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Iconography
Birth : 1845 in Sommervillier. (Meurthe et Moselle) Death : 1913 in Neuilly-Plaisance

Summary

known as Hippolyte Chretien SILVESTRE, after his mather's name.

Biography

Carrer
His genuine name being CHRETIEN he took for professional reasons the name of his maternal uncle Hippolyte SILVESTRE.
Served his apprenticeship in MIRECOURT (Vosges) before joining his uncles in Lyon.
In 1865 he subsequently succeeded his uncle Hippolyte SILVESTRE in Lyon, at the age of twenty.
In 1884, he left lyon to go to Paris where he settled his workshop 24, rue Poissonière, before moving soon after to N° 20 and then n° 25 of the same street.
In 1891 he asked Ernest MAUCOTEL, who was at that time working for his uncle E.A. SALZARD in Moscow, to join him.
In 1900, Ernest MAUCOTEL and Hippolyte SILVESTRE joined together to found the firm SILVESTRE & MAUCOTEL Hippolyte & Ernest. Their association lasted until the death of Hippolyte SILVESTRE in 1913.

Works
Hippolyte Chrétien SILVESTRE can be considered as one of the great maker of the French school. He has won prizes in the main competition of his time and his copies of the great Italian Classic Masters are of a great beauty. Instruments signed by SILVESTRE & MAUCOTEL Hippolyte & Ernest are generally inspired from the Italian School and particularly after the Venetian masters as Sanctus Seraphin, Montagnana or Gofriller.

 

 

Birth : 1877 in Juvaincourt (Vosges) Death : 1948 in MIRECOURT (Vosges)

Biography

Career
Son of Léon APPARUT, a pupil of violin maker CAUSSIN and partner of Paul BAILLY, he began his apprenticeship in his father’s workshop at the age of fourteen. 
In 1896, at the age of nineteen, he left his father’s workshop to join Paul BLANCHARD, Luthier of Lyon’s Conservatory of Music, whose first assistant he later became. 
In 1900, APPARUT joined Georges MOUGENOT in Brussels where he stayed until the end of 1902. 
By the end of 1902, he had joined Marc LABERTE in MIRECOURT, where he remained until 1921 as the head of artistic production. 
While with Marc LABERTE, Georges APPARUT used his free time to craft some very fine instruments, two of which we have been lucky to come across. The first is made after Stradivarius, coated with a very fine orange-red varnish in the spirit of Paul BLANCHARD, and labelled “Apparut Luthier à Juvaincourt 1904.”
The other, made after Jean-Baptiste VUILLAUME, bears three labels: one situated in the usual place which reads “Modèle d'après JB Vuillaume, 3 rue Demours Ternes.” The other two labels on each of the inside blocks read “Apparut Luthier à Juvaincourt.” 
From 1924 to 1925, he was the assistant of POUZOLLE in Avignon. 
In 1925, he finally took over the workshop of Victor Joseph CHAROTTE on 6, Sainte Cécile Street in MIRECOURT.

Works
Georges APPARUT instruments are inspired by Victor Joseph CHAROTTE, especially in the FF design of certain models, and by the Classical Italian school, some of the finest samples of which APPARUT was exposed to while working with Marc LABERTE.

Aside from his Atelier production, always in good taste and well-crafted where workmanship, choice of wood, and sound qualities are concerned, one also finds instruments of superior quality generally made in copy, some of them on a personal model.
Joseph Guarneri, Jean Baptiste Guadagnini, and Georges Klotz are a few of the makers who directly inspired the work of Georges APPARUT.
It is interesting to note that some of these violins bear a second stamp under the “GEORGES APPARUT” stamp on the inside back which reads “ARTISAN FRANCE.” Up until now the instruments we have seen bearing this second stamp date from 1934 to 1938, all of them of the best quality.

Workshop
George APPARUT’s workshop was rather small, generally composed of two or three violin makers and one apprentice. In his workshop he trained more than twenty apprentices among them Louis DELIGNON, Jacques FRANCAIS, Jean PETICOLAS.

Honors and Awards


1872 Silver medal. Lyon
1873 Medal of progress. Vienna
1878 Silver medal. Paris
1889 Gold medal. Paris
1900 Grand Prix, Paris

Label & Stamps
Printed label :
---------------------------------
H.C. SILVESTRE NEVEU
à Lyon en 18.. n°..
---------------------------------
Stamped to the inside neck block:
SILVESTRE
NEVEU
A LYON

Collaborators
DEROUX Sébastien Auguste (1866 à 1869)
BLANCHARD Paul (1872-1876)
DELIVET Auguste (1887-1892)
MARCHAND François, Eugène (1897 - c. 1902)
Paul SERDET (1877-1893)

Successors
1913 MAUCOTEL & DESCHAMP

Sources
La Lutherie Lorraine et Française. Albert JACQUOT.
La Lutherie Lyonnaise. Jean Frédéric Schmitt.
La Lutherie et les Luthiers. Vidal A. 1889




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