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Summary

They were brothers, grandsons and pupils of Sébastien Auguste DEROUX, who was a collaborator of SILVESTRE in Lyon and MERMILLOT in Paris, before he settled his own workshop in Paris in 1884.

Biography

Max MILLANT completed and finished his apprenticeship with Léon MOUGENOT in MIRECOURT. (1)
During the 1920s, he worked with his brother at DYKES and Sons, 84 New Bond Street, London, where he was regarded as a close friend and mentor by Arthur DYKES. (2)

In 1923, the two brothers left England to establish their own workshop at 51 rue de Rome in Paris. Max was more specifically responsible for violin making, assisted by Pierre AUDINOT.
From this date, they affirmed the continuity of their activity with that of Sébastien Auguste DEROUX, tracing it back to 1884, the year their grandfather opened his workshop in Paris, notably appearing under this name in professional directories. (3)
This lineage was claimed on the labels of their violins until the end of the 1930s.

In 1934, Roger and Max developed a violin model in collaboration with André ROUSSEL, of which violin no 4689 is a characteristic example. This quality of instruments, presented as having been “specially crafted for Great Concert Artists”, was produced for approximately a decade. (4)

From the 1940s onwards, their models evolved, drawing inspiration from the classics of Italian violin making while asserting a personal identity, placing them within a modernity that broke with the continuity of the great nineteenth-century workshops.
Their work, which displays a high level of finish, was rewarded at major international competitions, such as those of Cremona and The Hague in 1949.

It was, however, at the beginning of the 1950s that their desire for affirmation and their mastery of the craft fully flourished, marking the opening of a “Golden Period”, which came to an end only with the cessation of their activity.

The Roger and Max MILLANT firm closed its doors in 1969. Max MILLANT then continued his activity as a violin maker in Cannes, where he retired the same year and died in 2005, Roger having passed away in Paris in 1995.

Works
Their production is estimated of 551 violins, 94 violas and 55 cellos.

Label and Stamps
Label with signature.
Stamp to the inside blocks.
Stamped to the outside lower ribs "RMM" in a double diamond shape, with or without number.

Awards & medals
Roger & Max MILLANT have won several prizes in international competitions among them :
- 1 st. prize and silver medal for a quartet. Cremona 1949
- 1 st. prize and Diploma for a quartet. La Haye 1949.
- 2 sd. prize for a quartet , Liège 1954.
- 1 st. price for a viola in Ascoli Piceno in 1960.

Collaborators & successors
AUDINOT Paul
AUDINOT Pierre worked almost 40 years for this great firm.

Sources
(1) - (Vannes R 1981)
(2) - (The British Violin 2000)
(3) - Annuaire du commerce et de l'industrie musiale
(4) - Catalogue R et M MILLANT-DEROUX 1934
(More specific publication references are available in our Bibliography section.)

 

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