A fine Italian by Giuseppe Dall’Aglio is now available at Ruschil London. An exquisite, characterful and rich violin constructed from fine materials and finished with a luscious, transparent Italian varnish. The violin, made c.1820, is a copy of Guarneri del Gesu in Dall’Aglio’s own inimitable style, a rarity for the times. Luxurious materials, fine craftsmanship and an eccentric, bold character have created an instrument of rare beauty.

Tonally the violin is phenomenally characterful; rich, sweet, dark and very Italian. It would suit a player looking for pure quality of sound. Dark and brooding in the lower register, with a solid core across all strings and a sweet, sonorous E string that sounds like pure honey.

About The Maker:

Giuseppe Dall’Aglio, Mantova 1795-1840

“The instruments of Giuseppe Dall’Aglio present a fascinating blend of refinement and eccentricity. At first glance they can seem irregular—sometimes even awkward—with middle bouts that draw too sharply inward and an overall geometry that refuses to conform to the cleaner, more measured outlines of his contemporaries. Yet this apparent disorder hides a deeper allegiance to an earlier Mantuan language. His models draw unmistakably on the work of Camilli and, at moments, on the lyrical sensibility of Peter Guarneri of Mantua, as though Dall’Aglio were consciously reaching back to the 18th-century ideals that had already begun to fade from mainstream practice.

The soundholes are among his most striking features: long, open, and confidently cut, often with lower wings that stretch outward in a manner that recalls the late style of del Gesù. The arching tends toward the flat, though examples exist with a more pinched, compact rise. The scrolls rarely follow strict proportional logic; they can appear loosely conceived and somewhat roughly finished, but they carry a handmade charm that aligns perfectly with the character of the bodies they crown.

His varnish, usually a golden yellow shading into a darker orange, has a firm, somewhat hard texture but is of genuinely fine quality—another nod to the older Mantuan aesthetic he seems to have admired.”

Comes fully certified by expert John Dilworth.