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Scan 174
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 160. See the scan on archive.org.
1Charles Simonin, a pupil of Vuillaume, was born in Mirecourt. He became one of Vuillaume's best men. In 1841 he went to Geneva, where he remained eight years. He afterwards (1849) settled in Toulouse, and obtained from various exhibitions several marks of distinction for good work. About the same period, or a little later, other makers in France distinguished themselves at similar shows, notably, Lapaix of Lille, Grandson Fils of Mirecourt, and Derazey of the same place. This last is the maker who purchased from the widow of Joseph Nicolas the business of that maker as well as his and his father's business brands. The family of Vuillaume, to be referred to presently, also came originally from Mirecourt, and it will thus be seen that this town, bearing a somewhat evil reputation in the matter of fiddles, can claim a good many superior makers as her sons. The manufacture of market violins in France is almost entirely concentrated in Mirecourt, Lunéville and the adjoining district, the pine for the upper tables being found in great abundance in the neighbouring forests. When small country makers have about a dozen instruments finished, one of the members of the family takes them into these towns and hawks them about, in much the same manner as chair-frames and cabinet goods are sold by the outside makers from the Hackney district to the large establishments in the vicinity of the Curtain and City Roads in London. There are, of course, also makers in Mirecourt on a grand scale, who manufacture high-priced instruments. In the Paris Exhibition of 1878 there were shown violins of which the wholesale price was 3s. 11 1/2d., and upon one of these a grand solo was
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