Auguste Sébastien Philippe Bernardel

Along with Lupot and Vuillaume, Auguste Bernardel was a leading figure of the highly developed and technically disciplined school of violin making, which characterised French lutherie in the nineteenth century. He made close copies of the major classical Italian makers and pioneered techniques of ageing his varnish, presenting instruments which replicated the appearance of the seventeenth and eighteenth century originals. The founder of an eminent Paris business and workshop, Auguste is known as ‘Bernardel Père’. Born in 1798 in Mirecourt, he was apprenticed there before joining Nicolas Lupot in Paris in about 1815. After Lupot’s death in 1824 he joined in business with another assistant of Lupot, Charles François Gand, but by 1826 was established independently in rue Coquillière and later in rue Croix des Petits Champs, alongside J.B.Vuillaume. His sons Ernest and Gustave entered the shop between 1840 and 1849, which was subsequently known as ‘Bernardel et Fils’. Auguste retired in 1866, but the shop continued in the hands of his two sons, joined by Eugène Gand in 1866 and thereafter titled ‘Gand & Bernardel Frères’. In 1901, following Gustave Bernardel’s retirement, it was absorbed into the firm of Caressa & Français.