Nicolas Lupot

Nicolas Lupot (4 December 1758 – 14 August 1824) was one of the most illustrious French luthiers (violin makers) of his time.

Lupot was born in Stuttgart. He was apprenticed to his father and worked in Orléans until 1794. Soon after, he moved to Paris, where he was appointed violin maker to the king (1815), and to the Conservatoire of Paris (1816). This latter post involved furnishing instruments (of the whole violin family) awarded to first-prize winners.

Lupot was ordered by King Louis XVIII to make an orchestra of stringed instruments which were to be decorated/embellished with the coat of arms of France. He ambitiously undertook in 1820 to replace all the instruments of the royal orchestra with new ones of his own make, but death in 1824 prevented him from fulfilling this plan.

He frequently received the title of "The French Stradivarius" and in Mirecourt there is a street named after him. Modeling (except a few after Guarnerius and Amati) always after that of Stradivarius and he imitated that genius more minutely than anybody else had or has ever done. This is why there is such a refreshing variety in his productions some of broad proportions, others more normal and some under the recognized full sizes as well as a few of long pattern.

"Lupot was an important French maker, modeling his instruments after Stradivari."

"The first violin maker of the family was his grandfather Laurent Lupot (baptised in Mirecourt, 11 August 1696; died in Orléans, after 1762). He worked in Plombières (near Epinal) about 1725, then in Lunéville for Stanisław Leszczyński's court from 1738 to 1756, and finally in Orléans from 1762 until his death. His eldest son, François (i) (born in Plombières, 5 July 1725; died in Paris, 25 August 1805), Nicolas' father, left Lunéville to work in Germany as violin maker to the Duke of Württemberg. He settled in Stuttgart, where Nicolas was born, then in Ludwigsburg. In 1768 he returned to France and joined his father in Orléans, where he opened his own workshop and acquired the sobriquet François Lupot d'Orléans."

...
Wikipedia