Dmitry Gindin: Expert and consultant in fine stringed instruments

  

Carlo Oddone and Giorgio Gatti

Carlo Giuseppe Oddone, a native of Turin, received a traditional early start to his career, beginning his apprenticeship about the age of 14 in the workshop of Benedetto Gioffredo-Rinaldi, where he stayed for some eight years until the latter's death in 1888. When Romano Marengo-Rinaldi inherited Gioffredo's establishment that year, Oddone left Italy for London to work for Frederick William Chanot. This was probably the first time since Vincenzo Panormo in the mid-18th century that an Italian maker of consequence ended up in the British capital. Oddone's first stay in London ended in 1892, when he returned to Turin and set up his first independent workshop around 1893 to 1894, a time that, perhaps significantly, coincided with the Marchettis' departure from Turin to Cuorgnè.

Giorgio Gatti was born in Chieri, a village 18km southeast of Turin. He arrived in Turin in 1890. His initial occupation is unknown, but in 1893, when the Marchettis moved to Cuorgnè, Gatti opened a workshop at 26 Corso Vittorio Emmanuele II, an address from which he moved in 1917 to work from his own house in via Bardassano. He began making instruments almost contemporaneously with Carlo Oddone in the early 1890s and worked steadily until his death in 1936, at the age of 68 (as had been the case with Oddone).