Scan 310
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1884
8 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 238. See the scan on archive.org.
1MÉDARD, François, was established in Paris about 1700. The work is excellent, and the varnish soft and transparent.
3Franciscus Médard fecit Parisiis 1710
5MÉDARD, Nicolas, Nancy, brother of François.
6MÉDARD, Jean, Nancy, brother of Nicolas.
7MENNEGAND, Charles, born at Nancy in 1822. He is distinguished both as a maker and repairer of instruments. He entered the service of Rambaux in Paris in 1840. He has been rightly regarded as having displayed singular ability in the delicate and difficult task of "cutting" the large Italian Violoncellos and Tenors. The practice of reducing the dimensions of Cremonese instruments has happily come to be looked upon as emulative of the acts of the Goths and Vandals. It is in any case certain that numerous instruments have been operated upon with no greater skill than might have been expected at the hands of those barbarians. "These ruthless men," remarks Charles Reade, "just sawed a crescent off the top, and another off the bottom, and the result is a thing with the inner bout of a giant and the upper and lower bout of a dwarf." He rightly names this, "cutting in the statutory sense, viz., cutting and maiming," and implores the owner of an instrument in its original state to spare it, and if too large, to play on one of the value of £5, with the Cremona set before him to look at while he plays. To "cut" a Cremona, and to cut a
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