In 1894, at the age of 27, Fagnola moved from his hometown Montiglio to Turin, where some of his relatives lived. When he lived in Montiglio, he learned the basics of making stringed instruments from an amateur guitar maker. After moving to Turin, he made precise copies of Carlo Guadagnini’s guitars with his gifted copying skills. One of the copies was judged mistakenly as a genuine Guadagnini by a Turinese instrument dealer, which episode has been told from generation to generation. Afterwards he entered Rinaldi’s atelier where he was trained in professional violin making.
It is said it was presumably Rinaldi’s atelier that he saw and touched excellent Turinese violins, including Guadagnini, Pressenda and Rocca and got enormous impact from them, which drove him to copy them repeatedly. His great achievement was brought about by copying masters from Cremona and Turin, not by following Rinaldi’s style.
From the early stage of his life in Turin, he received support from an instrument dealer, Orazio Reggerro, who was also a wealthy attorney and violin collector, and his fan increased steadily in and outside the country.
He was awarded in exhibitions in Genoa and Milan in 1906, which made his name known to the public. This success gave him an opportunity to establish a large atelier next year, which survived unsteady social conditions until 1921 with excellent assistants including Genovese.
This piece of his artwork was made in 1905, one year before his starting the atelier, and was clad in impressive thick and soft orange-brown varnish on the beautifully reflecting golden base.
In those days, Fagnola used high quality materials without exception and was proud of the high level of precision. All the scrolls were carefully and gracefully formed and black chamfering was done. It was in those days that a D-shaped cut on the button on the back, one of Fagnola’s characteristics, started to be seen.
Focused strong gorgeous sound with 3D feeling make this violin extremely practical and rare for performers.