Page 43 - The Strad (February 2020)
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VUILLAUME’S EARLY YEARS
Number 39 may be one
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particularly well carved, with a very pronounced
atness to the ating from that year, violin number 39 is one of the rst
front. e chamfers are rather irregular and not blackened. made under the Lété & Vuillaume banner. is very
e violin’s interior is very classical for Vuillaume D interesting violin is, to my knowledge, one of the rst
instruments of this time. e spruce blocks are very wide and instruments to have been antiqued, with patina on the varnish,
rounded, with the linings, also of spruce, embedded in the blackening to the top, and so on. Once again it is based on
corner-blocks. One small detail rare enough to note is the a Stradivari model (the rst known based on a ‘del Gesù’ dates
presence of plane marks on the ribs. e standard label (another from 1828). e top and back are both in one piece. e
elongated octagon) is handwritten, mentioning the address and developments here can be seen mainly in the varnish and the
the date and number of the instrument. techniques used for the antiquing – for example, the use of
is copy sees the return of the small pencilled signature walnut husks to blacken parts of the pur
ing, volute, and the
(unlike that of number 8, which was signed in ink). Vuillaume part of the top between ngerboard and bridge. is
gives us the precise date of writing: 7 June 1824 (a month to the ‘moustache’ was to become a distinctive attribute of
day after the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth in Vienna!). At this Vuillaume’s antiqued instruments throughout his career; he
time Vuillaume was still working alone in Lété’s atelier, but as of would later change the composition to make it more authentic-
August he would be joined by his brother Nicolas François, who looking. e wear pattern on the back is still too symmetrical
later founded a studio in Brussels. From this point on, therefore, and, dare I say, naive – an obvious sign that Vuillaume was still
the annual number of instruments increased signicantly. learning the antiquing process.
e death of Nicolas Lupot at the end of August 1824 marked e volute is carved in a very classic way (the
attening of
the start of great upheaval in Parisian violin making. Lété did not the front hardly appears any more), and the volute has also
take long to turn the tragic circumstance to his advantage. For
some time Lété had dedicated himself to making organs and
keyboards, a business that he (correctly) considered so promising
that he thought of enlarging his workshop. e Lupot shop at 30 THE WEAR PATTERN ON THE
rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs now stood vacant, so Lété decided to BACK IS TOO SYMMETRICAL,
install Vuillaume there. is was completed at the start of 1825.
e young luthier now had his own workshop – and what a A SIGN THAT VUILLAUME
workshop! – while continuing to work for Lété. Did Lété oer WAS STILL LEARNING THE
Vuillaume such attractive premises in order to keep this promising
young maker working alongside him? Whatever the motivation, ANTIQUING PROCESS
the two men actually became business partners 18 months later,
in June 1826. e company was now called Lété & Vuillaume.
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