Silvestre & Maucotel violin #691, Paris, 1910, Boyer certificate | Metzler Violins

brilliant, spirited, supple

About the Instrument
This violin has a fine tonal quality and responsive brilliancy. It has a rich reddish-brown varnish of Italian suppleness, plentifully applied so as to bring out the brilliant flames on its two-piece back, ribs, and scroll. Every detail splendidly wrought, and its scroll has blackened chamfers. This violin is in excellent condition.

Interior label reads: “Silvestre et Maucotel / Paris 1910 № 691”
Length: 356 mm
Upper Bouts: 167 mm
Middle: 111 mm
Lower Bouts: 205 mm

About the Makers
This violin is from the workshop of Silvestre & Maucotel, which was established in 1900 by the luthiers Hippolyte Silvestre and Ernest Maucotel. Hippolyte Chrétien Silvestre (1845-1913) was born in Sommerviller and apprenticed at Mirecourt in Vosges. He became a pupil of his brother Pierre and Hippolyte in Lyons, succeeding control of workshop at the age of 20 in 1865. Almost two decades later, Silvestre moved to Paris to set up his shop, trading under the name of “Silvestre Neveu.” In 1891, he invited Ernest Maucotel to be his partner. During his working life, Silvestre earned exhibition medals at Vienna and Paris for his instruments and was a master craftsman in his modelling of the Stradivarius and Guarnerius.

Ernest Maucotel (1867-1960) was born in Vosges and apprenticed with the luthier Paul Bailly until he moved to Moscow to work under his uncle E.A. Salzard before joining Silvestre in Paris. After the death of his associate in 1913, Maucotel invited the distinguished Paul Deschamp to become a partner, the workshop becoming Maucotel & Deschamps.

While Silvestre is considered one of the great luthiers of the French school, instruments from the Silvestre & Maucotel shop often draw from the Italian School instrument makers, notably its Venetian masters Domenico Montagnana, Sanctus Seraphin, and Matteo Gofriller.