Testore, Carlo Giuseppe
Testore Carlo Antonio, *1 September 1693 Milan, †circa 1765 Milan, Italian luthier, son of Carlo Giuseppe. He studied with his father and built instruments in the style of his instruments but with a lighter, golden-yellow shade of varnish. Although they also have a full sound, they are not as good as Carlo Giuseppe’s instruments. Like his violins, they often have a double line incised on the bottom plate instead of the traditional string, and in addition to violin notes, a mark burned on the bottom plate in the shape of a double-headed eagle inscribed in a circle with the initials C.A. T. Towards the end of his life, he collaborated with his son Giovanni (1724–1765), who mainly built violins based on the model of Guarneri del Gesù.
Literature: E. Mariani Nel mondo della liuteria italiana, Savona 1972; La liuteria milanese nel XVIII secolo. Mostra organizzata nel Museo annesso alla Biblioteca del Conservatorio…, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1982; U. Azzolina Liuteria italiana del’Ottocento e del Novecento, Cremona 1989; C. Chiesa Violin Making and Makers on the Contrada Larga in Milan and P. Kass Stringed Instruments of the Milanese Liutai of the Contrada Larga, “Journal of the Violin Society of America” XIV, 1996; L. Libin Carlo Antonio Testore Violin (1737), “The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin” LVI/2, 1998; S. Reiley Carlo Giuseppe Testore Double Bass, c. 1750, “Bass World. The Magazine of the International Society of Bassists” XXVIII, 2004.