Christie's spring sale of Fine Musical Instruments on April 29 will present an exciting and extensive range of stringed instruments including a fine selection of bows.  Of the 143 lots, the sale will lead with an exquisite violin by Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini.

Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini is considered one of the finest violin makers of the 18th century and known as the last great classically trained violin maker of the Northern Italian School.  The violin was made in Piacenza, circa 1740 (illustrated above, estimate: $350,000-450,000) and is one of the earliest of his violins to come to the auction market. 

It would appear to the casual observer that Guadagnini was a violin maker with a touch of wanderlust. Having worked in Piacenza, Milan, Parma and finally Turin, he developed a distinctive style based on his interpretations of the work by Antonio Stradivari. The results were violins that are tonally superior to many of his contemporaries. Guadagnini's early pieces from Piacenza represent works from a violin maker whose craft is already firmly developed. His masterful and individualistic style in the signature oval shape of the F holes' lower lobes and the undercutting on the volute-illustrate a maker who was very quick and deft in his tool.