François Xavier TOURTE

Young son of Nicolas Pierre TOURTE, carpenter and luthier-archetier in Paris, and Marguerite Geneviève RollinFrancis was born in 1748. Nicolas Léonard TOURTE, also archier

FXT married around 1780 with Marie Jeanne Françoise Emery. Louis François 1 was born in Paris in 1786.

François Xavier TOURTE died in 1835, at the age of 87, in Paris.

He was an exceptional bowman, here's what he said.Etienne VatelotA famous luthier:
"The French archetors quickly gained a great reputation, and have done such extraordinary works of art that at present the great soloists like Rostropovich, Menuhin, Ferras, Stern play French bows of the early 19th century! French archetery includes famous names such as that of François Tourte, which was called the Stradivarius of the bow.»

From 1964 to 1983, two American specialists, Mr. and Mrs. Kaston (from New York) sought  Information about the 18th century Tourt archers, who were brought to contact with the descendants of the Tourts to collect possible documents (even possible arches forgotten in attices...!!) and data on the origins of the Tourts. They wrote to my parents and cousins Feige and they met them, but they did not seem to have gotten much from us. Rather, they taught us a lot about these ancient archtakers that we were completely unaware of.
Various recent books have studied the history and work of the Tourte archetors in detail, including:
"The Violin, men, works"by a collective of authors, Emmanuel Jaeger, Frédéric Laurent and Jean-Michel Molkhou, at Editions Montparnasse.
"The Arche "

by Bernard Millant, Jean Francois Raffin, Bernard Gaudfroy and Loïc Le Canu, publisher L'Archet Editions, 2000.
And in English: "François-Xavier Tourte: Bow Maker". by Stewart Pollens and Henryk Kaston New York: Machold Rare Violins, 2001. http://www.stewartpollens.com/Publications.htm

See attached 2008 calendar dedicated by Paul Childs to the Archets Tourte

See also: http://atelier-raffin.blogspot.fr/2013/08/tourte-et-la-princesse-de-lamballe-si.html