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Scan 155
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 141. See the scan on archive.org.
1French Makers.
3In the seventeenth century there was a maker in Paris called Pitet, on the ribs of whose instruments this name has been found inscribed. They are chiefly basses, and only curiosities, suitable for cabinets. These are all the names of French violin makers previous to the dawn of the eighteenth century which have, up till now, been rescued from oblivion. Some of the records of the Guild of Lute and Violin Makers in Paris are extant, but they chiefly concern a later period.
5In the beginning of the eighteenth century there was a maker in Paris named Nicolas Bertrand, of whom very little is known. He is supposed to have worked from 1705 to about 1735, and a solitary bass viol of his is cited, bearing his name burnt on the end of the neck; the instrument, which is described as being well made, having inside a ticket with his name, and the date 1720. The varnish is red, very scurfy and dull. The system of thus branding names on violins became somewhat common in France after this, but it was never adopted by any makers of importance, and is a very inartistic method of signing a fiddle.
7Jacques Boquay, to whom the same dates are assigned, had some renown in his time, but his instruments are not so rare nor so much sought for as is commonly imagined. They are, however, of good make, it is said, and generally have an agreeable reddish-brown varnish, sometimes inclining to yellow. His two contemporaries, Mathurin Ducheron and Claude Pierray, may be placed in the same class. Of the latter, the examples still existing are covered with a red varnish of the same character as Boquay's. Little is known about Ducheron. A maker appears to have been in Paris in 1720, bearing
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