Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume

Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (7 Oct 1798—19 Mar 1875) was a French luthier, archetier, maker of stringed instruments and bows, dealer and restorer of antique violins, inventor, and renowned entrepreneur. His best-known works are innumerate replicas of Antonio Stradivari's 1716 'Le Messie' and Del Gesù's 1743 'Il Cannone' violins—some praised and valued significantly above most XVII-century instruments. Vuillaume's workshop in Paris, which employed some of the greatest luthiers and bow-makers of the time, made over 3,000 instruments. J-B Vuillaume was born in Mirecourt and move to Paris around 1818, studying luthiery as an apprentice of François Chanot (1788—1825). In 1821, Vuillaume joined Nicolas Antoine Leté's workshop, eventually becoming his partner. They opened the iconic 'Lété et Vuillaume' atelier together circa 1825. As Neo-Gothic grew in fashion, Jean-Baptiste began to gain a reputation for appraising, restoring, and trading XVII-century Italian violins. Vuillaume traveled extensively across Europe in search of old instruments—before reselling, he'd always take accurate measurements and meticulously study each violin. Vuillaume excelled in scaling his operation by employing numerous renowned luthiers and archetiers: Charles Adolphe Maucotel, Hippolyte Silvestre, Honoré Derazey, brothers François and Dominique Peccatte, François Nicolas Voirin, etc. Most of Vuillaume's instruments are carefully labeled Jean Baptiste Vuillaume á Paris, stamped, signed, and with a serial number. In 1855, Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume arguably made his best-ever investment and purchased the remaining Luigio Tarisio's stock of 144 instruments for 80,000 francs (roughly $870,000 in today's value) from the Italian dealer's heirs. Among them were dozens of priceless Stradivarius—including the 1716 'Messiah'—plus many Guarnerius, Magginis, Da Salò's and Nicolo Amati's violins, etc. Additionally, Niccolò Paganini always took his cherished "Il Cannone del Gesu" to Vuillaume's shop for servicing (which Jean-Baptiste, naturally, also copied). He managed to build such an impeccable replica that even Paganini couldn't tell the difference (without briefly playing both violins) in a side-by-side comparison! As an inventor and innovator, Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume had an odd fascination with gigantic instruments. He designed a large viola, named "contralto", and built an iconic three-string Octobass (c.1850), measuring 3.48 meters in height. Vuillaume also introduced some bow-making innovations, such as a "self-rehairing" frog.