Ferdinando Alberti

Violin maker
(ﬂ. 1730 – 1750)

Ferdinando Alberti was a violin maker active in Milan during the middle decades of the 18th century, principally from about 1730 to 1760. He belongs to the later generation of the important Milanese school associated with the Grancino family, whose influence is clearly visible throughout his work.

Alberti worked at the Segno della Corona (“Sign of the Crown”), the workshop and address ...Read More previously occupied by Giovanni Grancino. Contemporary labels place him first in the Contrada Larga and later in the Contrada del Pesce, while continuing to identify the workshop by the same sign. Treccani records that the Grancino business was subsequently taken over by Alberti, who is described as one of Giovanni Grancino’s pupils.

His instruments are generally built on recognizably Milanese models, with broad proportions and moderate arching derived from the Grancino tradition. The workmanship can vary, but the better examples are vigorous and attractive, often using well-figured maple. His varnish is characteristically a clear golden or yellow-gold, although richer reddish-brown examples are also known. A particularly distinctive feature of Alberti’s work is the scroll, which is often large and strongly modeled, lending his instruments an individual character.

Violins and violas by Alberti survive, though his output appears to have been relatively limited. His instruments occupy an interesting position in the history of Milanese violin making, preserving the traditions of the Grancino workshop at a time when the city's earlier great violin-making dynasty was coming to an end. Read Less

Price History

- The auction record for this maker is $207,991 in Mar 2015, for a viola.
- 13 auction price results.

View all auction prices for Ferdinando Alberti

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