c. 1770 Jean-Laurent Mast

The numerous methods for five-course guitar published in France between 1761 and 1791 coupled with the iconography of the period, suggest that the five-course guitar was still very popular toward the end of the eighteenth century even as single stringed guitars were coming into vogue. Although many composers were beginning to recommend single strings, it seems that very few guitars were made with just five tuning pegs. Perhaps luthiers “hedged their bets” by fitting their guitars with ten pegs and expecting the player to choose how many to use, whether it be five, nine, or the full quota of ten.

Giacomo Merchi of Paris published methods for both the five-course (1761) and five single-string guitar (1777), and later went on to write for the English guitar (a cittern-like instrument with wire strings) in London. The last known Parisian method for five-course guitar was published by Trille Labarre in 1777, although this method carries a lithograph, presumably of Labarre himself playing a guitar equipped with just five strings. Just as confusing, perhaps, is Antoine Lemoine’s method from 1799 for the five single-string guitar that pictures an instrument with nine strings.

Jean-Laurent Mast was born and died in Mirecourt, France (1748–1791) and although he stamped his instruments “A Paris,” music historian René Vannes doubts if he ever lived in the capital. The British violin scholar William Henley, author of the seminal work The Universal Dictionary of Violin and Bow Makers, was highly critical of Mast’s violins. Mast’s guitars, however, are sought after today for their workmanship and playability. His son, Joseph Laurent Mast, continued his father’s work forming partnerships, including Blaise-Mast, pursuing the luthier craft long after Jean-Laurent had died.

The Mast guitar from around 1770 in the Austin-Marie Collection, with five courses and adjustable frets in the Baroque style, is branded with the most elegant (and most atypical) French lettering. The luthier’s stamp is to the inside on the center maple back panel traversing the reinforcing tape. The alternating striped back panels, most commonly made of maple and pear, are here made of maple and rosewood and emulate the design of Parisian makers like Jean Nicolas Lambert. The mother of pearl and ebony “barbershop” purfling are also typical of many Paris-made guitars of the period. The two ivory pips to the back of the body are presumed to have once had a gut string tied across them to rest upon a button on ones clothing to support the instrument while playing. This was an alternative to the practice of securing one end of a ribbon to the holes in the head and then tying the other to an endpin.