1860 Antonio de Torres

It is believed that Torres built his first guitar in Granada sometime between 1836 and 1842 based on a letter written by Juan Martínez Sirvent in 1931, a priest who knew Torres in his later years. Torres evidently spent a short time in Granada while still living in Vera. It has often been suggested that he studied guitar making under José Pernas. However, José Romanillos points out in his definitive biography, Antonio de Torres Guitar Maker, His Life and Work, there is “no corroborating evidence that has been found to substantiate these claims.” Romanillos concludes that any influence by Pernas was likely limited.

Following the death of his wife and three of his children, combined with the financial turmoil of 1840s Spain, Torres left Vera for the royal city of Sevilla in 1845.

Sevilla was a vibrant guitar-making center where a host of historically important luthiers had setup workshops, including Manuel Gutiérrez, Manuel Soto, and José Serrano. Little is known about Torres’s first decade in Sevilla, but he undoubtedly rubbed shoulders with these makers. According to guitar historian Domingo Prat, Torres shared a workshop with Gutiérrez at 36 Calle de la Cerragería before eventually opening his own workshop a few doors down at number 32. (See the 1837 Manuel Gutiérrez guitar in this collection.)

In the early 1850s, guitar virtuoso Julián Arcas met with Torres and advised him to take up guitar making. Evidence suggests that building guitars was an avocation for Torres, but this encounter may have motivated Torres to take up the profession fulltime.

The first confirmed Torres guitar is dated 1854. Now designated “FE1” or First Epoch #1, Torres numbered and dated his instruments but later included SEGUNDA EPOCA on his labels to differentiate his guitars built in Sevilla from those made in his later years in Almería.

Torres remarried in 1868 but the economic crisis of the late 1860s found him struggling to support his family as a guitar maker in Sevilla. He subsequently returned to Almería in the early 1870s, becoming involved in a series of business ventures. He returned to the business of guitar making in 1877, marking the beginning of his Segunda Epoca, and continued working until his death in 1892.

Torres used a variety of woods in his guitar building and the materials chosen were often dictated by costs and availability. His main focus was on the soundboard, believing it was the key component in achieving the desired sound. Ring patterns of the wood, the plantilla, adjusting the thickness, and internal bracing were all integral to Torres’s soundboard construction. His belief in the primary importance of the soundboard may have been the inspiration behind his famous experimental guitar (FE14) built in 1862. The back and sides were made of paper maché, purportedly to demonstrate the relative unimportance of these two components.

The Torres guitar in the Austin-Marie Collection is dated 1860 and was built at his workshop on Calle de la Cerragería in Sevilla. It is designated by historians as FE12. The four-piece back and sides are made of cypress and the soundboard of closely matched spruce. The soundboard is braced by five radial struts and two diagonal ones. The soundboard and back are secured by continuous kerfed linings made of pine. The back is reinforced with two parallel transverse bars. The cedar neck is fitted with a bull’s horn headstock featuring six tuning pegs and two ribbon holes. The simple rosette design is made of nine concentric thin bands with a matching single band purfling bordering the soundboard. The guitar is in excellent original condition and shows no sign of repairs.

It is estimated that Torres made approximately 300 guitars of which about a third have survived. His contribution to the development of the modern classical guitar assures his legacy, making his surviving guitars among the most collectible of all musical instruments.