Given Vuillaume’s reverence for the 1716 ‘Messie’ Stradivari, it is unsurprising that his two string quartets dating from 1865 were conceived as matched sets, with all four instruments made on the Stradivari model. The ‘Caraman de Chimay’ quartet was bought from Vuillaume by Victor Charles Antoine de Riquet, second Duc de Caraman. This violin was sold by W.E. Hill & Sons to Nathan Posner in 1923, together with the ‘Caraman de Chimay’ viola. It later passed to Sol Kinder and then to Louis Feiler, who owned it from 1938 to 1948. During Feiler’s ownership, both instruments were featured in Ernest Doring’s pamphlet Violins and Violinists. Around 1980, the violin was sold to Olivier Jaques and remained in the Jaques family for thirty years, before being acquired by the current owner at Sotheby’s in 2009. It was one of the highlights featured in the 2012 Sotheby’s exhibition of the work of J.B. Vuillaume.