Carlo Giuseppe TESTORE

b. at Novara; settled at Milan about 1687, and worked there till about 1720. He was a pupil of Giovanni Grancino, for whose work his instruments are often mistaken. He was the best workman in this family, but did not make many instruments. His violins, of excellent wood, show good strong work, but not highly finished, and are plain in appearance. The pattern varies; it is moderately arched , the varnish is dry and of a brownish-yellow colour; the tone is good, sometimes very powerful and penetrating. For his violoncellos he generally used pear-tree wood for the backs and very fine wood for the bellies ; the tone was very powerful. When the well-known Lindley “Grancino” violoncello was repaired in 1844, by Andreas Engleder of Münich, the original label, in good preservation, read as follows : " Carlo Giuseppe Testore allievo di Gio. Gran-cino in Contrada Larga di Milano, 1690." A double-bass of his was played on by the celebrated Bottesini at concerts; it had a splendid tone. Label: "Carlo Giuseppe Testore in Contrada larga di Milano al segno deir aquila, 1700." He had two sons, Carlo Antonio and Paolo Antonio, both violin makers.