cello
Giovanni Grancino
built in Milan in 1703
A cello built by Giovanni Grancino in Milan in 1703.
History of this instrument
The Grancino is the first cello that the Musical Instrument Fund was able to acquire. This took place in 1989, one year after the foundation was established. Not much is known about the history of this cello other than that it was purchased by a previous owner from the renowned London dealer and “world’s most respected expert,” Charles Beare. The purchase was made possible by an anonymous donation and the intervention of Jaap ter Linden, who was playing the cello at the time. He would continue to play the cello until the end of 2009, after which the Grancino passed into the hands of Joris van den Berg, winner of the cello competition at the first Cellobiennale in Amsterdam.
About the builder Giovanni Grancino
The rise of Milanese violin making began with the Grancino family. Prior to that, the city had no established tradition in the field of violin making. Well past the mid-seventeenth century, their workshop remained the only one of...
