Scan 79
The violin & its story : or, the history & construction of the violin, 1905
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 63. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE VIOLIN AND ITS STORY.
3FRENCH MAKERS.
5The history of violin making shows that towards the end of the seventeenth century and at the beginning of the eighteenth, France produced only a few makers, whose works, however, were of but moderate worth—BOQUAY, PIERRET, DESPONT, VERON, GUERSAN, CASTAGUÉRY, ST. PAUL, SALOMON. Of greater importance than these is MÉDARD, who was trained in the workshops of Stradivarius, and then worked at Nancy from 1680 to 1720. He was the founder of the art of instrument making in Lorraine.
7Another pupil of Stradivarius was JOHN VUILLAUME, of Mirecourt. He likewise made excellent violins, the period of his greatest activity being 1700 to 1740. Contemporary with him, and also a pupil of the Cremonese master, was AMBROSIUS DECOMBRE, who worked at Tournay, in Belgium, where he made some particularly good basses.
9The foremost of all the French instrument makers, however, was NICHOLAS LUPOT, who was a son of the previously mentioned Franz Lupot; he was born at Stuttgart in 1758, and died in Paris 1824. His father was instrument maker to the Duke of Wurtemburg, and in his ninth year young Lupot travelled with his father to Orleans, where he was then established. In 1789 the younger Lupot went to Paris, where he was appointed instrument maker to the Conservatoire, and afterwards to the Royal Chapel. The instruments which he made for these institutions were delivered at the following prices:—Violins £12 each, 'cellos, £24 each. Some of his violins fetched even higher prices, ranging from fifty to ninety Louis d'or, and immediately after his death their price doubled. Like his father, he worked on the lines of Stradivarius, and in making his instruments he bestowed the most scrupulous care upon the very smallest detail. His last commission, of which, however, he did not live to see the complete execution, but which was taken over by his worthy pupil and successor, C. F. Gand, was
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