Giuseppe Antonio Rocca was born in 1807 in a small village called Barbaresco, on the Langue hills near Alba in Piemonte Region, Italy.
At first, he learned woodwork in Genoa and then moved to Turin to start making stringed instruments in earnest. It has been said that he was influenced by G. F. Pressenda(1777-1854) and studied in Pressenda’s atelier. In 1842, he established his own atelier with high levels of skills and started receiving orders from the Turinese Royal Conservatoire and the Royal Orchestra members. On the other hand, he had opportunities to see and touch renowned instruments of Stradivari and Guarneri through friendship with Luigi Tarisio, which drove him to seek forhis own model.
In the latter half of 1840s, dramatic developments were seen in Rocca’s artwork with quality of varnish, powerful feeling of sculpture and perfection of acoustic design.After his golden period in Turin, everything reached its zenith in 1850s: instrument-making skills, aesthetic senseand acoustic design. From around 1850s, he had two bases of instrument-making work in Genoa and Turin.
In the mid 1950s, he participated in international exhibitions, like the exposition in Turin, and received some awards, which made his name known inside and outside Italy.

The Rocca 1854, which we have sold to a customer in Japan, was made after the model of “Alard” 1742 by Guarneri del Gesu, who was a great luthier of the 18th century comparable to Stradivari. It is a rarest model among his artwork left over generations until today. It was long possessed by Leonidas Kavakos, who is reputed as the top-ranked violinist of today. He also possessed a Stradivari and chose between the Stradivari and the Rocca according to what to play. As a result, the Rocca wasplayed by Kavakos for co-performances with many orchestras. As he wrote in a letter, “very powerful warm sound in the direction of del Gesu,” he highly appreciated this violin.