Super Siblings: The other Vuillaume

by Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins
 and Joe Peterson

Nicolas Francois Vuillaume

With all of the news about Olympic super-siblings lately (there's 15 competing in Sochi 2014), we thought it would be interesting to take a look at Nicolas Francois Vuillaume, the younger brother of luthier, bow maker and dealer extraordinaire Jean Baptiste Vuillaume.

While searching for an instrument of the highest quality for the lowest amount of money, we rarely think to check out the siblings of the great makers. For instance, we all know about the maker who worked with Paganini and Sarasate, Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, "the French Stradivarius," but how many of us have heard about his brother Nicholas Francois?

The Lipinski Stradivarius Violin- A Devil of an Instrument

By Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins
and Violinist Joe Peterson

Let's say you're a great violinist in the early 1700s. The repertoire is getting old and is really holding you back (typical). So what do you do to make a huge leap in musicality? You could jot some notes down as you're noodling around on your fiddle or.... you could go to sleep and wait for the Devil to come visit you.