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Scan 178
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 164. See the scan on archive.org.
1François Chanot, before mentioned, engaged him to work at the manufacture of the new-shaped violin, for which that maker had just obtained a patent, and Vuillaume went to Paris in 1818, remaining about two years in Chanot's shop, which he left in 1821 to become a workman with one Lété, who kept a lace shop, a violin shop, and who was also an organ builder. Vuillaume, in 1825, became a partner in the violin business, which was carried on in the Rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs, under the firm of Lété and Vuillaume. In 1828 he parted from Lété and continued the business alone. Previous to this he had married a Mlle. Guesnet, a lady of great intelligence, whose wise counsels and encouragement are said to have contributed in a great degree to the success of her husband. He remained at Paris for about thirty-five years, and, in 1860, removed to a property which he had acquired at Ternes, establishing his workshop there, where he died. When he began business, at the age of twenty-nine, on his own account, he was already possessed of marvellous ability, but his new violins, to the manufacture of which he gave all the care he was capable of, sold slowly, and at low prices. The rage for Italian instruments swept aside the demand for all others—nothing would satisfy the world of amateurs and connoisseurs but an Amati, a Stradivari, or a Guarnerius. In the words of his biographer, Vuillaume set to work, and, after a series of experiments, he offered, one day, for £12, a magnificent violin, by Stradivari, and signed by the great master. Vuillaume is said to have been an honest man in the fullest acceptation of the term, and, to the unsophisticated, this statement will seem
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