Vuillaume moved to Paris in 1818 to work for François Chanot. In 1821, he joined the workshop of Simon Lété, François-Louis Pique's son-in-law, at Rue Pavée St. Sauveur. His first labels are dated 1823. Lété and Vuillaume became partners and in 1825 settled in the
Rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs under the name of "Lété et Vuillaume". In 1827, at the height of the
Neo-Gothic period, he started to make imitations of old instruments, some of which were identical to the originals. In 1827, Vuillaume won a silver medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition. The following year, he started his own business at 46 Rue Croix des Petits-Champs. His workshop became the most important in Paris and within twenty years, it led Europe. He won various gold medals in the competitions of the Paris Universal Exhibitions in 1839, 1844, and 1855. In 1851, he won the Council Medal in London was awarded the
Legion of Honour. In 1858, in order to avoid Paris customs duty on wood imports, he moved to Rue Pierre Demours near the Ternes, outside the city. A maker of more than 3,000 instruments—almost all of which are numbered—and a fine tradesman, Vuillaume was also a gifted inventor, as his research in collaboration with the acoustics expert
Félix Savart demonstrates. He developed many new instruments and mechanisms, most notably a large
viola which he called a "contralto", and the three-string
Octobass (1849–51), a huge triple bass standing 3.48 metres high. He also created the hollow steel bow (particularly appreciated by
Charles de Bériot), and the 'self-rehairing' bow. For the latter, hair purchased in prepared hanks could be inserted by the player in the time it takes to change a string, and was tightened or loosened by a simple mechanism inside the
frog. The frog itself was fixed to the stick, and the balance of the bow thus remained constant when the hair stretched with use. He also designed a round-edged frog mounted to the butt by means of a recessed track, which he encouraged his bowmakers to use; other details of craft make it possible to identify the actual maker of many Vuillaume bows. The bows are stamped, often rather faintly, either "vuillaume à paris" or "j.b. vuillaume". Other innovations include the insertion of
Stanhopes in the eye of the frogs of his bows, a kind of mute (the '''') and several machines, including one for manufacturing gut strings of perfectly equal thickness. Many of the great bow makers of the 19th century collaborated with his workshop.
Jean Pierre Marie Persois,
Jean Adam,
Dominique Peccatte, Nicolas Rémy Maire,
François Peccatte,
Nicolas Maline, Joseph Henry,
Pierre Simon,
François Nicolas Voirin,
Charles Peccatte, Charles Claude Husson, Joseph Fonclause,
Jean Joseph Martin, and Prosper Colas are among the most celebrated. Vuillaume was an innovative violin maker and restorer, and a tradesman who traveled Europe in search of instruments. Most instruments by the great Italian violin makers passed through his workshop, where Vuillaume took accurate measurements of their dimensions and made copies of them. He drew his inspiration from two violin makers and their instruments:
Antonio Stradivari and his
"Le Messie" (Messiah), and
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù and his "
Il Cannone" which belonged to
Niccolò Paganini; others such as
Maggini,
Da Salò and
Nicola Amati were also imitated, but to a lesser extent. Vuillaume made numerous copies of his favorite violin "Le Messie", the more noteworthy among them being: When making these copies, Vuillaume always remained faithful to the essential qualities of the instruments he imitated – their thickness, the choice of the woods, and the shape of the arching. The only differences, always the result of a personal decision, were the colour of the varnish, the height of the ribs or the length of the instruments. His most beautiful violins were often named after the people who owned them (Caraman de Chimay, Cheremetoff, Doria) Vuillaume occasionally named his instruments: twelve were named after birds, for example the "Golden Pheasant", "The Thrush" and twelve were named after the apostles such as "St. Joseph" and "Saint Paul". A few others were also named after important biblical characters "The Evangelists" and Millant, in his book on Vuillaume, mentions a "St. Nicholas". The ‘St Nicolas’ was made in 1872 as one of his Apostles series. In a letter from September 11 1872, Vuillaume wrote to Nikolai Haller (Nicolas de Haller): ‘I have received your good letter of the 23rd, which tells me of the preference you have for Stradivarius. So I have therefore finished the instrument, over which I have taken great care, especially for you. As for the few extraordinary instruments I have made, I have given them names in order to distinguish each one. The one intended for you is the St Nicolas. I hope it will have an effect upon your music lovers. I don’t think I have made a better or more complete one. The wood, the work and varnish are all splendid. As for the tone, you will judge for yourself. I hope it will give you as much pleasure in receiving it as I have had in offering it to you. I think it will not suffer in comparison to your magnificent instruments of the great masters!’ The letter is addressed to ‘Nicolas de Haller’, the ‘de’ prefix being used to honour the Russian’s noble lineage. The ‘St Nicolas’ is labelled: ‘Jean Baptiste Vuillaume a Paris,3 rue Demours Ternes, JBV’. Inscribed on the label are the words Dédié a M. Nicolas de Haller, 1872. Vuillaume even included a very special note along with his signature on the upper back: Exprès pour M. Nicolas de Haller 1872 (made especially for Mr. de Haller 1872). The instrument was gifted to Nikolai Haller by Vuillaume as a thank you gesture for purchasing a big collection of rare string instruments (which included the Bass of Spain by
Antonio Stradivari). A rare violin by Vuillaume (c. 1874, Paris) showcases inlaid ebony
fleur-de-lys designs and is one of the last instruments to come out of Vuillaume's workshop, made a year before his death. Crafted for the famous violin dealer
David Laurie, "Label reads: Jean Baptiste Vuillaume a Paris, 3 Rue Demour-Ternes, expres pour mon ami David Laurie, 1874", numbered 2976 and signed on the label. It's a copy of a
Nicolò Amati violin originally belonging to Prince
Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov (junior) (a Russian aristocrat and pupil of
Henri Vieuxtemps). Only six copies were made. He also had practice violins, known as "
St. Cécile violins", made by his brother Nicolas de Mirecourt. Another lesser line, also made by Nicolas, was labelled "
Stentor". His main contribution to violin-making was his work on
varnish. The
purfling's joints are often cut on the straight and not on the bias as was traditional, in the middle in the pin. His brand is burnt at a length of 1 cm. There is generally a black dot on the joint of the top under the bridge. He used an external mould. The stop is generally 193 mm long. In this respect he follows to the French 18th-century tradition of a short stop (190 mm), which was traditionally 195 mm long in Italy and even 200 mm long in Germany. The violin's serial number is inscribed in the middle inside the instrument. Its date (only the last two figures) in the upper paraph on the back. His violins of the first period have large edges and his brand was then burnt inside the middle bouts. The varnish varied from orange-red to red. After 1860, his varnish became lighter. In addition to the above-mentioned bow makers, most 19th-century Parisian violin makers worked in his workshop, including Hippolyte Silvestre, Jean-Joseph Honoré Derazey,
Charles Buthod, Charles-Adolphe Maucotel,
Télesphore Barbé,
Paul Bailly and
George Gemünder.
Nestor Audinot, a pupil of Sébastien Vuillaume, himself Jean-Baptiste's nephew, succeeded him in his workshop in 1875. Vuillaume died at the height of his career, widely regarded as the pre-eminent
luthier of his day. ==World-record price==