Candi

Cesare Candi (1869-1947)

19th-century Genoese maker Cesare Candi prematurely orphaned, Cesare Candi began at an early age to apprentice under Raffaele Fiorini. In 1888 he joined his brother Oreste at Genova.

For approximately four years he was an employee at the Barberis brothers factory that built mandolins and guitars, acquiring a solid background and making quite a reputation for himself in the city. In 1892, still a dependent, he won a prize at the great Italian- American Exposition. The work shop in via Porta Soprana, where he remained for the rest of his life, was not only a work-place but a salon open to all those with a love for violin making and music.
In occasion of the Stradivari's celebrations in 1937 he restored the 'Cannone' of Paganini.

Candi's activity spanned some sixty years and can be subdivided in four periods: the first, in which he constructs finely inlaid guitars and mandolins; the second, that includes the first string instruments; the third, until the e30s his maximum expression as a mature maker, and the last period where he continues the path already explored in the third period. Students of Candi include Paolo de Barbieri, Giuseppe, B. Lecchi and his grandson Corrado Gritti.