Vuillaumes bass graduations

[Martin Sheridan]

Since I'm working on three new basses, I got to thinking about bass graduations and recalled a conversation I had with a collector about ten years ago who said that J B Vuillaume graduated the tops of his basses to 6mm over all. That is 6mm top to bottom and side to side. I'm wondering if any of you have any personal knowledge of the accuracy of this statement?
An anedote to this is that Vuillaume did not make the basses himself. That according to Roger Millant who wrote the book on Vuillaume. He said that J Bs brother made them for him in Mirecourt which I interpret as Nicolas Vuillaume had his workers make the basses for his brother. Apparently Vuillaume employed many violin makers to make his violins, violas and cellos, though he was an excellent maker in his own right in his younger days, and always insisted on varnishing all of his instruments.

I've only seen one authentic Vuillaume bass and some pictures of others. All of these basses were copies of the Bergonzi bass that Vuillaume lengthened from a cello shape into what we would see as the sloping shoulders that we are used to. Other French makers copied this bass and many "student" basses were also made with this design which includes the false look of the original cello lines and back button. Duane Rosengard has a picture of the altered Bergonzi in his excellent book CREMONESE DOUBLE BASSES published about ten years ago.
Interestingly at the ISB meeting in Indianapolis a Russian immigrant asked me where I got my Vuillaume. He said he had one exactly like it in Russia where in Vuillaume's time the Czar had them ordered from Vuillaume. However, my bass was a 3/4 Gamba style bass and although it might be French, I would be amazed if it was a Vuillaume since it is not like the Bergonzi copies which are also violin shaped. A picture of that bass is on my web site.

[Silversorcerer]

I don't have anything to offer here Martin except to ask if you ever found out anything on this issue. I know Vuillaume was responsible for a good bit of tinkering, but this is not one I've heard of. And I'm not sure that all of his tinkering withstood the test of time. I am interested in what you find out about this, if anything.

I did read that a researcher on Stradivari now claims that only a few of his violin tops were progressively graduated. So people have been slavishly copying a top graduation scheme that may have been an insignificant detail, or only significant in certain instruments and who knows why he did or didn't do it the same way every time. Maybe Vuillaume knew this also or knew why or why not to do a progressive graduation. It seems to be a remaining puzzle.