DHV:
1143
Tourin ID:
1712
Bass
Nicolas
Bertrand
# of Strings:
7
Place Made:
F, Paris
Body Shape:
Viol
Current Location:
CDN, Montreal, PQ
Sound Holes:
C
Collection:
Université de Montréal, Faculté de Musique
Head:
Female
Catalog Number:
Label Text:
...Bertrand / in Paris 1712 (?) [handwritten]
Measurements:
Body Length:
70.5
String Length:
71
Rib Depth:
12.7
Upper Width:
Middle Width:
Bottom Width:
32
23.8
39.2
Previous Owner:
Jacques Simard, -1982; [an antique dealer]; L’hôpital général de Québec [mid-19th-C.]
Information Source:
Margaret Little to TGM, 11/95
Literature:
Photographs:
Recordings:
Auctions:
Comments:
[Unpublished, from F. Beaulieu 7/12: F+B body only, head FB+S, repair inscriptions, many details (color)]
Little 1995 (Sainte-Colombe & Marais)
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. Supposedly among the viols discovered c. 1860 in a convent (l’hôpital général) in Quebec: cf. 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.” New neck by Francis Beaulieu, Montreal, 2011.