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Nicolas Lupot (4 December 1758 – 14 August 1824) was one of the most illustrious French luthiers (violin makers) of his time.
Lupot was born in Stuttgart. He was apprenticed to his father and worked in Orléans until 1794. Soon after, he moved to Paris, where he was appointed violin maker to the king (1815), and to the Conservatoire of Paris (1816). This latter post involved furnishing instruments (of the whole violin family) awarded to first-prize winners.
Lupot was ordered by King Louis XVIII to make an orchestra of stringed instruments which were to be decorated/embellished with the coat of arms of France. He ambitiously undertook in 1820 to replace all the instruments of the royal orchestra with new ones of his own make, but death in 1824 prevented him from fulfilling this plan.
He frequently received the title of "The French Stradivarius" and in Mirecourt there is a street named after him. Modeling (except a few after Guarnerius and Amati) always after that of Stradivarius and he imitated that genius more minutely than anybody else had or has ever done. This is why there is such a refreshing variety in his productions some of broad proportions, others more normal and some under the recognized full sizes as well as a few of long pattern.
"Lupot was an important French maker, modeling his instruments after Stradivari."[1]