Romantic guitar by Alexis VILLAUMEmade in Troyes (France) circa 1835.
Table in spruce and soudhole edged with MOP and ebony checkerboard decoration..
Ebony pin-bridge terminated with foliage design.
Ebony fingerboard. Twelve frets + five on the table.
One piece back in bird eyes maple veneered on spruce.
Ribs in the same wood.
Neck and figure-of eight head veneered of ebony with six reversed ebony pegs.
Branded on the upper back:
VILLAUME A TROYES
Total Length: 936 mm.
Scale: 638 mm.
Length of the body : 442 mm
Alexis VILLAUME was born in Mirecourt on October 30, 1766.
Apprentice in his hometown he will join Claude GIRON in 1783 in Claude AUBERT's workshop in Troyes.
At the end of 1788 he opened his own workshop.
Subsequently in association with Claude GIRON he bought the AUBERT workshop.
When GIRON died in 1832 he continued alone in the workshop of No. 1 rue des Neuves Boucheries in Troyes; until his death on December 31, 1842.
C.f. 'Facteurs et Marchands de Musique de l'Est de la France', the excellent blog by René PIERRE
René VANNES 'Dictionnaire Universel des Luthiers' Ed. Les Amis de la Musique, 2005
