French Violin Makers, German Violin Makers, English Violin Makers, Antonio Stradivari

Italian Violin Makers

Violin throughout the world. The familiar style is attached to scores of copies and non-copies every week, and despatched to the four quarters of the globe. Little did Andrea imagine that he was destined to be the means of lifting his patronymic of Guarneri to such a giddy height!

Andrea Guarneri, like Andrea Amati, was the pioneer of the family: but for his influence we might never have had the extraordinary works of his nephew, Giuseppe. How full of interest would the smallest events of Andrea's workshop life prove if we could only ascertain them! We know that in early years he was working in the shop of Niccolò Amati. With what delight would any record, or even anecdote, of those golden days in the history of the Violin be received by the lovers of the instrument! The bare idea that these men were living in daily close converse is sufficient to awaken interest of a lively nature in the mind of a lover of Fiddles. Unhappily, however, no Boswell was at hand to dot down events, of small value when passing, but of great consequence to after-time. The want of that direct biographical information which is handed down to us from recorded personal knowledge leads to the opening of many a mouldy, worm-eaten, and half-forgotten parish register, wherein we read, in language stiff and statutory, accounts of departed parishioners having duly performed and executed divers acts and deeds. These entries often shed much unexpected light on subjects previously dark or obscured. The pages of the Cremonese parish register, to which allusion has been made in the notices of the members of the Amati family, have served this purpose in some measure. From the same source we have a few interesting facts concerning Andrea Guarneri. It appears that Niccolò Amati entered, in the year 1641, the age of his pupil Andrea Guarneri in the parish rate-book as being fifteen years, thus supplying the hitherto unknown date of his birth. Again we learn that Andrea Guarneri does not appear to have been with Niccolò Amati in 1646, but was so in the year 1653, the register showing that he was at that date married. There is no further reference to his connection with Niccolò Amati after the year 1653. Andrea was married, December 31, 1652, and had seven children. Two of his sons, namely Pietro Giovanni and Giuseppe Giovan Battista, became Violin-makers. Andrea died on December 7, 1698, and we learn from the register that he was buried on the following day near the remains of his wife, in the Church of St. Domenico, in the same chapel where the body of Antonio Stradivari was laid forty years later.

Andrea Guarneri for some years worked upon the model of his master, though he afterwards changed the character of the sound-hole.9 At the same time the form of the instrument became flatter, and the scroll showed signs of originality. The varnish is much varied, but is generally of a light orange colour of beautiful hue; it sometimes has considerable body, but when so, lacks the transparency of light-coloured varnishes. The Violoncellos are of two sizes. The wood in the Violoncellos is often very plain, but possesses singular tone-producing qualities. The Violins of this maker are among his finest efforts; the workmanship is excellent, but has not the fine finish of Amati.

   9 Lancetti, in his MS., mentions 1670 as about the period of his change of style.

Joseph Guarnerius filius Andreæ fecit
Cremonæ sub titulo S. Teresiæ 16—

GUARNERI, Giuseppe Giovan Battista, second son of Andrea, born November 25, 1666. This maker possessed a greater amount of originality than Andrea. His earliest works evidence that power of thinking for himself which, later, led him to construct instruments entirely distinct from those produced by his father. The outline is particularly striking. The waist of the instrument is narrowed, rapidly widening, however, from the centre. The result is a curve of much elegance, one of the points which Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù appears to have admired, as he adopted and perfected it. It is here, more particularly, that a resemblance between this maker and his famous kinsman is to be traced. There are also other features which will furnish matter for comment in their proper place. To return to the form given to the instruments of Guarneri, the son of Andrea: the sound-hole has a singular combination of the Amati and the Guarneri in its conception. We have here a reappearance of the pointed form which originated with the grand old Brescian master, Gasparo da Salò, and which was left by him to be revived and perfected by his followers. Andrea's son, in adopting this long-neglected form, showed much judgment. It must be admitted that he improved upon it, and left his cousin an easy task in completing and perfecting it.

The method of this maker with regard to the setting of the sound-holes in his instruments is peculiar. In his plan they are set in a lower position than is customary. Carlo Bergonzi followed him in this particular, and also in placing the hole a trifle nearer the edge