"18.09.1865 in Dusseldorf, DE
03.05.1930 in Zurich, CH
Paul Louis Vautier was the son of the Swiss genre painter Marc Louis Benjamin Vautier (1829-1898), a representative of the Dusseldorf school.
He was employed in Japan by C. Illies & Co., Yokohama # 54, as of 1888.
As of 1896, he was employed in the branch of C. Illies & Co. in Tokyo.
In 1903 he became head of the branch, which was then located in # 15 Tsukiji and he was authorized to sign per procuration. He still held this position in 1908.
On November 17, 1897 he married Gladys Margaret Moss, daughter of Charles David Moss, who was born in Yokohama on November 30, 1874 in the Christ Church of Yokohama. The couple had three children
- Benjamin Hermann Vautier, * on 20.08.1898 in Tokyo, Japan
- Max Ferdinand Vautier, * on 04.07.1900 in Dusseldorf, DE
- Paul Vautier, July 22, 1902 in Tokyo
Paul Louis Vautier was not only a merchant, but also an art collector and numismatist.
The practical introduction to the different schools and techniques of Japanese sword ornamentation was given by Paul Vautier to Alexander Georg Mosle in Tokyo, who brought this art field to his attention with the pieces of his own collection, which was then one of the most important of its kind. The art historian Otto Kümmel later stated about this collection, that the art of sword decoration was almost of "scientific completeness".
This collection of about 1800 sword ornamentation was taken around 1910 by Georg OEDER, also painter of the Dusseldorf painter's school, who collected Japanese art, too.
Paul Louis Vautier died already in 1930, his wife only died on January 3, 1963."
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