June 2012

Vuillaume... In 1814?

June 18, 2012 21:40

Dear friends from violinist.com,

My name is Henrique, and I'm writing from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I've been dealing with a situation over here for some weeks now and I feel that I need some kind of guidance from my fellow violinists.

Well, my teacher (who, by the way, is a dear friend and great musical peer) offered to sell one of his violins, from his very personal collection. The instrument is said to be a Vuillaume, made obviously in Paris, France. I fell in love with the instrument the moment I set my eyes on it. The tone is amazing and it feels really comfortable to play it. However, as I made a true effort to read the tag, I could see that it "dates" back to 1814.

Now, as far as I know, Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume started to truly make violins around the 1820's. I believe that in 1814 he wasn't even in Paris, what makes this instrument here a mere copy, right?

I would like to know what kind of documents I could expect from my teacher proving the instrument's origin. Are there any certificates I could ask to see?

I know that during Vuillaume's high time many other luthiers adopted his name, but all the copies I could see on the web had no dates on their tags, so why would this specific copy carry the weird date of 1814?

Please let me know what you think I kinda need to figer out how to go about the whole thing.
;-)

Thanks,

Rique

7 replies