Carlo Antonio Testore

The Hill brothers in London used to refer to the Testore family as “cheap jacks”: the Testores did not have aristocratic clients, but made violins mostly for working musicians. Thus they often had to use reasonably priced maple without spectacular flames; furthermore, to speed up the making process, they often left out the purfling on the back, as well as the hollow moulding on the back of the scroll.

The Testores nevertheless knew very well how to make an instrument with excellent acoustic properties: indeed, to this day, their instruments are highly sought after for concert performance.

Our Testore copies are modelled on two plaster casts from our →glyptotheque, and on a complete CT scan of a 1724 violin by Carlo Antonio Testore.