French Violins: The Three Wise Men

Among the most sought-after old violins are those from French craftsmen. Some of the more famous French luthiers are J.B. Vuillaume, Nicolas Lupet and Charles Francois Gand. Let's have a look at the lives of these three luthiers and the methods they used in their work.

J.B. Vuillame was born in Mirecourt in 1798. He worked with Francois Chanot and also had an association with Pique. Vuillaume soon found that old violins were favored over new ones. Thus, he produced a wonderful copy of a Stradivari violin with its worn appearance and even replicated it down to exact copies of Stradivari labels. Moreover, his copies were varnished with a varnish very similar in color and texture to Stradivarius violins. To further enhance the illusion, Vuillaume traveled throughout Tyrol and Silesia in search of old wood and old furniture of any kind. To this day, some feel the famous "Messiah Strad" that traditionally has been attributed to Antonio Stradivari is actually, truth be known, one of Vuillaume's copies, pointing out the above as well as well as other evidence including the fact that some of its characteristics are more notably of the French than Italian styles. The mysterious violin's true identity remains one of the violin world's most intriguing and controversial enigmas to this day.

Nicolas Lupot was born in 1758 and was called the "French Stradivarius". Lupot established a workshop in Paris in 1798. He was appointed violin maker to the King in 1815 and to the Conservatoire de Paris in 1816. His French violins imitated Stradivari more minutely than anybody else had or ever has done to date. Lupot died in 1824.

1802 marks the year when Charles Francoise Gand became an apprentice of Nicolas Lupot in Paris, France. Lupot's violins are works of art, known world-wide for his artistry in the instruments' flamed wood backs, and his uniquely brilliant and textured finishes. Lupot was uniquely not only a violin craftsman and artisan, but was also known as a good player of the instrument.