Born in Minerbio, in the province of Bologna, in 1865, Oreste Candi preceded his brother Cesare in the apprenticeship that the two began with Raffaele Fiorini after being orphaned at a very young age. The two brothers moved to Genoa around 1886, being employed in a local plucked instrument factory, and initially shared a common workshop where they also began to make bowed string instruments.
Compared to Cesare Candi, Oreste's style is more spontaneous and modest, lacking the technical refinement always present in his brother's work. His choice of models is more personal, and occasionally recalls the Genoese eighteenth-century tradition; some features are often exaggerated, such as the depth of the fluting on the plates, the purfling inlaid a considerable distance from the edges, and the large bevel of the scrolls; the button on the back is tall, as per Genoese tradition, and the varnish is often red-orange in color.
