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Scan 176
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 162. See the scan on archive.org.
1to doubt—should, perhaps, hardly be instanced as an exception. He had the natural reward of this wise course in the just appreciation and implicit confidence of all true connoisseurs. A curious testimony to his enthusiastic devotion to his art exists in the following peculiar dedication to him of Paolo Lombardini's little brochure: "These trifling notices are dedicated to you, excellent maker of bow instruments, Mr. Vuillaume, of Paris, who, admiring the genius of Antonio Stradivari, the perfector of your art, have raised to him a worthy monument in collecting and publishing important memorials regarding the works of the sublime master, and to you, Doctor Cesare Stradivari, illustrious accoucheur, who to-day sustain the dignity of the house, having also the blessings of the 1000 families for whom, with secure judgment, you saved the precious days of adored mothers while facilitating the opening of the gate of life to their beloved children." This singular mixture of violin making and obstetrics does not, at first sight, appear quite congruous, but I suppose it was thought necessary to connect, in some way, the celebrity of a modern Stradivari with the genius of his distinguished ancestor.
3The first trace of a Vuillaume occurs in an instrument by Jean Vuillaume, a maker in Mirecourt. This violin displays very little ability, although it has been said that this Jean Vuillaume was a pupil of Stradivari. Fetis includes him among those privileged persons, and states that he produced violins from 1700 to 1740. A highly competent judge, who has seen his work, says that not only does its appearance prove that he never worked under the direction of that great man, but it
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