Scan 192
Critical & Documentary Dictionary of Violin Makers Old and Modern, 1928
10 lines. Read by computer on 5 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1VUILLAUME (Jean) — Mirecourt circa 1730. Heavy workmanship. No 291.
3VUILLAUME (Charles-François) — Mirecourt circa 1765. Of no great interest. Brown varnish.
5VUILLAUME (Claude-François) — Mirecourt 1772-1834. Son of Charles-François. His work is not out of the ordinary and the only thing we have to thank him for is that he had sons who were distinguished makers. One of them, Jean-Baptiste, has risen to the forefront. He usually branded his instruments which are also labelled : « Au Roi David », Paris.
7VUILLAUME (Nicolas-François) — Paris, Brussels. Son of Claude-François. See Belgian School.
9VUILLAUME (Jean-Baptiste) — Paris 1798-1875. Born at Mirecourt. Son and pupil of Claude Vuillaume. This master, one of those the French School is proud of, is on a par with Lupot, Gand père, Pique and Aldric, especially as regards the class of instruments he made when established in the rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs. At that particular period of his long career he made most of his best specimens without artifice, that is without subjecting the woods to any treatment in order to give them the aspect of old or untimely maturity, coating them all over with a full varnish uniformly applied. His imitations of Stradivarius and Guarnerius belong to the category of instruments called heated or tinted. To an extent there is an excuse for his procedure, since his aim was to reproduce as faithfully as possible the shade and patine of the ancient woods and varnishes. Such means are of course disastrous, as heated wood loses all its sound properties. This may have been exaggerated and the number of his instruments thus treated may be only a small proportion of his large production. If a choice is to be made, first class instruments can still be found amongst those manufactured in the rue Demours. These belong to his later period. For the afore mentioned reasons, the vogue of his instruments has been subjected to fluctuations. They now seem to be in greater demand and if the tone is not always satisfactory and lacks homogeneousness, the model and workmanship nevertheless
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