Grancino Violin

This violin was made by Giovanni Grancino in Milan, Italy after 1710. This instrument was probably made after 1710 when Grancino frequently abandoned the practice of making violins of large body length (35.5 cm [14"] or larger). In compensation for length, bodies of the later instruments were usually of a broad model with archings reduced in height relative to earlier periods. The back of this example has a broader fuller arching than that of the table, a feature that would provide increased concentration of sound with the newly developed lower strings of gut wound with metal wire. This violin is made of a two-piece table of spruce with a beautifully even grain, narrowing at the flanks, back of two-piece maple cut on the quarter bearing very mild even medium descending figure, ribs of similar quarter cut maple with mild to faint figure, grafted maple neck terminating in a plain maple pegbox and scroll with deeply cut volutes and medium fine chamfer, and a transparent golden-yellow varnish.

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