Giovanni Francesco Leonpori

Leonpori or Leoripori (both spellings are found on his manuscript labels) is a rarely encountered maker of the mid-eighteenth century, who worked in Milan and later in Rome. It is possible and likely that he worked with the Testore family in Milan, and the few instruments reliably attributed to him show clear influences of their style, with small, pointed corners and rather elongated soundholes. There are also resonances with Carlo Ferdinando Landolphi in the extended volutes of the scroll, although the archings remain high and slightly pinched. In 1759 he was in Rome, according to one label in which he describes himself as ‘Milanese’.