Violin inspired by Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri ‚del Gesù‘, Violin, Cremona, c. 1744, the ‚Leduc‘
Believed by many to be Guarneri’s last work, based on the authentic label dated 1745, a year after del Gesù’s death. Hargrave suggests that the instrument may have been completed and labeled by Guarneri’s wife Katarina Rota. This theory is supported by several historical references. Fetis notes that Carlo Bergonzi II (the grandson of the great violin-maker) had mentioned that del Gesù’s wife had assisted her husband, though Fetis didn’t know the name of the wife. And Petherick wrote in 1905 that he had seen an instrument with a 1749 Cremona label by „Katerina Guarneria“. He also had no way of knowing that del Gesù’s wife’s first name was Katarina, and that because she was from Vienna, she would have been more likely to spell her name with a ‚K‘ than with a ‚C‘ as most Italians did.
*Text from Tariso | Carlos Chiesa, John Dilworth, Roger Graham Hargrave, Stewart Pollens, Duane Rosengard & Eric Wen, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesú (2 volumes), London