Reference Library Makers

Active ca 1765 - ca. 1800, Paris

Son of Louis Tourte (pere) and brother to Francois Xavier Tourte, too many bows have been misattributed to this maker to make generalisation straightforward. Such are the inconsistencies between bow styles that it has even been suggested, that L'Aine did not even exist. It should be noted however that Vuillaume (who himself knew Francois Xavier) refers to three Tourte makers. As D. Boyden notes, ??oIt is difficult to see how Fetis or Vuillaume could have been completely in error or why they should have fabricated the existence of an elder brother???. ??oFor some strange reason his work is not too highly regarded... The reputation of L'Aine suffers for the sins of many: it appears to be habitual, when an old French bow of unknown origin and doubtful quality turns up, to attribute it to L'Aine, yet the fact remains that the sticks of the better L'Aines are more accurate than those of either the father or brother; the gun barrel qualities of L'Aine's work being easily recognizable by the practised eye. IN addition to this, the head is of extremely graceful line and finely fashioned; the complete bow may be regarded as the handsomest extant, yet the stick is usually of the shorter length and impractical for the long arm... Much of L'Aine's work obviously would have been produced jointly by his father and himself, much of it of an experimental nature resulting in a touch of the primitive common to all pioneers. To what extent, if any L'Aine and Francois were associated is unknown. The popular conception of Francois having been pioneering the production of the new bow is entirely counter to known facts.???