Mirecourt, France
Honoré (Jean Joseph) Derazey (1794–1883), violin maker at the Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume Workshop

Wood, ebony
ca. 1880s
Length of the body: 14.3 in
Strings – Lutes – Violin Family

Labeled inside:  “Jiovan Paola Magini Brescia 1715”

This French violin from the late 1800’s is decorated on the back with marquetry inlay showing a scenic city landscape of Paris, along with religious symbols and icons.  A carved head of the bearded Gaspard Duiffopruggar serves as a head scroll.  Around the edges on the front and back is a double row of purfling (Brescian-type).  While the label inside reads, “Jiovan Paola Magini Brescia 1715,” this violin is an 1800s-anonymous copy and was possibly made by the top French maker of the day, Jean Joseph Derazey, who made ornamental “Duiffopruggar” violins for the J.B. Vuillaume workshop.  

The violin consists of a one-piece table of spruce, one-piece back and ribs of maple, an original maple neck, and a semi-transparent yellow orange, brown varnish.

Resource: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_607147