Sale Books, Receipts and Office Files, Programs
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Herrmann, Emil, 1888-1968
label: Collection Creator
content: Francais, Jacques, 1923-2004
setName: label: See more items in
content: Jacques Français Rare Violins, Inc. Photographic Archive and Business Records
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1844-1990, undated
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0872, Series 4
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: SERIES 4: SALE BOOKS, RECEIPTS AND OFFICE FILES, 1844-1998.  This series consists of sale books and receipts from the Français shops in Paris and New York City.  The books and receipts usually contain date of sale, person sold to, and amount of sale.  They may also contain notations of repairs made, ownership, and provenance for violins and bows. This series is arranged chronologically and by type of record.  The receipts are filed randomly, the majority of them written in French.  Many of the early sale books are written in French.  The pre-1901 entries and sale books are most likely for Gand & Bernardel Freres and subsequently for the House of Gustave Bernardel and Albert Caressa.  Box 55 Folder 2 and Folder 4 are copies of Charles Gand's "Catalogue descriptif des instruments de Stradivarius et J Guarnerius", begun in 1870 with addition of violins and annotations by the successor firms of  Bernardel, Carressa, and Francais. These ledgers provide detailed descriptions and provenance for many rare violins.  It appears that entries were made in books over subsequent years with no thought to keeping books in a chronological fashion.  The majority of office files are from the Français shop in New York City and include files on stolen instruments and one folder pertaining to the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers (AFVBM).  There are two folders of material from the Herrmann shop.