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Scan 114
The Hawley Collection of violins, 1904
8 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Chapter VII
2Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, 1711-1786
3The Hawley Guadagnini
5N the violin world of to-day the instruments of the Guadagnini family occupy a high place. By artists they are regarded as excelled in quality of tone only by those of the great trio, Stradivari, Guarneri, and Nicola Amati. Lorenzo Guadagnini is the first of the Guadagnini family whose name appears in history. Nothing is known of his birth or childhood, except that he was a native of Piacenza. No mention is made, so far as we are aware, in any of the Stradivarian records, and there is no evidence but that furnished by his own labels, that he was a pupil of that maker. If he himself had not bequeathed us this information, it is difficult to say to whom students of violin history would have ascribed his instruments. He was, of all things, original. No pupil of Stradivari shows so little of that master's chaste elegance in style as Lorenzo Guadagnini. The extreme flatness of arching and the short, broad model of his violins are quite unlike the Stradivarian idea of violin construction, especially at the time when Lorenzo must have been his pupil. After leaving the shop of his master, Guadagnini returned to his native city of Piacenza and established himself there, but later on, about 1690, he removed to a larger and more important center, Milan, where he continued his activity until about the year 1740. It is always refreshing to find independence of thought in the work of any man, for it is an inherent quality of first-rate ability. The arching of Lorenzo is extremely flat,—more so, we believe, than that of any Cremonese maker, excepting Carlo Bergonzi, in a few examples of his work,—and it is beautifully arranged to suit the general style of his violin. To compensate for the flatness of top and back, the walls or sides are left higher than in violins in which the arching is higher. His scroll, except that it is a little contracted, is similar in design to Stradivari's type of the 1720 to 1728 period, but is not finished in the same artistic manner. His sound holes are large and angular, like a type of Guarneri, and placed in the top in a manner somewhat similar to those of Carlo Bergonzi. He constructed his violins with abundant thickness of wood in top and back. His edges and corners are broad and have the rather abrupt squareness which throughout characterizes his bold design. His varnish varies from a pale red to pale reddish brown. He was not a very prolific maker, judging from the comparatively few specimens which are known, and, in consequence, his violins are to-day eagerly sought. Their prices have risen enormously during the past ten or twelve years, bringing £250 sterling as far back as 1885.
7Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, son of Lorenzo, was born about 1711. Information regarding him is practically limited to that furnished by Count Cozio di Salabue and the Cremonese biographer, Lancetti. While he did not
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