Città:
Turin
Year:
1888
Liutaio:
Enrico Rocca
From “
La grande Liuteria Italiana” by Artemio Versari
Enrico Rocca followed in his father's footsteps as was the norm. He was born in Turin in 1847, the son of the famous Giuseppe.
In 1850 he lost his mother and in 1853 he moved to Genoa together with his father.
After just a few years it seemed that he no longer lived with his mother. In 1886, a year after his father's death, Enrico lived alone and worked as a boatman. After his military service he worked as a carpenter in the naval shipyard of Genoa.
He only began in lutherie at the end of the 1870, making mandolins in particular.
He presented plucked instruments at exhibitions in Milan, Arezzo, Turin, Genoa, and Antwerp. He participated with a bowed string instrument for the first time at the Milan exhibition in 1894; he did the same at the Turin exhibition in 1898.
When Praga died, the Genoa city council appointed him to conserve the Paganini violin. He died in Genoa in 1915. According to many, Enrico Rocca did not learn the craft from his father, but rather from some Genoese luthier, perhaps Praga. In fact the style of Enrico differs from that of his father and although in a certain period he seemed to use family models, he did so with rather evident spontaneity. He prevalently used the model of Paganini "
Cannone", in addition to other classical models.