Matteo Gofriller is a wonderful, muscular and adaptable maker, the effective founder of the colourful Venetian school of violin making, and a master of all three strains of the craft; the violin, cello, and viola.

Giovanni Rota came too late to join the great list of Cremonesemakers, but the comparatively few examples that turn up today show thathe had a formidable and original talent, equal to many of hispredecessors and certainly most of his contemporaries. He wasapprenticed to Lorenzo Storioni, perhaps the best opportunity for anyviolin maker in that comparatively impoverished period, but developed aremarkably distinctive style in a short time.

A scion of the extensive instrument-making Eberle family of Vils and Prague, Tomaso was born in 1727 and spent his professional life in Naples, where he seems to have learnt his craft from a member of the Gagliano family.  Nicolo Gagliano is usually cited in this regard, but there are strong elements of his brother Gennaro in the disciplined and precise nature of Eberle’s work. Eberle’s instruments are very typical of Naples, regardless of his background, with beech purfling and a hard, slightly green-tinged golden varnish laid over a dark ground. What distinguishes him stylistically is a rather boxy arching profile- owing more than a little to Stainer, with a tight edge flute and a flattened centre  not seen in Gagliano work, and of course, his very exact workmanship.

Joseph Henry and Pierre Simon were, arguably, the greatest disciples of the Dominique Peccatte ‘school’ of bowmaking. While their styles were - for periods of their careers - derivatives of Peccatte’s, their workmanship was in no way inferior to that of the more celebrated maker. These three master bowmakers shared links at various times throughout their careers:they were all born and initially trained in Mirecourt; they all relocated (independently) to Paris and they all worked at various times for J.B.Vuillaume.

Guidantus is a rare but significant Bolognese maker, and this cello must be one of the finest and most important examples of his work. The rarity of his instruments is explained by the fact that his life was mostly spent as the officially appointed repairer of instruments at the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna, a position he inherited from his father, Floriano Guidanti in 1716. As a maker, his work shows a strong Tononi influence, and the makers can be easily confused, although Guidantus’ instruments tend to be more disciplined and possibly more mechanical in execution.