Francois Chanot

Type	Details	Sold	Price
Violin		May 2014	£1,250
Violin		May 2014	£1,250
Cello	1818 c.	November 2000	£2,990
Viola	38.0 cm 1818 c.	November 2000	£997
Violin	1819 c.	March 1990	£1,045

John Dilworth

CHANOT, François Born 1788 Mirecourt, died 1825 Rochefort France. A gifted mathematician and scientist, his violin making activities were subservient to his career as a naval engineer. He trained with his father Joseph in Mirecourt, and, during an absence from the navy in 1816-1818 caused by an injury, designed a simplified and acoustically improved form of cornerless violin. Found to be tonally satisfactory, development continued after he rejoined the navy in 1818. Manufacture was passed to the company of Lété in Mirecourt, for whom J. B. Vuillaume was hired to assist with the work. Although probably the best thought-out of many alternative patent designs for the violin throughout modern history, the François Chanot violin has not stood the test of time. Chanot 1818 / rue St Honoré, Passage des Maures / Paris C.I.D. No. 268

Cecie Stainer

Son of a musical instrument maker in Mirecourt, b. 1787. Mirecourt; d. 1828, Rochefort. After being in the Ecole polytechnique, he entered the French navy as engineer; being retired on half-pay owing to some satirically-written political verses, he went back to Mirecourt, and in the workshops of his father came to the conclusion that violins might be constructed on more scientific principles. He made one, only slightly arched, with the sound-holes nearly straight, and the sides less curved in, more like the sides of a guitar, the idea being to keep the wood-fibres as long as possible, as being better for vibration. A violin of this pattern was submitted to the Academie des Beaux-Arts and the Academic des Sciences in 1817 ; after three trials it was favourably judged, the tone being of superior quality. He was awarded a silver medal in 1819. Unfortunately, violins on this model are now of poor quality ; the tone, though excellent when they are first made, does not last.
In 1824, he was recalled to active service and was shortly afterwards promoted to the higher grade of an engineer of the first class. The letters C.I.D. on his label are the initials of his title, ” Capitaine, Ingenieur, Deuxieme classe.”
A violin which he made in 1818 for Viotti and a violoncello are in the Paris Conservatoire collection.

Willibald Leo Lütgendorff

Zettel mit den Versen:
»À mes essais daigne sourire!
Fais résonner ce nouveau violon:
Et l‘on dira que d’Apollon
J’ai retrouvé l’armonieuse lyre.«

Auction price history

£2,990

Biographies

John Dilworth

Cecie Stainer

Willibald Leo Lütgendorff

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