Caressa et Français (maison)

Life and Career

When Nicolas Lupot registered his workshop in 1806, he did not know that he was thereby establishing a violin-making tradition that would not end until 175 years later, when Emile Français closed the doors of his firm in New York. In the intervening years, it was the violin makers from the Gand and Bernardel families—to whom Lupot had transferred his workshop—who, almost without interruption, represented the very pinnacle of French violin-making. From 1901 to 1920, Felix Albert Caressa and Henri Français, as successors to the last Gand, continued the business, which they named Maison Caressa & Français.

Felix Albert Caressa (1866–1939)

Albert Caressa (1866–1939) came from an old, wealthy Florentine family of entrepreneurs, but was born in Nice. He played the violin, collected stringed instruments, and—presumably drawn to the elegant, international world of the great Parisian violin makers—became an apprentice to the violin maker Gustave Bernardel. He proved to have an excellent eye for the business side of the firm and was appointed by Gustave Bernardel as manager at Maison Gand & Bernardel. Together with Jean Baptiste Vuillaume’s company, it grew to become one of the largest violin-making workshops in France. Caressa became the financial director of Gand & Bernardel in 1898. He is known primarily for his bows, a few violins, and a cello.

When Gustave Bernardel decided to retire from the company in 1901, he looked within the family for a candidate to succeed him. He had his nephew Emile Bernardel in mind, who had been working with the company for years. But Émile declined the honorable offer, preferring to start his own business. Albert Caressa was then tasked with finding another successor for Gustave Bernardel. Initially, Albert’s plan was to ask the violin maker Paul Serdet—who had sufficient resources and a good reputation for the position—to take over, but Gustave preferred Henry Français, who had been with the firm for 20 years and was the company’s foreman.

Henri Français (1861–1931)

Henri Français (1861–1931) was descended from an old family of instrument makers from Mirecourt, where he was also born. He learned the trade from the violin maker Jean Auguste Darte (1830–1892), who was working in Mirecourt at the time. Darte was a student of Nicolas Vuillaume; he had worked for Jean Baptiste Vuillaume in Paris for several years but had returned to Mirecourt to manage a workshop owned by Nicolas Vuillaume. It was in that workshop that Henri Français received his training. In 1880, Henri Français moved to Paris, where he was hired by Gand & Bernardel Frères, the successful violin makers who were “Luthiers du Conservatoire de Musique” and jointly ran the prestigious firm. There, he distinguished himself through his skills and earned a reputation as a restorer. After the death of Charles Eugène Gand in 1892, Henri Français was nominated to lead the workshop as foreman. Beginning in 1895, Henri not only worked for the firm but also built violins under his own name.

With some of his own instruments, Henri Français won two gold medals—one at the 1897 exhibition in Brussels and one at the 1900 exhibition in Paris. The Gand and Bernardel families had always viewed competition as a fair contest that encouraged the finest craftsmanship—an attitude inherited from their predecessors that had made the company great. By the time Gustave Bernardel retired around 1900, Henri had certainly demonstrated, through his awards, that he was a worthy successor to Gustave.

Caressa & Français

The transfer was signed in 1901; “Gand & Bernardel” became “Maison Caressa & Français.” In the French violin-making tradition, a name change was quite common, but it presented the new owners with three challenges. They had to build on the international reputation of Gand & Bernardel, retain all their customers, and continue to produce work of the same high quality for which the firm was known. This would only be possible if they were allowed to assume the position of Luthier du Conservatoire de Musique, a role that all their predecessors since Nicolas Lupot had held. In 1901, the request that Gustave Bernardel made to the director of the Conservatory was granted almost immediately: Caressa and Français were appointed Luthiers du Conservatoire. This made them all the more aware that they were Lupot’s successors.

The charismatic Caressa sought and received a great deal of publicity. In 1905, leading musicians praised the new owners of the Maison in the trade journal *Musica Mondial* for their knowledge and craftsmanship. In support of this, Stradivari’s biographer, Herbert Goodkind, noted that over the years, dozens of Stradivari instruments were entrusted to their care—some for repair, while for others, Caressa had to find new owners. Not only these instruments, but all those brought in for repair, underwent a comprehensive analysis that was systematically documented.

The company was able to capitalize effectively on the enormous popularity that music enjoyed at the time. They built instruments and bows not only for individual musicians, but also for orchestras, conservatories, and music associations. In 1913, Caressa decided to move the store from the address where the company had been located since 1810 to a new location next to the Paris Conservatoire de Musique. They employed 15 workers, including Emile Laurent and Emile Boulangeot as violin makers, and Victor and Jules Fétique, Claude Thomassin, and André Richaume as bow makers.

For another seven years after the move, Albert Caressa and Henri Français ran the Maison together; Albert as an expert in old master instruments and Henri as a skilled violin maker. Both became Luthiers de l’Opéra and Experts du Civil Tribunal de la Seine. In 1920, Henri Français left the firm, and Albert Caressa continued on his own until 1938, when he handed the business over to Emile Français, his son-in-law.

The bow in the Music Instrument Fund's collection bears the Caressa & Français brand mark and was made by one of the firm's leading bow makers.

Sources

Cité de la Musique, Paris Philharmonic Archives, visited in 2020.

Tarisio; Cozio Archive, accessed in 2020.

Milliot, S., 1998, *Nicolas Lupot, His Contemporaries, and His Successors*, Paris.

Milliot, S., 1994, Twenty Years of Expertise from a Great Parisian Luthier: 1870–1891, Les Amis de la Musique, Spa.

Vannes, R., 1985, Dictionnaire Universel des Luthiers, Brussels.

Henley W., 1969, Universal Dictionary of Violin & Bow Makers. Brighton.