19th Century Guitar by Remy (Limoges, France), c.1840.

Description

Purchased this out of France. It is very nice. I have one other guitar I play. I am selling it as I play mostly violins. It is a well-documented and valued instrument for which I will provide documentation of it to the buyer.
I will have to take some better pictures and upload them as these are pictures from when I purchased it. The following is the sellers
previous well-written description. It is quite a fine guitar for the right person.
Alan
Very nice French guitar, in a style that bears evidentresemblance with guitars from Mirecourt. It is nonetheless quite personal, asone can see from the double bindings on back and ribs, or for ex. from the light-yellowvarnish. Which is one of the reasons, why I would categorize this particularRemy as a maker, and not solely a merchant.
I can only say very few things about him, but still: Withover 40 persons bearing the family name "Remy" being linked tomusical instrument making in Mirecourt, and with regards to the instrument'sstyle, one can safely assume that this Remy, too, originated from Mirecourt. Inwhich case he chose a town on the other side of France to establish, and make aname for himself. I have known guitars stamped "Remy à LIMOGES" (oneof which I restored and sold, and made quite a career on YouTube, thanks to itsnew owner), but only very few. Though I would be quite interested in learningmore about this particular maker, searching through the archives of Limoges isa very time-consuming thing, and I didn't do it so far. Still, I can provide afew interesting informations: the guitar I referred to earlier was considerablyolder, rather from the period 1805/10. But I would have dated present guitarfrom around 1835, mostly based on the fact that the same special bridge systemwas used by better-known shops in Mirecourt, like Marcard and Derazey, in the1830s. But the guitar's label bears a precious indication: it reads "Ruede la Courtine", which is the address, but as customary at the time, Remyadded additional information to make location easier. In this case, he added"close to the new theatre". That can only be the "ThéatreMunicipal de Limoges", inaugurated on 27 March 1840, and a few steps awayfrom the "Rue de la Courtine". Now we have to factor in that abuilding like this took years, if not decades, to be built. At the time Remyused this reference on a hand-written label, one can only assume that thebuilding was either well on the way, so as to be generally identified as the"new theatre", or had just been inaugurated. In any event, it wasnovelty. This is why I corrected my initial datation "c.1835" (whichcould still be right) to "c.1840".
The original label is in medium shape, but as I didn't haveto open this instrument, I couldn't have it restored.
Another potentially interesting fact lies in the archives ofMirecourt, and has been revealed by luthier Roland Terrier. Jean-Laurent Mast,who was one of the most important early guitar makers in Mirecourt, togetherwith Marchal, for he produced guitars of great quality already before 1800, wasa witness at the wedding of a certain François Remy in 1798. A fact which may,or may not relate to the Remy in question, but fits quite nicely in context andtimeline, and is certainly a research path to be pursued.
Now about the instrument: a nice, unpretentious guitar, withsome class nonetheless. It is in great playing-condition, and was recentlyrevised by myself. Please note that I replaced the complete two rows of bridgepins, copied exactly after the remains of the original ones. The bicolorarrangement, with the front row originally made of i..ry, and the back row madeof ebony, is original that way, and I respected that, but replaced thecontroversial material by bone. There are different versions of this type ofbridge, some of which featuring a possibility to adjust the string-heightseamlessly. These bridges rarely stood the test of time. The version here issimpler, and in fact sturdier, as the front row pins are put into firmposition, and then offer 2 possibilities for the string to go around them. Inthe logic of the time, this corresponds to (respectively) a summer, and awinter position. Right now, strings are in the lower position, and stringheight above fret 12 is around 3 mm. The system works quite well, and it is ofcourse an eye-catcher. I should add, nonetheless, that intonation can be trickywith this particular system. But then, intonation in guitars is always tricky…for the moment, the guitar is strung with Royal Classics (adapted in diameterand tension), but it would be very interesting to test both gut and nylgut onit.
Certainly not the equivalent of a Lacote, but a really"nice chap" to be around of, and still historically relevant. Nomajor damages to the soundboard and massive one-pice maple back, but one finecrack in the bass-side rib*, bearing an old repair (you can see that crack inone of the pictures).
I replaced the old pegs with a very nice, small classicalversion of pegheds(™); tuning therefore is accurate and easy, compared totraditional friction pegs. I have some doubt on the set of pegs I found on thisguitar, but I leave them with the guitar, as a document.
*I noticed it also has some slight fine split on top (see picture). I think it has been there for some time before it came to me. It seems stable. I have no way to see inside belly for cleats but it is quite solid. I think not issue. It is a very nice
guitar
.
Some measurements:
Weight: c.940 g
Total length(end button included): 630 mm
Max. bodywidth: 307 mm
Max. bodydepth: 79,5 mm
Vibratingstring length: 630 mm
Neck widthat the upper nut: 45,5 mm
Stringspacing at the upper nut: 38,5 mm
Neck widthat the neck to body-junction: 56,5 mm
String-spacingat the bridge: 58,5 mm
No case...
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