Description
Jean-Baptiste Villaume (1798 – 1875) was a renowned and prolific maker of fine violins as well as a successful dealer, connoisseur and inventor. His workshop in Paris employed and trained some of the finest 19th-century violin and bow makers, including Maucotel, Silvestre, Derazey, the Peccatte brothers, Persoit, Fonclause, Simon and Voirin. Born in the violin making city of Mirecourt, Vuillaume moved to Paris in 1818 and apprenticed with Chanot before establishing his own workshop, where he began by imitating the work of Lupot. However, Vuillaume quickly gained skill as a copyist of older instruments, particularly those of Stradivari and Guarneri ‘del Gesù’, which coalesced with an early interest in violin dealing. Among Vuillaume’s more interesting inventions are the giant three-stringed octobass and the self-rehairing bow.
This violin is a Guarneri Del Gesu copy in a beautiful state of preservation and is one of the finest examples of Vuillaume’s late work.
