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Scan 166
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 152. See the scan on archive.org.
1where he had retired to a small property which he owned. It is supposed that he made until 1815, or thereabout. His violins, like those of Lupot, have doubtless been much indebted to their recommendation by Spohr, who speaks of these two makers as the best of their time. I am not in a position to give a description of Pique's violins, and I have nowhere seen any allusion to them, except in general terms, noting their superiority. The Abbé Sibire speaks of a very clever repairer of old fiddles, who was called Namy, and was in Paris about 1788 and until the beginning of the nineteenth century; but although this author writes in a most enthusiastic manner about Namy's abilities, no other authority seems ever to have heard of him from any other source. It seems that the Abbé knew him personally. Original work from his hand has not come down to our time, if it ever existed. One violin maker of this period, whose double basses are to this day sought for with avidity—perhaps chiefly because of their maker's fate—figured prominently in a totally different walk of life. His name was Leopold Renaudin. He had his place of business in the Rue Saint Honoré, in 1788, and took an active part in the excesses committed during the French Revolution. He was one of the fiercest of the Reds, and was a party to the death of a young man who was brought, in error, before the revolutionary tribunals. After the murder of this innocent person, Renaudin denied having been one of his judges, but he was confronted with irresistible proof of his complicity, and, no longer able to maintain his denial, he was, with some others, condemned to death, and executed the 7th May, 1795. Some days before
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