Amati > Makers Archive > Giovanni Battista Guadagnini

Giovanni Battista Guadagnini

Highest auction price

£676,640

Auction price history

Type	Details	Sold	Price
Violin	Rudolph Wurlitzer (1932) and W.E. Hill (1937) issued a certificate but these documents have been lost	Fri 1st March 2024	£586,129
Violin	Labelled Joannes Baptista Guadagnini, Cremonensis fecit ..., table and scroll by another hand c. 1900	Thu 1st February 2024	£100,743
Violin	35.5 cm Turin, 1783	Tue 1st November 2011	£676,640
Cello	70.9 cm Turin, 1783 (revarnished)	Tue 1st November 2011	£501,215
Violin		Wed 5th October 2011	£37,250
Violin	35.7 cm [Ascribed to]	Sat 1st October 2011	£37,250
Violin	35.4 cm Turin, 1771 c.	Sun 1st May 2011	£458,370
Violin	35.4 cm Piacenza, 1740 c.	Fri 1st April 2011	£469,552
Violin	35.5 cm (head later) [Possibly by]	Fri 1st October 2010	£36,000
Cello	75.0 cm Late 18th C. [Attributed to]	Thu 1st April 2010	£47,136
Violin	35.1 cm Italy, 1758 c. [Attributed to]	Thu 1st April 2010	£16,436
Violin	35.2 cm Milan, 1753 c. [Lit.]	Thu 1st April 2010	£356,670
Violin	35.4 cm Milan, 1755, 'The Ex-Wollgant', with Provance & Lit.	Tue 1st April 2008	£295,283
Violin	35.6 cm Italy, 18th C. [Ascribed to]	Mon 1st October 2007	£20,900
Violin	35.3 cm Turin, 1779	Sun 1st April 2007	£157,687
Violin	35.6 cm Milan, 1753	Wed 1st November 2006	£325,519
Violin	Parma, 1766	Tue 1st November 2005	£203,027
Cello	Parma, 1760	Mon 1st November 2004	£341,250
Violin	Piacenza, 1745	Mon 1st November 2004	£232,150
Violin	Cremona, 1758	Mon 1st March 2004	£218,400
Violin	1755 c.	Sat 1st November 2003	£196,000
Cello	1744	Sat 1st June 2002	£336,650
Violin	1777	Mon 1st October 2001	£127,660
Violin	1753	Sun 1st October 2000	£108,557
Violin	1769	Mon 1st May 2000	£176,000
Violin	1770	Mon 1st May 2000	£187,338
Violin	1773	Wed 1st March 2000	£216,000
Violin	1765 c.	Sun 1st June 1997	£47,700
Violin	1774	Fri 1st November 1996	£149,500
Violin	1776	Fri 1st November 1996	£115,000
Violin	1775 c.	Fri 1st November 1996	£243,500
Violin	1767	Sat 1st June 1996	£117,000
Cello	1757	Wed 1st November 1995	£166,500
Violin	1773	Fri 1st October 1993	£221,500
Violin	1790 c.	Thu 1st July 1993	£91,700
Violin	1755	Sun 1st November 1992	£132,000
Cello	1780	Fri 1st November 1991	£154,000
Violin	174-	Mon 1st April 1991	£97,900
Violin	1772	Thu 1st November 1990	£176,000
Violin	1780	Fri 1st June 1990	£143,000
Violin	17--	Fri 1st June 1990	£48,400
Violin	1761	Wed 1st November 1989	£99,000
Viola	39.1 cm 1796	Fri 1st September 1989	£5,720
Violin	1744	Wed 1st March 1989	£94,600
Violin	1747	Wed 1st March 1989	£90,200
Violin	1750	Tue 1st November 1988	£66,000
Violin	1743	Tue 1st November 1988	£88,000
Violin	1769	Sun 1st November 1987	£72,600
Violin	1740 c.	Sun 1st November 1987	£44,000
Violin	1757	Mon 1st July 1985	£85,800
Violin	1773	Sat 1st June 1985	£92,400
Violin	1778	Thu 1st March 1984	£22,000
Cello	1777	Tue 1st November 1983	£44,000
Viola	1765	Wed 1st June 1983	£18,360
Violin	1758	Fri 1st April 1983	£79,200
Violin	1772	Mon 1st November 1982	£46,200
Violin	1767	Thu 1st April 1982	£20,899
Violin	1760 c.	Thu 1st April 1982	£23,750
Violin	1765	Sun 1st November 1981	£17,600
Violin	1753	Fri 1st May 1981	£36,300
Violin	1751	Fri 1st May 1981	£23,100
Violin	1773	Sun 1st March 1981	£47,336
Violin	1750	Thu 1st May 1980	£23,100

Biographies

John Dilworth George Hart Cecie Stainer Willibald Leo Lütgendorff

John Dilworth

GUADAGNINI, Giovanni Battista Born 1711 Piacenza, died 1786 Turin Italy. Founder of one of the most enduring Italian dynasties of luthiers. Perhaps also the last great maker of the classical period to arrive at his own distinctive style and form without slavishly copying past makers. Son of Lorenzo Guadagnini, below, who until recently was considered to be his teacher. Despite Giovanni Battista’s claims on his own later labels that he was a pupil of Antonio Stradivari, the evidence seems to indicate that in fact he was largely self-taught. His techniques and use of materials are unique to him and his followers, and cannot be readily traced back to any precedent. Although he doubtless used the interior form familiar in Cremona, a great deal of his method seems to be his initiative. Working initially in Piacenza, not far from Cremona itself, he developed a flat model with quite broad recurve around the edges. The soundholes are basically Amatisé, rather tightly cut around the upper end, but the lower half open, with distinctive oval shaped lower finials, and no flute in the wings. The equally distinctive scroll is rather thrown back, with blackened edges, and invariably marked with a series of puncture points tracing the shape of the last turn of the volute. The carving is quite plastic and shows signs of careful smoothing with abrasive. The purfling is made from walnut, unique amongst luthiers of the time, and the broad edges diminish in thickness at the corners, opposite to the convention elsewhere of leaving the corners fuller than the rest of the edge. The varnish is a beautiful deep orange-red. On moving to Milan in late 1749 his work entered its mature stage. Many of his greatest masterpieces come from Milan. The arch grew fuller, less hollowed at the edges, and every aspect of the work is bolder, including the varnish which developed into a particularly luscious rich red-brown laid over a golden ground, with no sign of defect in the texture. A small number of violins dated 1758 give Cremona as the place of origin. While no evidence has yet been found for his residence there, these few instruments are consistent with each other stylistically, and appear at the time Guadagnini was in transit from Milan to his new residence in Parma. Rosengard suggests that he might have spent a short time assisting Paolo Stradivari in Cremona, who had been employing Michael Angelo Bergonzi to assist in winding up the old Stradivari workshop. Bergonzi died in 1758. Guadagnini was established in Parma in the spring of 1758, under the patronage of Guillaume-Leon du Tillot and the Bourbon Duke of Parma, Don Felipe. Guadagnini’s work in this period became a little extreme, his idiosyncracies nearly overwhelming the integrity of the form. This became narrower and more highly arched, the soundholes increasingly exaggerated with the nicks set bizarrely low on the stem. The varnish lost some of the intense redness of the Milan recipe, and is usually a more modest amber colour. At the same time his efforts with the cello reached a beneficial level of invention. His original model, of compact size but full arching and particular breadth across the breast, seems to have been driven by his involvement with players. The results are very successful indeed in terms of facility for the player and depth of tone. Guadagnini in fact was one of the most prolific cello makers of all the 17th and 18th century Italians. The death of Don Felipe in 1768 brought an end to Guadagnini’s financial security and his life became chaotic. With a large family to support he moved again to Turin in 1771. There he became acquainted with the celebrated collector and historian of the violin, Count Cozio di Salabue. Under contract with him to supply new instruments, and also to supply information about old makers and instruments, the relationship seems eventually to have turned sour, but not before Guadagnini had introduced Cozio to Paolo Stradivari, leading directly to his acquisition of the relics of the Stradivari workshop, including the great ‘Messie’ Stradivari violin of 1716. Cozio encouraged Guadagnini to work in a more Stradivarian style and this produced some erratically fine work in his last period. The acknowledgements to Stradivari seem to consist of lowering the arch, adding fluting to the lower wings of the soundholes, and making the lower holes perfectly circular. Some of these late works show a resurgence of Guadagnini’s own style, but are very variable. He was certainly assisted by four of his sons, Gaetano, Giuseppe, Carlo, and Filippo. The best work is on a broad flat model with fine orange varnish, although some have a rather dowdy brown coating. Fine violas also come from this period and, like the cellos, are very compact entirely original models, with the strength and volume focused on the broad breast; all other aspects are reduced to a minimum, presumably in the interests of the player’s comfort. Joannes Baptista Guadagnini / filius Laurentji Guadagnini / fecit Placentiae 1744 Joannes Baptista Guadagnini Pla- / centinus fecit Mediolani 1757 GBGP Joannes Baptista Guadagnini / fecit Cremonae 1758 Joannes Baptista Guadagnini / Cremonensis Fecit Parma / GBGP / C.S.R. 1765 Joannes Baptista Guadagnini / Fecit Parmae serviens / GBGP / C.S.R. 1765 Joannes Baptista Guadagnini / Cremonensis fecit Taurini 1772 GBGP Joannes Baptista Guadagnini / Cremonensis fecit Taurini / GBG / alumnus Antoni Stradivari 1777 Questo corretto e fatto al Convento da me Gian Battista Guadagnini Piacentino in Milano [Rosengard, Doring]

George Hart

He was born, according to Count Cozio di Salabue, at Cremona, and Lancetti States that he worked with his father in Milan. Later he worked at Piacenza, then at Parma, where he became instrument-maker to the Duke. Upon the pensions to the artists of the Duke’s Court being discontinued in 1772, he went to Turin, where he died. Count Cozio di Salabue communicated to Lancetti the following particulars relative to Giovanni Battista Guadagnini. He says, ” He imitated Stradivari, but avoided close imitation of all detail, and prided himself in not being a mere copyist.” He is said to have excited the jealousy of other makers, which caused him to remove so frequently, but most likely he offended chiefly with his hasty temper. Many of his instruments made in Turin between 1773 and 1776 have wood of the handsomest kind. Count Cozio ordered from him several instruments which he added to his collection, among them two Tenors and two Violoncellos. The interest Count Cozio manifested with regard to this maker is shown in his having obtained from the parish registers the dates of his birth and death. He states that he was born in Cremona in 1711, and died in Turin, September 18th, 1786. This last-named date is in conformity with that of 1785, recently given to me by the representatives of the family at Turin, as the last year in which he made instruments. Lorenzo has been regarded as the only pupil of Stradivari in the Guadagnini family ; but if their respective works be closely examined, it will be found that those of Giovanni Battista more closely resemble the instruments of Stradivari than even those of Lorenzo, which is suggestive of his having, in some way, been brought early under the great master’s influence. It is singular that his early labels contain no reference to Cremona, whilst on the late ones there is mention of the famous town, which evidences the correctness of the statement of Count Cozio relative to his birthplace. It is quite evident that he considered the model of Stradivari as that to be followed, and he does not appear to have changed his views on this point at any time, all his works being in accordance with the teachings of the great master. Giovanni Battista was particularly happy in the selection of his wood, it being invariably of the handsomest kind. The backs of his instruments are generally found to be divided, the markings of the wood being very regular; the bellies are of wood well chosen for tone, the varnish very transparent, and of a brilliant colour. The scroll may be described as a rough imitation of that of Stradivari, and to partake generally of the character of the Stradivarian scroll from the date of 1728. The English possess some of the finest specimens of this maker, and were probably the first to recognise their sterling merits. In the correspondence which passed between Count Cozio di Salabue and Vincenzo Lancetti, in the year 1823, the Count says, ” The instruments of G. B. Guadagnini were highly esteemed by connoisseurs and professional men in Holland and Germany.”