Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1798-1875) was a French luthier, businessman, inventor and winner of many awards. His workshop made over 3,000 instruments. Born into a family of luthiers in Mirecourt, Vuillaume moved to Paris in 1818 to work for Francois Chanot. By 1828, Vuillaume started his own business. Employing and collaborating with some of the most gifted artisans of the time, Vuillaume's workshop became the most important in Paris, and within 20 years it was the leading shop in all of Europe.
Though Vuillaume was not a bow maker himself, 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, Pierre Simon, François Nicolas Voirin, Charles Peccatte, Charles Claude Husson, Joseph Fonclause, Jean Joseph Martin, and Prosper Colas are among the most celebrated. Most notable of his contributions are the round-edged design of his bow frogs and the recessed track to which the frog is mounted.
The D Z Strad Vuillaume violin bow is an elegant reproduction of the bows created in Vuillaume's celebrated workshop. Made of high grade, dense Pernambuco, the stick is fit with a lizard skin grip over silver lapping. The round-edged frog is made of premium Ebony and is fully silver lined. Featuring a mother-of-pearl dot inlay, the frog is mounted in traditional Vuillaume style in a recessed track. The resulting work is a bow that Vuillaume would have been proud to affix his name to, and is stamped "J.B. Vuillaume A Paris".
