Paul Kaul violin made in France dated 1918
Paul Kaul (1875 – 1951) is a French violin maker born in Mirecourt (Vosges) in 1875. His father was employed in Jerome Thibouville Lamy’s workshop to varnish instruments. At the age of thirteen, he began as an apprentice in the same workshop his father was working.
After serving the French army, he joined Thibouville Lamy’s workshop at the age of twenty-four in 1899 in Paris. Kaul left Thibouville in 1900 to join Silvestre and Maucotel in Paris. He worked there for five years (1900-1905) and then he went to Nantes to join Vuillemin-Didion’s workshop. After 2 years Kaul established his own workshop in 1907 on rue Racine, Nantes. You can find violins bearing his name on that particular year. Then he moved to rue du Pont Communeau in 1908.
He met Luien Capet in 1917, a violinist who had a hugely important influence on the professional life of Kaul. Kaul then moved to Paris in 1926, where he placed his workshop at 130 Boulevard Brune. His final relocation is at Rue de Rome before he died in 1951 in Vesinet-le-Pec (Seine et Oise).