Pezon et Michel

[Mole-Patrol]

Pezon et Michel

This famous French company doesn't get mentioned much on here. The company has a rich and interesting past and I have pulled together some of the online resources and combined them to give a fair picture of the company's history.

The story began in 1860 in Amboise, Loire et Cher, where a company named Bogendre was created for the import and distribution of fishing equipment including lines and nets. Eventually this company would employ about twenty people and made or distributed rods and nets along with many accessories related to fishing. In 1895 Gustave Pezon, a draper from Bracieux in the Loir et Cher joined force with several other people and bought the Bogendre company. The company was then re-named in the surnames of all parties. They made lines, nets and some rods made from whole cane, Spanish Reed and varieties of wood.

Shortly afterwards, Gustave bought the shares of all his partners and became the sole owner of the company, which he then renamed: "G. Pezon". He developed the existing products and enlarged the premises to which he added the former convent of Noyraye.

At the time, the G. Pezon company imported and sold essentially yarn obtained from Florence, hooks from Reddich, bamboo from Japan, cane reed from Spain and the South of France. He also imported fly rods made by Milward. In 1905 the company moved to Rue de Tours in Amboise.
Gustave Pezon died prematurely at the age of 58 in 1913. The company is then taken over by his eldest son Pierre Pezon and his son-in-law Jean Michel. The company became Pezon and Michel.

During the First World War, the two partners were conscripted and the company was managed by Jeanne Pezon, Jean Michel’s wife and the daughter of Gustave Pezon. Following WW1, 1920, the Julio Rose company in Paris was bought by Pezon et Michel which also imported silk lines This gave the Amboisienne company a Parisian head office. In 1924 André Pezon joined his brother and his brother-in-law. The company Sellier et Robillard, which had its head office in Paris, at 25, Rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth, was also absorbed by Pezon et Michel and in 1926 Rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth became the headquarters of Pezon et Michel Paris, of which André Pezon was the first director. In 1929 the youngest brother, Jean Pezon, who was a milliner in Paris (one of his works was sold to Queen Victoria) in turn joined the company and took over the management of the company in Paris while André took on the sales director’s role in Amboise.

Very quickly, Jean Pezon felt the need for Pezon and Michel, to develop in the field of sport fishing (casting and fly) and encourageed his associates to acquire Ets. Garreau and Régnault de Mâcon who already manufactured split bamboo canes Mr. Edouard Plantet (former employee of the Garreau house) was appointed production manager and then took charge of the two branches in Dijon and Mâcon.

A first series of split bamboo canes were manufactured by the Dijon branch: Chéri 9' in two pieces, Midship 9', 9' 6", 10' & 11' all three pieces. Teddy 9', 9' 6”, 10’, 11' all in three pieces. Willy 11', three pieces. Weekend 9' in three pieces. In 1934, all the means of production were transferred to Amboise. Plantet and some workers moved from their old works in Dijon to Amboise.

At that time, non-tempered bamboo canes were made entirely by hand, resulting in a great variation from one cane to another for the same model. In 1936, P&M commissioned Ets. Huard in Amboise, to make a planer, in reality a milling machine, capable of grinding bamboo sections with an accuracy of up to 100th of a millimetre. It was an executive of Ets Huard, Mr. Henri Vandenheede who invented and developed this machine. A second machine, semi-automatic was made later.

Between 1935 and 1937, one of the partners, Jean Michel, during one of his trips to Redditch learned from one of the manufacturer of split bamboo, Sealey, that they cured bamboo in a baking oven. Back in Amboise, he had an electric oven made to cure the bamboo, which allowed precise control of the temperatures. At the beginning, the finished shrives were cured, but they found that they tended to twist so it was changed so that bamboo before machining was cured As this bamboo became very hard during the tempering processs, the planer cutters had to be modified. This was the first step towards the creation of a manufacturing process that will quickly become unique for its quality of production and its precision in terms of choice of raw materials.This technological innovation invested made it possible to produce the first series of parabolic fly rods and the series of new Luxor spinning rods in split bamboo from Pezon & Michel which were offered for sale along with Luxor reels.

Charles-César Ritz was born in France in 1891 from Swiss parents. His parents had left Switzerland owning no more than the clothes on their backs. They went on to found the famous Ritz hotel chain. In 1917, Charles Ritz was sent by his father to the Ritz Carlton in New York, where he remained until 1928, to do his apprenticeship in the hotel industry! He had become interested in fishing during his early twenties and on one occasion, he met Jim Payne, one of the most prestigious craftsmen on the East Coast of America who introduced him to “tapers” and how they affected the action of a rod. Ritz subsequently acquired a great technical experience of the relationship between tapers and the actions of a fishing rod and developed this into practical designs.

Back in France in 1928 he opened a shoe store in Paris on the Rue du Faubourg in Saint-Honoré. The shop was just a facade. Behind the luxurious cardboard boxes, you could hear sawing, filing, and the working of pieces of cane fishing rods. One of the models he designed would go on to be mass-produced by Jim Payne.

Among others, Ritz co-operated with the magazine "Au Bord de l'Eau" founded in April 1935 by Tony Burnand and Roger Pujo on whose advice he visited the Pezon and Michel workshop and met Pierre Pezon. He took some of the rods that he had produced and as a result Ritz became the official technical advisor of the company in 1937 and from that day left an indelible mark on the entire production.

At P&M Charles Ritz met Edouard Plantet who had learned his craft with Henri Garreau, the Dijon rod maker who’s company had been acquired by Pezon et Michel. Their collaboration was essential to the development of Pezon et Michel’s new rods. Very quickly Ritz devoted himself to the study and design of new rod profiles. The cooperation of Charles Ritz and Edouard Plantet lead to the creation of the first cane with parabolic action.

Soon after the Plantet / Ritz partnership were joined by Pierre Creusevault, a friend, who was an accountant at Gibbs (razor manufacturers) and well known as World Casting Champion with a fly rod. Creusevault also became a technical consultant at P&M. The cooperation of these three big names therefore quickly led to the creation of the "Parabolic" action which very quickly and totally outclassed the old and heavy fly rods of ‘English action’, and was even be preferred by many to American-made rods, known for their more modern casting action. The first prototype "Parabolic" rod was an eight-foot, two-part rod of normal action, This rod represented the official start of Pezon et Michel as a manufacturer of split bamboo fly rods.

It was in 1938 that the ‘Parabolic’ series began to be available on the market and would be increased year after year by new models. At the same time, the Garreau - Robillard artisanal production of hand-built fly rods came to an end; it was the end of an era, and `` industrial '' production, even if it was initially very limited. This change to mechanised production lead to an expansion of models offered.

During this period of the 20th century, fishing as a leisure activity grew rapidly all over the world and the Pezon et Michel rods acquired an excellent reputation. The company exported to many international markets including the United States.

The fixed-spool reel, invented in England, arrived in France in the 1930’s. Mepps brought out a model named the Vamp and another company produced a model named the Capta. They became popular amongst anglers who preferred to spin for perch, pike, trout and salmon. Pezon et Michel seized the opportunity to sell reels of this type and in 1935 introduced reels with the Luxor brand name which remained a favourite of many fishermen for over three decades.

Pezon et Michel did not however manufacture their own reels. They came to an agreement with Paul Mauborgne a well respected engineer and designer. He owned the rights to the designs of the reels and Pezon et Michel merely owned the rights to the Luxor trade name. The reels were shipped by Mauborgne’s manufacturers to Pezon et Michel’s factory to be boxed and distributed by them. These reels were manufactured in France under Mauborgne's supervision by Lemaignen, Lechevallier & Mercierf. This company had been formed in 1915 when Jeanne Lechevallier set up a workshop in the outbuildings of his house in Saint-Nicolas d'Aliermont. Initially he employed five workers making small parts for the watch making industry. The following year Robert Lemaignen, a Parisian engineer and friend of the family joined the company. Lemaignen was a very motivated and influential figure and drove the business forward including taking on new premises. In 1920 M. Mercier joins Jeanne Lechevallier and Robert Lemaignen. He brought reforms to tooling and developed new manufacturing techniques. The three partners formalize their association and create the general partnership "Lechevallier-Lemaignen-Mercier" ("LLM").

Lemaignen died in 1929, but the company continued as L.L.M. manufacturing clockwork machinery for the phonograph industry. In 1935 Paul Mauborgne contacted the company and asked them to make a fixed spool reel that he had designed and patented. Initially the company produced 10 prototypes. The reel was a success and they subsequently produced over 1,000 prior to WW2 breaking out. L.L.M continued to manufacture reels for Mauborgne and latterly the company set up by his heirs until the 1970’s. They also made soft drinks dispensing machines, but fell on hard times in the 1970’s and filed for bankruptcy in 1977.

The reels manufactured for Pezon et Michel had cast in raised letters on the housing the word "LuXor", the name "Pezon et Michel" and the legends "Licence P. Mauborgne" and "Made in France Brevete & G. D. G. You can also find the small stamp of “Aluvac” on some reels. Aluvac is a manufacturing process used in the casting of alloy components and the company insist on their stamp being placed on the components made using their process.

In the early 1940’s another legend began to collaborate with Pezon et Michel, Ernest Hemingway. With such ambassadors, the French brand grew in all foreign markets continued to benefit from the input and association with the famous anglers. Over the next few years the company collaborated with a number of the most successful competition anglers of the time who helped to establish its international reputation. Many of these fishermen were involved in casting tournaments and rods were designed specifically for this purpose as well as for fishing.

In 1946, just after the Second World War, Pezon et Michel employed 225 people. This rose to 300 at the peak of the brand in the early 1960s. As well as manufacturing cane rods Pezon et Michel also supplied cane culms to over 40 other countries during the West’s trade embargo with China when Tonkin cane could not be directly imported to almost forty countries including the UK and USA. Amongst the companies using Pezon et Michel bamboo during the period of the 60’s and 70’s were Hardy, Farlows and Orvis.

Like the English company Hardy Bros. Pezon et Michel knew the value of being recommended by famous anglers. One such angler was Frank Sawyer, a river keeper, writer and creator of flies including the legendary Sawyer’s Killer Bug that is still used all over the world. Sawyer was regarded as the Father of nymph fishing and Ritz made him a special rod. The Sawyer Nymph Parabolic 8’10 ” # 5/6 that was sold by them from 1957 until 1977. Ritz also made gifts of Parabolic rods to famous French fly-fishermen, some of which never made it into production. But, those anglers were keen to praise their rods verbally and in print and sales of new rods followed. Léonce de Boisset 1884 – 1968 started using the parabolic rods right from the beginning. He remained enchanted by them and wrote in his book; ‘L’Ombre Poisson Sportif’ (The Grayling as a Sporting Fish) “I have always used English rods for fly fishing, but the arrival of the new P&M Parabolic has been a revelation.”

Charles Ritz and his associates were never satisfied and the enthusiastic Ritz continued studying to improve his projects and to progress further. In 1949 a new series was created, more sophisticated than the Parabolic. It was the famous: Ritz Super Parabolic PPP. PPP means Puissance Pendulaire Progressive (Pendular Progressive Power). These initials are clearly the finish line of all the developments. This series is soon renowned worldwide and it constitutes the pinnacle of the production of the “magic” trio - Plantet - Ritz - Creusevault. The PPP series differs from the parabolic series for the research of a better equilibrium between length and power. This characteristic equilibrium is achieved by having two sections of a different length which brings the ferrule closer to the grip and this leads to a greater rapidity without compromising the precision at short distances. Used by expert casters, these rods, which are made with high quality materials and excellent finish, can reach great distances and at the same time maintain fluidity and precision even when casting a few meters ahead. All these rods are made with differentiated sections except the Baby Zephyr, Joachim du Bellay (feu Vermont Speciale), Sully Nymphe and Zephyr which are made in three pieces (some of them the third piece is a removable grip), in this way the rod breaks down to two “inverted” with the butt longer than the tip.

Paul Mauborgne, the designer of the Luxor reels died in 1963 and his widow who inherited the rights to the fishing reel’s design chose not to continue the relationship with Pezon et Michel. P. Mauborgne & Co. the company set up by the heirs instead used L.L.M. to produce the reels under a new name of ‘crAck’ (more often referred to as ‘Crack’). The Crack reels were identical in every way to the previous Luxor models and were also distributed worldwide. Pezon et Michel could no longer produce the reels as they had no rights to the design and law suits launched in France and the United States failed to stop P. Mauborgne & Co. from selling their Crack reels into the same markets that Pezon et Michel had sold their Luxor reels. Pezon et Michel had no choice but to launch new models that differed significantly from their previous ones. The new Luxor reels had angular boies and different internal components. The were numbered 1, 2, 3 and pitted against the 1000, 2000, 3000 model names of the Crack versions of the earlier Luxor reels. These later Luxor reels were not well received and sales dwindled in the face of increased competition from other manufacturers including of course: Mitchell.

In the 60s and then the 70s fibreglass and latterly carbon fibre rods were introduced and these overtook the sales of cane rods being cheaper to produce. Pezon et Michel initially refused to work with these new rods and gradually began to lose their market share. They belatedly started to produce fibreglass fly and spinning rods based on their famous Parabolic action and gained a lot of input in the design from top French fishermen. The rods became hugely popular in France but sales were weak abroad other than in England where Farlows stocked Pezon et Michel rods alongside cane rods built by Sharpes and J.J.S. Walker, Bampton & Co. the latter being the last major British manufacturer of hand built cane rods.

A reluctance to adopt to fibreglass as a rod making material and the dispute with Mauborgne’s heirs cost Pezon et Michel heavily. There were also rumours of the younger family members not being as diligent as the founders leading to problems with the work force and disharmony at the factory. The coup de grace came in 1975 when the heirs sold the company to the Italian hunting equipment brand Franchi. From there Pezon et Michel sunk in popularity and sales collapsed.

In 1999 the company Pezon et Michel closed its doors, victim of international competition and little inclined to renew itself in the field of fashionable fishing. Most of the bamboo culms at the factory were burnt by the demolition company who were unaware of its value. Several local people managed to salvage some of the cane and over the years made it available to anglers wanting to make their own rods. The name was bought and operations moved to St Brieuc in Brittany where a craftsman tried to keep these exceptional cane rods alive using some of the cane that he managed to salvage from the factoy. He ended up selling the company a few years later in 2003. It was bought by another French brand Sensas.

Pezon et Michel no longer manufactures split bamboo rods. Like Hardy Bros. Pezon et Michel, became just a famous name used by another company to brand products that have no history or connection to the old companies.


Acknowledgements;
https://peche-mouche-seche.com/pezon.htm
Bamboo Journal December 2019
www.splitcaneinfo.com

[Cat]

An excellent piece of research!

[Liphook]

Very interesting Clive Thank you for taking the time to collate all of that together

[Olly]

Excellent read Clive - - - having recently bought a 9ft c***on "quivertip" type jigging/lure rod for - quiver tipping for bream whilst in France in 2019. I will add it performed well on both counts - lures and feeders!

Their fly and spinning rods are well thought of but sometimes difficult to find.

[Mole-Patrol]

Excellent read Clive - - - having recently bought a 9ft c***on "quivertip" type jigging/lure rod for - quiver tipping for bream whilst in France in 2019. I will add it performed well on both counts - lures and feeders!

Their fly and spinning rods are well thought of but sometimes difficult to find.

There are a few Free-ad sites that regularly list P&M cane rods. However, they all seem to start at €250. Even the wrecked ones.

Coral Maestro picked a nice one up at a Vide Grenier a month or two back at a much more reasonable price. The fibreglass rods are very reasonably priced and many were made on Hardy blanks, typically the Hardy Jet blanks. I found a nice example of a 7 foot light lure rod described as a Telebolic for less than €25 inc. p&p

Regards the reels; like some other French brands they don't hang onto their paint for long. But the mechanical parts are usually sound. These two photos illustrate one of the later reels designed by Paul Mauborgne, the 'Relax'. It came out in the early 1960's around the time of his death and continued until 1967 in P&M guise. After that the exact same reel was marketed by Mauborgne's heirs as a Crack Relax.





The first design that Mauborgne produced for P&M was to my mind superior to the design of Carpano & Pons' fixed spool

[Olly]

Perhaps I should have added - "at a reasonable price!"

[Nigel Rainton]

I have been given a Pezon et Michel fly rod to refurbish. The cane is excellent. All my other cane fly rods are English and it will be interesting to compare the actions.

Excellent research. I would add that Pezon et Michel continued to produce fly rods during the occupation of France in WWII.

[Tench Dreamer]

Fascinating insight for sure. I would love to know more about the French side of what we would describe as course fishing- say from 1900 onwards to 1939 ...How they fished?

I remember once visiting France in about 1981 Paris and seeing anglers on the Sien, which as we know is a full on river at the capital ..using long poles in what seemed very tough conditions

Any pointers here friends...?

[Mole-Patrol]

It would be interesting to know how the P&M tapers compare to similar English and American rods Nigel.

Regards French coarse fishing in the pre-war years; it pretty much followed the same pattern from the 1800's up until relatively recently. Long poles, initially bamboo and Spanish Reed were used by most anglers. There is little history about anglers using running lines except for trout fishing and predator fishing. There were a few anglers fishing for carp using rods and reels, but this did not become popular until relatively recently and there were hardly any anglers targetting chub and barbel using ledger techniques. Roach were the favoured quarry along with bleak as the rules stipulated points to be awarded for each fish landed as well as the total weight. So a kilo of bleak would accumulate more points than two kilos of roach. And mostly; what they caught they later ate.

Up until the late 1960's, possibly later international match fishing rules only allowed anglers a certain amount of line to be contained on their reels. When it was England's turn to host the World Championship in 1966 they chose to fish a Broadland river at Martham Ferry where it was thought the larger roach and bream would give England a better chance of success against the Continental pole tactics. The French trounced England and the shock waves created a demand for English match fishermen to learn how to use what were termed 'Roach Poles'. Previous to that time poles were only popular in a few locations in the south of the country including the Thames and Lea where it was the most popular method.

After the English anglers mastered the pole they dominated international match fishing. But, paradoxically in the late 1990's there was a growing interest amongst French fishermen to learn the traditional English techniques; trotting and ledger fishing. Today 'Pêche Anglais' is used to describe waggler and stick float fishing as well as feeder fishing.

If you go into a large French tackle shop today you will still find an array of poles ranging from a few €'s to a few thousand €'s along with English style rods made by companies such as Sensas and Garbolino. These rods tend to be feeder rods with very few if any float rods. The ones found are mainly of English makers. At least 50% of the floor space will be taken up with carp tackle. The young French anglers are now obsessed with the type of carp fishing techniques that involve the 'Four 'B's': Bivvies, Bedchairs, Boilies and Bite Alarms. Fly-fishing is relatively small in the areas I visit, but lure fishing is still very popular.

[Banksy]

Thanks for that very interesting piece, Clive.

It has put some flesh on the bones of the pretty little Luxor reel which I was lucky enough to win at auction last year.
It is a joy to use, with a smooth clutch. A big bonus for me is that the bail arm can be opened and closed manually, which is not possible with most other reels of the period.

Here is my Luxor, is it possible to narrow down its approximate date of manufacture?





I would also like to thank Cat again for sending me the three little sideplate screws which finished this reel off perfectly!