Thread: Xavier Jaquet ?
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Old 07-27-2010, 02:23 PM
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Lightbulb Xavier Jacquet ?

Ok, after doing some research as well as having a few Jacquet's in my hands I have looked up enough information from various sources to report what I know.

The Family of makers of the main 4 Jacquet's of the 19th century does not have an Xavier Jacquet unless it's the 3rd generation towards and into the 20th century.

The Makers were;
Joseph Xavier Jacquet, aka Jacquet-Pillement, as he married Cecile Pillement (daughter of Pillement Pere' ?, I think) in 1837.
One of his labels is marked;

V.X. Jacquet
-Pillement-

and signed
Jacquet
Xavier


... as that's what the signature looks like to me. HE was the father of the other 3 makers and the first Luthier of the Family. I have seen 3 basses by him. One of them I own now. All 3 have the same shape, varnish, scroll and ffs as best one man can duplicate himself. They date from 1840-1850.

His eldest son was Gabriel Xavier, b.1838.

His next/middle son was just Gabriel, no Xavier in the name, b.1848. Gabriel married Marie J.S. Gand (daughter of the Gand family) in 1878 and was then known as Jacquet-Gand, using his wife's maiden name and NOT associated with the then Gand & Bernadel firm..

His 3rd son was Jean Claude Joseph, known just as Joseph G. b.1850 and again, no Xavier in his name either. He worked for a time with his brother Gabriel but then married Justine M. Barbezant and took over her brothers firm and became known as Jacquet-Barbezant. They supposedly made the French basses for Riverie-Hawkes in the 1880's until that firm dissolved in 1889 and became Hawkes & Son and then made mostly a Panormo model in Germany.

So, of the 4 makers, the wife's maiden name was used on 3 of them. lol

Now Gabriel Xavier's wife's sister married Luthier Paul Bailly so I guess you can say they were all chopping wood on both sides of all of the families.

More interesting genealogy is that Gabriel's daughters married into 'wood' as well. One daughter to Leon Mougenot, son of Georges of whom I have a Vuillaume model bass from and the other to Eugene Sartory the 'God' of Bass Bows, in my opinion.. In later sale advertisements we see a combined advert of Leon Mougenot - Jacquet-Gand as one.

Back on the Xavier Jacquet, The Father J.X. or V.X. as he called himself is known by one source as X-Jacquet and 'O'-Jacquet by another. One source has Gabriel Xavier as 'X'-Jacquet as well. Maybe being 10 years older the Gabriel, he used his fathers stamp after taking over the shop. Who knows?

So, 'X' marks the spot but WHAT spot? That is the question.. lol

Hey, they all made nice basses. If well restored and taken care of you can play them in a professional Orchestra. What more can you ask? Oh, play it on a Jazz gig. Forgot.. My Jacquet-Pillement here sounds good with the fingers and loud with the Bow as well. It's a doubler...
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