urt, about 1800. The name is generally branded
on the back. The wood is chiefly of a plain description, and varnish
wanting in transparency.

MAST, Jean Laurent, Paris, about 1750.

MAST, Joseph Laurent, Mirecourt and Toulouse. Son of Jean Laurent. A
Violin dated 1816 is in the Museum of the Paris Conservatoire.

MAUCOTEL, Charles, born at Mirecourt, in 1807. In 1834 he entered the
workshop of Gand in Paris. In 1844 he was employed by Davis, of
Coventry Street, London, and ultimately commenced business in Rupert
Street, from which he retired in 1860, and returned to France. He made
several instruments, all of which have good qualities in workmanship
and tone. They are strong in wood and carefully modelled.

MAUCOTEL, Charles Adolphe, Mirecourt, worked in Paris from 1839 until
1858, in which year he died. He made many excellent instruments.

MEDARD, Francois, was established in Paris about 1700.

Franciscus Medard
fecit Parisiis 1710.

The work is excellent, and the varnish soft and transparent.

MEDARD, Nicolas, Nancy, brother of Francois.

MEDARD, Jean, Nancy, brother of Nicolas.

MENNEGAND, 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 pounds, with the Cremona set before him to look at while he
plays. To "cut" a Cremona, and to cut a diamond into a brilliant or a
rose, are tasks equally difficult. The indifferent operator, in both
cases, suffers more or less from the injury and annoyance his
unskilfulness has occasioned. Borgi