Born in 1698, Giuseppe Guarneri was the last member of the family to make violins. He trained with his father Guiseppe Guarneri filius Andrae in his workshop in Cremona until around the 1720s before setting up his own workshop in the same town some years later. His working life was a relatively short one spanning a period of perhaps only 25 years. His making, whilst principally informed by the style of his father and the town in which he worked, seems to suggest that he was strongly influenced by the making of the early Brescian school. Most noticeably in the distinctive outline and the freedom of his approach to the cutting of F holes and scroll. The most celebrated of his instruments were made in the last ten years of his life.

The Ole Bull was made in 1744 the last year Of Guarneri‘s life. The violin is surely one of his most distinctive with its hugely cut f holes dominating the front lending it a slightly awkward appearance. This and the bold use of the gouge particularly in the carving of the scroll and in the fluting around the edges perhaps hint at an old man’s struggle with his hands but also in their application, a freedom of artistic expression and a quickness of working that typified much of his previous work. However, the low, strong arching of front and back which have come to typify the look and sound of his instruments are as perfectly executed as ever as is the beautiful, if thinly applied varnish.

The instrument is first documented in the hands of the Norwegian soloist whose name it bears, Ole Bull. He was a player who was much influenced by Paganini who was a another notable player of Del Gesu’s instruments. It was passed from Ole Bull to James Golding and from there to the collection of C H C Plowden. After Plowden’s death sometime around 1878 the instrument came into the possession of Frederick Lehmann having been much referred to in the writings of French violin maker and dealer Charles Eugene Gand. It travelled with Lehmann throughout America and finally returned to Europe in the hands of Italian violinist Uto Ugli. The violin is now in the collection of the Chi Mei Cultural foundation of Taiwan.