Born in Piedmont in Italy in 1807, Giuseppe Rocca moved to Turin in 1834 to work for Giovanni Francesco Pressenda. Within three years Rocca had absorbed the latter’s concepts and methods and he opened his own workshop in Turin in 1837. Today his instruments rank alongside Pressenda’s as the pinnacle of the 19th century Turin school. Rocca’s preferred models were those of Stradivari and, in rare cases, Guarneri del Gesù, but this particularly lovely violin is made on Rocca’s personal model, covered in rich red varnish and tonally offering everything a player would expect of a great instrument. The flat arching gives the instrument a strong core with a colourful range of overtones and an open bass register. This violin was sold by W.E. Hill & Sons in 1910 to W.B. Paterson of Old Bond Street, London.