Antonio Carlo Monzino

Bow maker
(1909 – 2000)

Antonio Carlo Monzino (1909–2000) was the last member of the historic Monzino family to work professionally as a violin maker, bringing to a close a direct tradition of instrument making that had begun in Milan in the 18th century. He belonged to the sixth generation of a family active in the manufacture, restoration and sale of musical instruments since 1767.

His training reflected the ...Read More increasingly international character of early 20th-century violin making. He studied first in Markneukirchen in Germany and subsequently in Mirecourt, before continuing his education in the family workshops in Italy from 1929. There he worked under several of the accomplished makers employed by the Monzino firm, including Ambrogio Sironi, Ambrogio Perego, Pietro Parravicini and Luigi Galimberti.

Antonio Carlo combined practical violin making with the management of an increasingly diversified musical-instrument business. During his generation, the Monzino firm expanded beyond its traditional activities in making, repairing and dealing in stringed instruments and became an important importer and distributor of international musical-instrument brands. In collaboration with his uncle Carlo Garlandini, who entered the business in 1926, the company also traded for a period as Monzino e Garlandini and imported bows by makers including Eugène Sartory.

His death in 2000 effectively marked the end of the uninterrupted Monzino family's professional violin-making tradition, although subsequent generations continued the family's wider involvement with musical instruments and the preservation of its historic collection. That collection, assembled over generations and including important Italian instruments from the 18th through the 20th centuries, now forms an important part of the family's cultural legacy. Read Less