The 1744 Guarneri del Gesù "Ole Bull": A Master's Final Year
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù died in October 1744. The violin now known as the "Ole Bull" bears a label signed that same year. It may be one of the last instruments he ever completed.
The instrument
Even by del Gesù's unconventional standards, this violin is unusual. The body is shorter than a standard violin at 35.2 cm — compact enough to feel different under the chin, but with a sound that contradicts its size. Players describe enormous projection with an intimacy that larger instruments don't always achieve.
The construction shows the marks of a maker no longer correcting toward an ideal. The two-piece top is made from spruce of different ages — wood from different trees, joined into something new. The whole instrument is asymmetric in ways that a more careful maker might have corrected. Hill & Sons, the great London dealers, called it "the most characteristic masterpiece of Guarneri del Gesù." The asymmetries are part of why.
Ole Bull
The violin takes its name from the Norwegian virtuoso Ole Bull, one of the most celebrated players of the 19th century — Schumann considered him Paganini's equal. Bull owned instruments by Stradivari, Amati, and Gasparo da Salò. Among everything he owned, this was the one he valued most.
That detail is worth remembering. A man who owned some of the finest instruments in the world chose this one above the rest.
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Where it is now
The 1744 "Ole Bull" is currently in the Chi-Mei Culture Foundation collection in Taiwan. A 2010 celebration of Ole Bull's 200th birthday in Bergen brought renewed attention to the instrument — and to the question of what made it, above all others, the one a great violinist kept returning to.
Guarneri del Gesù left behind fewer than 150 known instruments. This one, made in his final year, carries both his name and the name of the player who loved it most.
The geometry of the 1744 "Ole Bull" — its shorter body, distinctive arching, characteristic f-holes — is among the most studied Guarneri models in existence. We build our own version in our Guangzhou workshop, handmade and set up individually before shipping.
Interested in the Ole Bull model? Browse our handmade Guarneri del Gesù violins — free shipping worldwide.