Claude Joseph Fonclause

Bow maker
(1799 – 1862)

Claude Joseph Fonclause was born in 1799 and is presumed, on stylistic grounds, to have trained under Étienne Pajeot — his earliest branded work follows the Pajeot house style closely enough to support that attribution, though no apprenticeship record confirms it directly. By around 1832 he was established in Paris, and ...Read More by 1840 had joined the workshop of Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, where he worked for a decade. L'Archet credits him as an early adopter of the self-rehairing bow, possibly the first maker to use the model at all, during his years with Vuillaume.

Around 1840 he set up his own business on Rue Pagevin, a few doors from Joseph Henry — a location later used as a landmark reference in Henry's own chapter of L'Archet, suggesting the two makers' proximity was well known among their contemporaries. Independence didn't mean a clean break from his old employer: he continued making bows for Vuillaume, and possibly for Pierre Simon as well, into the early 1850s. His late work shows the influence of the Peccatte school, and — like several of his Mirecourt contemporaries — he sometimes shortened his own brand on a rebuilt or repaired bow, stamping it simply "FONCLAUSE" rather than his full name. He died in 1862. Read Less

Price History

- The auction record for this maker is $94,071 in Dec 2018, for a violin bow.
- 44 auction price results.

View all auction prices for Claude Joseph Fonclause

FULL SIZE