In 1894, Fagnola, at the age of 27, moved from his hometown Montiglio to Turin, where some of his relatives lived.
While living in Montiglio, he learned how to make guitars from an amateur maker.
An interesting anecdote is that, after moving to Turin, he showed his own talent of copying by making an exact copy of Carlo Guadagnini guitar, which a musical instrument dealer in Turin took for an authentic guitar.
Afterwards, he entered Rinardi’s atelier and was trained in professional violin making by Marengo Romano.
It is said that during the training he probably saw excellent artwork by Guadagnini, Pressenda, Rocca and some others in Turin, was deeply impressed with them, and he repeatedly copied them.
As a result, instead of following Rinardi’s style, he copied masters’ artwork in Cremona and in Turin to make his own great achievements.
In Turin, he was fortunate from the start as a violin maker by receiving support from Orazio Roggero, who was a lawyer and violin collector and played as an instrument dealer for Fagnola, and Fagnola’s fans steadily increased inside and outside Italy.
In 1906, he received awards in exhibitions in Genoa and Milan, which made his name known to the public.
Next year of these achievements, he established his atelier, working with excellent assistants including Genovese, which existed through the dramatically changing world until 1921.
Around this so-called challenging period, two precious violins were made in 1905 and 1909. Here we introduce them.
Any instrument of his making in this period was made of high quality material and showed high levels of precision.
Every aspect of the scrolls was carefully and elegantly carved and there is black chamfering.
In and after this period, one of the characteristics of his violins was D-letter sculpture on the button on the back.
The violin of 1905 is clad in thick and soft orange-brown varnish on the beautifully reflecting golden base.
The violin of 1909 is delicately clad in hard varnish on slightly dark-colored base.
These variations explain repeated trial and error in this challenging period.
The violin of 1909 is described in “THE MODERN ITALIAN VIOLIN MAKERS” by Dmitry Gindin as an excellent early-day example of Stradivari model.