After his initial training and early work in Mirecourt, François Nicolas Voirin moved to Paris in 1855 to join his cousin Jean Baptiste Vuillaume. His work in the Vuillaume workshop gave him access to distinguished bow makers of the Peccatte school, but Voirin was inspired largely by the work of Pierre Simon and of Vuillaume himself. Most of the firm’s “picture” bows of this period, which feature an eye with a tiny lens microfilm of Vuillaume, are by Voirin.
フランソワ・ニコラス・ボワランは、ミルクールでの最初の訓練と初期の仕事の後、1855年にパリに移り、いとこのジャン・バプティスト・ヴィヨームに加わりました。 ヴィヨームの工房での彼の作品は、ペカット派の著名な弓職人へのアクセスを彼に与えましたが、ボワランは主にピエール・シモンとヴィヨーム自身の作品に触発されました。 ヴィヨームの小さなレンズのマイクロフィルムを備えた目を特徴とする、この時代の会社の「絵」の弓のほとんどは、ボワランによるものです。
In 1870 Voirin set up his own workshop and gradually his model began to change. Frogs continue to be in the style of Vuillaume, but heads are increasingly thin and refined for the rest of his career, which is an unusual transition for a bowmaker. In fact, Voirin’s stylistic evolution is a fitting narrative for the prevailing transition between the square and powerful Peccatte school and more delicate Vuillaume school in the latter half of the 19th century.
1870年にボワランは彼自身のワークショップを設立し、徐々に彼のモデルは変化し始めました。 カエルは引き続きヴィヨームのスタイルを保っていますが、彼のキャリアの残りの期間、頭はますます薄く洗練されています。これは弓職人にとっては珍しい移行です。 実際、ボワランの文体の進化は、19世紀後半の正方形で強力なペカット学校とより繊細なヴィヨーム学校の間の一般的な移行にふさわしい物語です。
In 1872 he hired Louis Thomassin to assist him and Joseph Lamy ‘père’ joined the shop four years later. Both worked alongside Voirin until his death in 1885. His bows, which he declined to sell to other firms with the exception of a few to Chanot, are stamped, “F.N. Voirin à Paris.” They are among the best and most important in the history of the trade.
1872年に彼はルイス・トマシンを雇って彼を助け、ジョセフ・ラミーの「ペール」は4年後に店に加わりました。 どちらも1885年に亡くなるまで、ヴォイリンと一緒に働いていました。シャノットへの少数を除いて他の会社への販売を拒否した彼の弓には、「F.N。ヴォイリンàパリ」と刻印されています。 それらは、貿易の歴史の中で最高かつ最も重要なものの1つです。
F.N. ボアラン ( 1833 – 1885 )
VOIRIN, FRANCOIS NICOLAS
Born at Mirecourt, 1833. Trained in workshops there. Went to Paris, 1855 and worked fifteen years for Vuillaume, and during that period, made all the fine bows bearing the violin maker’s name. Won silver and gold medals at the Paris and Antwerp Exhibitions. Established own workshop in the Rue-du-Bouloi, 1870. Worked indefatigably until stricken down with apoplexy whilst taking a bow to a patron, 1885. He had the elevated and inspired theme of emulating Tourte, in refined workmanship and elegance, but made a new departure by making the heads less square and reducing the weight. These delicately worked heads have a marked thinning of the two faces, and to preserve balance, he reduced the diameter of the lower end of stick, which is sometimes actually smaller than the accompanying tip. Sometimes he exaggerated this head tenuity, arrived at too light a weight, which brought weakness after a few months’ playing. However, his finest specimens (just the thing for virtuosi) though refreshingly light, have wondrous heads affording equal wondrous elasticity of sticks. Works of art, decoratively and technically. Stamped: “F. N. Voirin à Paris”, sometimes “F. N. Voirin”, and to this (on bows made for the Paris Exhibition), was added “Exposition, 1878”. Hundreds of imitations stamped “Voirin” have come from French and German factories. £30, 1960.