Tommaso Balestrieri

Violin maker
(1713 – 1796)

Tommaso Balestrieri referred to himself on his labels as Cremonese, but no record of him has been found in the city to date. It is likely that he was born in one of the villages situated between Cremona and Mantua. He was the leading maker in Mantua, succeeding Pietro Guarneri, Antonio Zanotti, and his presumed teacher Camillo ...Read More Camilli. His early work exhibited a Camilli-like rotundity and lightness, but for most of his career, he worked in a slightly coarsened Cremonese style, utilizing an authentic technique acquired through Camilli from Guarneri. He created a bold flat-arched Stradivarian model that produced a powerful sound, while substituting the great Cremonese varnish with a slightly harder recipe that tended towards a greenish golden-brown. The open scroll featured a small chamfer, reminiscent of Storioni. Read Less

Price History

- The auction record for this maker is $621,575 in Mar 2015, for a violin.
- 66 auction price results.

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