiment with different head shapes and different woodcuts – in this case pernambuco cut on the plate. Interestingly, he stamped his name upside down on this ribbon.

Photo: Courtesy of Joseph’s family

This arch shows that James Josephs was a good maker with an eccentric sense of style. The head is box-shaped, reminiscent of Thomas Tubbs, although the curvature of the head is deeply concave. James probably didn’t stamp many of his bows.

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