Whose epinette?

Curtis Carlisle Bouterse
07/08/12 12:55:20AM
@curtis-carlisle-bouterse

Last year I bought this (seemingly unmarked) 7-string epinette de Vosges from a seller in the U.S, who had no information and I haven't been able to find out who made it. It clearly is not a one-off: there are a number of sophisticated touches which suggest it has siblings. I thought it somewhat resembled the two epinettes at the bottom of Christophe Toussaint's page. [ http://epinette.free.fr/ ] They were made by the Belgian luthier Noel Warnier of Verviers but when I emailed him asking about my instrument he said it was not his.

My instrument is made completely of dark cherry; the scroll is massive (built up of three slabs), the fingerboards one solid piece, and the back, sides, and top are 3/16" thick. It weighs a hair less than 3 lbs. The upper bouts have a distinctive oval finger lap which appears to be merely decorative. It has a wonderful sound and I wish I could give credit where it is due. Does this ring a dim gong with anyone? I can't imagine I'm the only person to have seen one like this.