Born in 1818, Giuseppe Sgarbi belonged to that interesting generation of Emilian violin makers who, although largely self-taught, were able to express a spontaneous and personal style typical of 19th-century Italy. Active in Finale Emilia from around 1840, he moved to Rome in 1878, where he worked alongside his son Antonio. He then returned to Modena in 1890, where he died in 1905.
He used an elegant model with rounded lines vaguely reminiscent of the Amati style; the corners are usually short, the purfling has wide black strips and is placed at a narrow distance from the edge. The sound holes are long and close together, sometimes with non-straight but rather convex wings. The pegbox is full in the lower part and slender in the upper section, and the scroll is rounded and softened at the edges in a typically Emilian style.
