Antoine Bailleux was an 18th-century Parisian violinist and music publisher, active from 1761 to 1800 or 1801.
Bailleux was music seller of the Chambre et des Menus Plaisirs du Roi between 1772 and 1778 ; then ordinary music dealer of the King and the royal family from 1779 to the Revolution.
He was the main publisher of composers Jean-Baptiste Davaux, Joseph Bologne de Saint-George and Gossec but he also published works by Grétry, Jean-Frédéric Edelmann, Johann Baptist Wanhal, Ignaz Fränzl, Ernst Eichner, Dittersdorf, Ivan Mane Jarnović (Giornovichi), Karl Joseph Toeschi, Tommaso Giordani Luigi Boccherini and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
In 1777, he published under the number XXVI and the name Joseph Haydn, a set of six string quartets later referred to as Opus 3. Since the 1960s, the collection is rather attributed to great admirer of J. Haydn, and friend of Joseph Martin Kraus, the German composer Roman Hofstetter. This practice was quite common among publishers, wishing to improve the distribution of their production. Hofstetter would have sold less than Haydn.
His Parisian addresses appearing on the title pages of his publications were:
His sign read "À la Règle d'or".
The Erard ladies were mentioned as "successors of defunct Bailey" in 1802.
Some historians (including Fétis) gave a death date too old by ten years, whereas the Almanach du commerce de Paris[1] from 1800–1801 still mentions him.[2]
Bailleux authored a Méthode raisonnée pour apprendre à jouer du violon avec le doigté de cet instrument et les différents agréments dont il est susceptible, précédée des principes de musique.[3]