DHV:
1143
Tourin ID:
Size:
Bass
Place Made:
Maker:
F
Paris
Nicolas
Bertrand
Date:
1712
Label Text:
...Bertrand / in Paris 1712 (?) [handwritten]
Body Shape:
Viol
Current Location:
CDN
Montreal, PQ
No. of Strings:
7
Collection:
Université de Montréal, Faculté de Musique
Sound Holes:
C
Catalog Number:
Head:
Female
Private Owner:
Previous Owner:
Jacques Simard, -1982; [an antique dealer]; Joseph Lyonnais, Québec, c. 1860-76; L’hôpital général de Québec [mid-18th to mid-19th-C.]
Measurements:
Body Length:
70.5
String Length:
71
Rib Depth:
12.7
Upper Width:
32
Middle Width:
23.8
Bottom Width:
39.2
Information
Source:
Margaret Little to TGM, 11/95
Literature:
Ludwig 2025
Photographs:
[Unpublished, from F. Beaulieu 7/12: F+B body only, head FB+S, repair inscriptions, many details (color)]
Recordings:
Little 1995 (Sainte-Colombe & Marais)
Auctions:
Comments:
Restored by Philip Davis, Toronto, c. 1985, including a new table; his proposal (1982) says “par Nicolas Bertrand...ou de son atelier.” Neck, fingerboard, and tailpiece had been narrowed for use as a (3/4-size) cello; neck also had worm damage and multiple bad repairs. Two-piece table had cracked into 5; back was in 7 pieces, ribs also unattached. Body outline altered with extra wood at all four corners. Head and bass bar original. Earlier repair label by Roch Lyonnais, Quebec. Supposedly among the viols discovered c. 1860 in a convent (l’hôpital général) in Quebec: cf. www.the canadianencyclopedia.com, s.v. Collections d’instruments, which says they were probably hidden there during the siege of Quebec in 1759; ibid. s.v. Québec says the find included “une dizaine de violes ... fabriquées à Paris chez Nicolas Bertrand.” Exhibited at American Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. New neck by Francis Beaulieu, Montreal, 2011; he says body is a composite, though all parts by Bertrand.