Ch. J.B. Collin-Mezin violin, 1889

Charles Jean-Baptiste Collin-Mezin is one of the more well-known French makers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His own work, culminating in a Grand Prix in 1900, enabled him to expand his workshop, employing a small number of skilled luthiers in Mirecourt to make the subsequent violins that bear his label and signature. The instruments made in Paris prior to this date, however, particularly in the 1880s, have a very different status, having much more personal input from Collin-Mézin himself. This fine example has a typical, early Collin-Mézin tone, with a rich, throaty lower register, vibrancy on the middle strings and a brilliant E, with plenty of resonance in the upper octaves.