THE ART OF THE DEAL

Signed 100 years ago, an agreement between luthier Stefano Scarampella and his apprentice Gaetano Gadda has recently been discovered. Philip Kass explains how it shines a light on the business relationship between two of Mantua’s leading 20th-century makers

A selection of tools from the Gadda workshop, now on display at the Chimei Museum in Taiwan

COURTESY CHIMEI FOUNDATION

On 8 August 1924, two violin makers met to work out a sales contract. One was old and at the end of his career; the other was just beginning to make his mark. The consequences of their agreement would extend the influence of the older maker right up to the present day, and fix in our collective minds the look and style of Mantuan violin making.

Stefano Scarampella, the elder one, had been the pre-eminent luthier in Mantua since the 1880s, filling a gap left by the death in 1870 of Gaetano Dionelli. A native of Brescia, Scarampella was born on 17 March 1843 and had just marked his 81st birthday. His training came from his father and especially his brother Giuseppe, who had trained in Genoa, Nice and Paris, and had finished his career in Florence as curator of the collection at the Conservatorio. Stefano, though, was a dilettante, having only arrived in Mantua in 1886 to work on the railway line linking the towns of the Po valley. He listed his profession with the local registry as a carpenter and mechanic. A violin he submitted to a local exposition held there in 1890 earned much acclaim as well as a silver medal, and from that time on he devoted himself to violin making.

By all indications, Stefano was an easy-going soul (far too much so for his brother’s taste), and seems to have worked casually, taking time out of his schedule for local repairs as well as for mentoring some of the local individuals who had an interest in the craft. He had a reputation for making instruments that were tonally excellent but also something of a bargain; his brother chided him for selling his instruments for barely more than the cost of the wood. Most of his guidance went to individuals such as Antonio Pivetta, Oreste Martini, Remo Solferini, Lorenzo Stelluto, Riccardo Cerutti, the Guastalla brothers, Oreste Carpi and Amedeo Simonazzi; individuals who took time away from their day jobs to learn the craft. In the case of the latter few, they made periodic and brief trips from towns outside Mantua in order to gain advice on their ongoing efforts: this resulted in all of them claiming to have been his students, even though the degree of training varied considerably between them. There was only one of them who we can truly identify as a pupil, and that individual was the other signatory to the agreement.

SCARAMPELLA HAD A REPUTATION FOR MAKING INSTRUMENTS THAT WERE TONALLY EXCELLENT BUT ALSO SOMETHING OF A BARGAIN

Front of a 1924 violin by Scarampella, also part of the Chimei collection

COURTESY CHIMEI FOUNDATION

Gaetano Gadda, the younger man, was new to the trade. He was born on 13 April 1900 in Sorgà, a village in the territory of Verona about twelve miles north-east of Mantua. He and his family arrived in the city on 17 November 1915; prior to their arrival Gaetano had been recorded as a fisherman. The family moved into accommodation at via Tazzoli 3, the very same building in which Stefano Scarampella had been living since 1898. This is no doubt how they met, as neighbours.

Contracts such as the document they were about to sign are in principle not rare; we would presume such a contract would be drawn up in any similar transfer of ownership. This one is interesting for two reasons: it involves two of the premier violin makers of the 20th century, and it has survived. The agreement was not formally drawn up by a lawyer. It is an informal contract drawn up by the two parties with their mutual assent, and is witnessed by a third, in this case Lorenzo Stelluto, a policeman and official of the courts, who was also an amateur violin maker and a pupil of Scarampella. We have this act because it was acquired by the Chimei Foundation when it acquired the workshop materials of Mario Gadda, which included the Scarampella workbench, tools and patterns. These are on display at the Chimei Museum in Tainan, Taiwan, which also owns a spectacular collection of stringed instruments by most of the significant makers in the history of the craft.

The two pages of the agreement, dated 8 August 1924 and signed (below) by Stefano Scarampella and Gaetano Gadda, and witnessed by public official Lorenzo Stelluto

WE CAN PRESUME THAT SCARAMPELLA RETIRED FROM ACTIVE WORK AT THIS MOMENT, AND GADDA PICKED UP THE SLACK

Getting back to Scarampella and Gadda, we cannot say what the terms of their relationship were before this agreement. We can presume that Gadda had been working for his master since 1919 at the latest. The contract spells out that his responsibilities there include making instruments and attending to repairs. This matter is addressed directly in the body of the agreement.

The act is brief but to the point. For the sum of 2,000 lire, Gaetano was to acquire the workshop and all its contents: ‘violin making tools and instruments, including models and moulds in paper, cardboard, wood and tin; of violins, violas and cellos and of parts of the instruments themselves; and including also the benches, vices, clamps, chisels, planes etc., which are currently in his property and in use by Mr Gaetano Gadda’ (my translation). This would have included not just the workshop materials crafted and acquired by Scarampella throughout his career but also those he inherited from his brother Giuseppe after the latter’s death in 1902.

The next paragraph deals with another interesting matter: that this sum is also payment for all monies that might be owed to Gaetano but not yet recompensed. This includes finished instruments and repairs conducted in the shop. So it covers all work done up until the end of the previous February and, starting that March, the making of one new violin per month. This is a subtle point, but in essence Gaetano was not paying cash; rather, he was renouncing 2,000 lire owed him by Stefano, that sum being the monies owed to the apprentice but not yet paid to him by the master. Finally, Gadda agreed to provide a monthly payment to Scarampella consisting of revenue for one finished violin per month plus miscellaneous repairs.

From this we can infer that Scarampella retired from active work at that moment, and Gaetano picked up the slack, so presumably from this time onwards the shop was Gadda’s, and the instruments being made would be labelled as such. However, a key matter is left opaque, and that is the degree to which Gaetano might have been working in this way for Scarampella before the agreement was reached.

Those in the trade are very familiar with works of Gaetano and his son being labelled as Scarampella’s. Perhaps we should also presume that some of this was actually sanctioned by Scarampella himself: that is, instruments made by the apprentice Gadda were being sold with the label of the master, Scarampella, by Scarampella himself. Since the acquisition included the entire workshop contents, this would also include the labels, making the process of selling ‘Scarampellas’ that much easier.

In any event, the monthly payments would not go on for very long. Scarampella, presumably feeling his years and probably also suffering from serious illnesses, had no heirs, and so the workshop would have ground to a halt after his death. And this happened fairly soon afterwards, for he died just four months later, on 25 January 1925.

After Scarampella’s death, the workshop on via Tazzoli was closed, and Gaetano opened his own workshop on the via Accademia, a few streets away and closer to the centre of town. In 1926 he and his wife moved into the same building as the workshop, at number 19, where he remained for a few years, and while he made several other moves over the rest of his career, for all but a brief period in the late 1940s they appear to have been to other houses on the via Accademia. Those buildings are still extant.

Back of the Scarampella violin shown on page 43

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY CHIMEI FOUNDATION

FIGURE 1a A Scarampella violin made in 1904, when the luthier was 61 years old

FIGURE 1b This 1924 Scarampella violin clearly shows the hand of Gaetano Gadda in its construction

Of course, in the past few decades the trade has been able to distinguish between the works of master and pupil, because they adopt quite different approaches to some matters. In the case of Gadda, there is also the input of another maker that resulted in a distinctive change in his style.

Scarampella’s work has always struck me as being rough but also rapid and concise, much like the makers who preceded him in Brescia in the 17th century. Gadda’s craftsmanship, on the other hand, is always neater and the surfaces are smoother than those of his teacher.

A few examples show this transition rather clearly. Looking at a violin of 1904 (figure 1a), we see Scarampella’s usual model and wood selection. His edging shows a gentle hollow, with the peak very close to the outer edge, something learnt perhaps from his brother Giuseppe, who in turn had French training. All carved surfaces show evidence of toolmarks not having been cleaned up, especially the scroll, whose tail ends in a flat triangular section rather than the neat central ridge running straight to the end. The f-hole wings are roughly done in a few quick gestures. Along the ribs, there is ample evidence of his toothplane having left straight parallel scratches, many not having been removed or covered with diagonal scraper marks. The same sense of roughness is generally quite obvious when inspecting the interiors as well.

We can contrast this instrument with a very late example of 1924 (figure 1b) in which Gaetano Gadda played a significant role in the construction. The model is similar, but the overall finish is markedly neater. The purfling lacks the typical irregularities and cracks one sees in Scarampella’s purfling. The edging is done in Scarampella’s manner, but the hollow leading to the outside edge is much deeper and more accentuated. Similarly the scrolls, in Gadda’s own manner, are more neatly finished, without the toolmarks left so prominently, the surfaces far less hollowed, and the tail finished with a neat central ridge running straight out to the edges. Furthermore, the back usually narrows much more towards the volutes than in the case of his master.

While the ribs show the same sort of squared-off butt joints we see in the master’s work, the pupil’s joints are more neatly worked and finished, and there is no evidence of the tools used to smooth their surfaces. The same is true of the interior surfaces. The wood selection, though, is the same variety of oppio as one sees on most of Scarampella’s late works.

Scarampella’s last home at via Accademia 19 became Gadda’s home from 1927 to 1931

ALL VIOLIN PHOTOS JAN RÖHRMANN. HOUSE PHOTO PHILIP KASS

SCARAMPELLA’S ARCHING RUNS EDGE TO EDGE, WITH ALMOST NO HOLLOWING – QUITE DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF GADDA

FIGURE 2 This 1924 violin by Gadda has f-holes that show the influence of Pietro Guarneri of Mantua

Another distinctive difference comes from the shape of the arching. Scarampella’s runs edge to edge, with almost no hollowing. This is quite different from that of Gadda, who always leaves some measure of hollowing around the edges. One of my colleagues at William Moennig & Son used to joke that he could always tell a Scarampella from a Gadda because the C-bout clamps always fell off Scarampellas whereas they stayed firmly in place on Gaddas.

These same qualities are visible in another violin of 1924 made by Gaetano (figure 2), this one bearing his own label. This violin, though, employs the Pietro Guarneri-like f-holes that would become more common in his later works.

Gadda’s style did not remain static, however. Around 1927–8, he is believed to have moved to Ferrara, where for a period he studied under Ettore Soffritti. The facts are not entirely clear, for the family did not give up the via Accademia 19 home during this period. It is also quite possible that these were a commuter’s studies, with Gaetano making periodic trips there but always returning home afterwards. We also know that Soffritti made trips to Mantua during these years, for it appears that there was actually a fair bit of commerce in older instruments between the two. It was on one of Ettore’s visits to Mantua that he died. On 3 January 1928 he suffered a fatal heart attack while walking between the Gadda workshop and the train station (the exact location appears to have been by the Teatro Sociale on the via Vittorio Emmanuele II). It happened at 2pm; he was rushed to the hospital but pronounced dead several hours later.

The result of the apprenticeship, such as it was, resulted in instruments such as the violin of 1928 (figure 3), whose chamfered scrolls, rounded edges, and neat corner joints reveal the influence of the Ferrarese master.

FIGURE 3 Gadda’s style continued to evolve, and this 1928 violin also shows the influence of Ettore Soffritti

From this point on, Gadda settled into his final style, a blending of Scarampella’s and Soffritti’s influences that resulted in the classic instruments that distinguished his work, and that of the Mantuan School going forward. He continued working throughout the Second World War and died on 2 March 1956, just shy of his 56th birthday. In his obituary, the Gazzetta di Mantova issued a sympathetic account of his personality, describing him as a modest, hardworking craftsman, in spite of the celebrity he had achieved both at home and abroad, and noting that his annual production of instruments had never exceeded ten per year. The business passed to his son Mario and finally closed on Mario’s death on 13 July 2008. And the family style can be seen in the work of their many apprentices who still ply their craft in the vicinity of Mantua.