The Guardian of Laments is Giacomo Pappalardo's name for this superb old European larch (Larix decidua) 

 I have a soft spot for larches, though ours here in northern Vermont are Tamaracks (Larix laricina) and the two shown here are European larch (Larix decidua). Not the same tree, but same genus and similar when it comes to growing and styling. Both before and after Larches shown here are from earlier Bark posts 

 Here's the before and after and it’s a good one. It was no doubt collected from the wild and shows all the signs of great age.  Scroll down for your link to Giacomo Pappalardo timeline for more on this tree

The large hole and deadwood add character. Well aged bark doesn't hurt either 

The ample apex shows age and a job well done. It's not that easy to develop fine branching with such a profusion of buds on larches

BEFORE & AFTER #TWO 

Another European larch. The artist is Will Baddeley. Someone goy lucky and bought this little gem from Will a while back

Here’s what Will Baddeley wrote about this tree in answer to my inquiry… “Ok. I bought it as raw material from Pavel Slovak in the Czech Republic 6 years ago. First two years were spent reducing and strengthening the bottom branch to use as the apex. This was hollowed with a dremel and bent round to compact the tree. No styling at that time as I wanted it strong. This took a year to hold and the tree had almost healed over. It has had two wirings since…”

As you can see, this before and after shows considerable skill in styling and refining 

After the first restyling

After the second restyling

Will's masthead. An artist with a sense of humor

TIME TO MAKE YOU PLANS FOR THE U.S. NATIONAL
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 Speaking of Larches, we plan on bringing several dozen that I've been field growing to this year's U.S. National. Many are fairly raw stock with minimal pruning etc, though there will be some that are partly styled. They range from 10 to 25 years old.