Gaetano Guadagnini II

Violin maker
(1796 – 1852)

G.B. Guadagnini's grandson Gaetano II inherited the family workshop in 1817, when he was 21 years old. At first he carried on the family's primary business of repairing and restoring instruments, and soon began to make guitars, for which he is well known. Posthumous inventory of the shop shows that Gaetano also bought and sold ...Read More many old bowed instruments, mainly from Mirecourt, and records indicate that the business did quite well.

Violins by his hand are somewhat rare and date from around 1830-1840. They are somewhat large and show some characteristics of the French school, which was popular in Turin at the time, and in any case bear no resemblance to the work of G.B. Guadagnini. Gaetano sustained some sort of business relationship with nobleman and violin maker Alessandro D'Espine, though the difference in their status suggests that Gaetano worked for him in some capacity. Gaetano's step-brother Felice also worked in the shop, and it is possible that he was the first in his generation of the family to take up violin making seriously after learning the craft from Gaetano. Read Less