Page 36 - The Strad (February 2020)
P. 36
VUILLAUME’S EARLY YEARS
For such an early
work, violin number 2
displays a high degree
3( $8!đ91!29,-6
uillaume numbered all his instruments from 1823 onwards
– a total of more than 3,000 – and the fabulous violin
V shown here is number 2. It is based on a Stradivari model
and both the top and back plates are from one piece of wood, an
almost universal characteristic of Vuillaume’s very rst years. It can
be interpreted as a remnant of the Mirecourt tradition: not having
to join two pieces together saves a lot of time. e puring consists
of two strips of ebony (stained ‘black’ appears only much later
in Vuillaume’s production) and the maple ‘white’ is placed
impeccably. In the corners, the bee-stings are tilted downwards
in the old-fashioned ‘crow’s beak’ style.
e archings are rather low and somewhat free at the edges.
e shoulders do not have the squarish prole that was commonly to stand out here from ‘Lupot school’ makers. e rst hints of
seen in Parisian instruments of the time (particularly those of an individual style are already there.
Lupot and Gand). e head is shaped with a slight atness to the e interior is also quite typical of Vuillaume’s instruments
front, a recurring detail in Vuillaume’s work until the beginning of in the 1820s: blocks and linings are made of very dense spruce.
the 1830s: each turn is not perfectly rounded but all are linked up, e top- and bottom-blocks are very wide, another vestige of the
so as to lead the eye around the volute and give an impression of Mirecourt tradition. As can be seen in the photo, the linings are
speed. Vuillaume’s ability to add ‘movement’ to the volutes is xed into the corner-blocks in a very specic way: not embedded
particularly interesting; it is an eect occasionally seen in some into the corner as one might expect, but partially covering the block
Cremonese luthiers, including Stradivari. Vuillaume has not yet as well. It is dicult to account for this unusual method – would it
fully mastered this eect here, but already the young luthier seems be a legacy of his work making violin-guitars (which had no built-in
linings)? I have come across this detail on two other Vuillaume
violins: another one of 1823 and an undated violin that was
Unusually, the linings of number 2 are glued over probably made the same year. However, this detail vanishes
the corner-blocks rather than inserted into them
completely before the end of 1823 – it does not, for instance,
appear on violin number 8 (see right).
e instrument has its original label, one of the very rst in
Vuillaume’s own hand. It reads: ‘J.B. Vuillaume N° 2 / chez N.A.
Lété rue Pavée St. Sauveur n°20. / à Paris. 1823’. e four corners
are cut at an angle, making the label an elongated octagon. is
shape continues on all Vuillaume’s instrument labels (including
those from after he set up on his own), right up to the appearance
36 THE STRAD FEBRUARY 2020 www.thestrad.com
