Gaetano Sgarabotto, 1878-1959

Gaetano Sgarabotto (1878-1959) was born in Vicenza. In 1901, Gaetano went to Milan and entered Bisiach’s workshop. He stayed there until 1926 when he left for Parma and established the Parma violin making school. Gaetano Sgarabotto and his son Pietro both became honorable violinmakers of 20th century.

The unique violinmaking style of the Sgarabottos lies not only in the meticulous selection of wood, but also their delicate craftsmanship. Every single curve across the instrument is precise and perfect. Their works express tremendous passion for artistic achievements, and are very much sought after by many professional players. The Sgarabottos inherited an important heritage in violinmaking history, and had profound influences both in Parmese region and contemporary Cremonese school.

The varnish of this violin is orange red, with the volutes only flatly carved. Gaetano inlaid the narrow purflings used for three- quarter sized violin in this case, an extremely difficult approach. Though he omitted using ground varnish and applied the main varnish directly, which created some minor black dots on the plates ; this violin is nonetheless neatly made with sure hands, and the tonal quality is bright and pleasant, a fine example of a great reformer in modern violinmaking.

Hint: 按Esc鍵或點擊此方框以外區域均可關閉說明