A Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin has sold for GBP1,587,000 (€1.8m) at auction, setting a new record for the maker. Crafted between 1773 and 1775 in Turin, the Sinzheimer violin may once have been played by celebrated teacher Carl Flesch.
“Instruments from this period have a flat arch, a golden straw-colored varnish, offset pins on two-piece backs and a reversion to non-oval, Stradivari-inspired lower soundholes,” stated the Tarisio catalogue description. “We see twins of this instrument in the 1775 ‘Bisiach, Joseph, Dushkin’, the 1774 ‘Salabue, de Narp’, the 1772 ‘Kaufman’, the 1773 ‘Campoli, Grumiaux’ and many others.”
Listed with an estimate of GBP500,000-700,000, the auction beat the record previously set in 2016 with the sale of the Havemeyer cello for GBP1.04m. The previous highest for a Guadagnini violin was GBP867,048 set in October 2013.
