The emergence and development of the Russian seven-string guitar has often been credited to composer, virtuoso, and teacher Andrei Sychra (c. 1773–1850). Sychra was born in Vilnius, Lithuania and later worked in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He is often cited as the instrument’s patriarch, if not its inventor.
Thomas Preston was the son of the famous eighteenth-century London-based “guittar” maker John Preston (1727–1798). The guittar (sometimes referred to as the “English” guittar) was a plucked string instrument, similar in shape to a sixteenth-century cittern. Strung with wire, its six courses were tuned to an open-C chord and used extensively for accompanying the voice. […]
The work of George Lewis Panormo (1815–1877) represents the final chapter in the storied history of England’s premiere guitar-making family of the nineteenth century. George Lewis’s uncle Louis Panormo (1784–1862) arrived in London from Paris with his family in or around 1789, escaping the turmoil of the French Revolution. After being trained as a violin […]
The Roudhloff brothers, Dominique and Arnaud, arrived in London from Mirecourt in Northeastern France sometime around 1830. Born into a family of guitar makers, they learned the luthier craft from their father, Charles, and uncle, François. Upon arriving in London, they likely worked for other musical instrument makers, with strong evidence showing that Dominique was […]
Census records show that Charles Bruno was born in Saxony in 1806, and as a young man, followed the historic wave of German immigration to America during the second quarter of the nineteenth century.
Born Christian Friederich Martin on January 31st, 1796 in Neukirchen (renamed Markneukirchen in 1858), Saxony, C. F. Martin, was the iconic founder of America’s greatest guitar-making dynasty. His father Johann Georg Martin was a cabinet maker who also crafted guitars. The young Martin carried on the family tradition, working in the workshop of the renowned […]
William Tilton was an American inventor and luthier who began manufacturing instruments in New York in 1853. Tilton made new guitars and retrofitted others with his patented improvements. These included his signature metal tailpiece to relieve the tension of the strings upon the soundboard and allow for lighter bracing.
In Peter Szego’s Inventing the American Guitar (2013), contributor and essayist David Gansz contrasts the production methods of C.F. Martin (1796–1873) to that of his contemporary, James Ashborn (1816–1876). Gansz describes Martin’s background as steeped in the “old world tradition” whereas a luthier trained to become a master by showing they could build a complete […]
Saxony was a major hub for the manufacture and export of musical instruments during the nineteenth century. The region was a treasure trove of natural resources, especially for the tone woods used in the luthier trade. The Klemm family of Markneukirchen established outlets in America, likely to disintermediate the supply chain, and sell German-made instruments […]
Louis Schmidt and Henry Schatz both worked with C. F. Martin in his workshop on the Lower West Side of Manhattan soon after Martin arrived from Saxony in late 1833; and while there is no evidence to suggest that George Maul worked in Martin’s shop, he may have been contracted by Martin as his name […]
James Ashborn (c. 1816–1876) arrived in America from England in the late 1830s. Ashborn’s story is as much about the democratization of musical instrument ownership through mass production, as it is about guitar making.
Louis Schmidt and George Maul were two of the leading figures on a long list of business associates, craftsmen, and suppliers who worked with C. F. Martin during his formative years in America. Schmidt likely apprenticed under Martin in Neukirchen (officially renamed Markneukirchen in 1858), Saxony. At the age of 19, his name appears on […]
Born Jean Babtiste Coupa in 1808, John Coupa was a guitarist and teacher working in Boston during the 1830s. He advertised as a professor of the “Spanish Guitar” and “French and Italian languages.” A concert program from March 25, 1830, lists him playing a guitar solo between a vocalist accompanied on piano and a work […]
Christian Friedrich Martin (1796–1873) and Heinrich (later anglicized to “Henry”) Schatz (c. 1802–1867) began their careers as carpenters in Neukirchen (renamed Markneukirchen in 1858), in the Kingdom of Saxony (part of the Germany Confederation). Both Martin and Schatz were employed in Vienna at the workshop of legendary luthier Johann Georg Stauffer in the early 1820s. […]
Louis Panormo’s career as Britain’s premier guitar luthier of the nineteenth century spanned nearly five decades. The 1849 Panormo in the Austin-Marie Collection is an example of his later work. The label carries the appellative, “The Only Maker of Guitars in the Spanish Style,” which had graced Panormo’s labels since 1828, the year after the […]
The brothers Dominique (1798–?) and Arnould (c. 1804–?) Roudhloff traveled to London in the 1830s from Mirecourt in Northeastern France. London trade directories show that by 1839, the Roudhloffs were working at 81 Charlotte Street in the Marylebone district, and later moved to number 87 sometime during 1848. The Roudhloffs soon became Panormo’s biggest rival […]
At the turn of the nineteenth century, a new instrument began to overtake the English guittar (a cittern-shaped instrument) in popularity: what the English called—and still call—the “Spanish guitar,” with six single strings. This led to the emergence of a new school of guitar making, almost exclusively based in London, and arguably representing the most […]
Joseph Gérard (c. 1806–1844) was a favorite maker of the acclaimed British guitar virtuoso, composer, and tutor Catharina Josepha Pelzer (1824–1895), later known through marriage as Madame Sidney Pratten. Gérard likely arrived in London after 1830 to build guitars in the R. & W. Davis workshop (please see the R. &. W Davis guitar attributed […]
Cousins Richard and William Davis opened their luthier workshop in 1822 on Coventry Street in London’s West End. Their quaint storefront, with double bow-fronted windows and the royal coat-of-arms over the door, was very different from the building that stands there today with its assorted curio shops catering to tourists. Their elaborate guitar labels depicting […]
Louis Panormo was England’s most influential guitar maker during the first half of the nineteenth century. Panormo’s first known guitar, the 1816 in the Austin-Marie Collection, stands alone as the only verifiable example of his work until 1822. From that year, only four guitars are known to have survived: two in private collections, one in […]
Thomas Preston was the son of the famous eighteenth-century London-based “guittar” maker John Preston (1727–1798). The guittar (sometimes referred to as the “English” guittar) was a plucked string instrument, similar in shape to a sixteenth-century cittern. Strung with wire, its six courses were tuned to an open-C chord and used extensively for accompanying the voice. […]
At the turn of the nineteenth century, a new instrument began to overtake the cittern-like English guittar in popularity: what the English called (and still call) the “Spanish guitar,” with six single strings. This led to the emergence of a new school of guitar making, almost exclusively based in London, and arguably representing the most […]
James Longman opened his music shop in 1767 not far from St. Paul’s Cathedral in Cheapside, a bustling business destination in London during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Longman was a seller of printed music and a full line of musical instruments including violins, woodwinds, and keyboards. He later joined with Francis Broderip […]
The history of the guitar in England is detailed in a fascinating set of books by Christopher Page, who traces the guitar’s lineage through the chronology of Royal dynasties. The Guitar in Tudor England tells the story of the four-course Renaissance guitar as it was played by everyone from the nobility down to fashionable young […]
Johann Georg Stauffer had three sons: Franz, Johann Anton, and Alois. His second son, Johann Anton (1805–1871), pursued a career as a pianist in his youth, but began working for his father building guitars in 1826. He took over the family business in 1833, although Georg continued to make guitars well into the 1840s.
Johann Georg Stauffer (1778–1853) of Vienna stands alongside his contemporaries, Pierre René Lacote of Paris and Louis Panormo of London, as one of the greatest luthiers of the first half of the nineteenth century. He built violins, violas, cellos, invented the arpeggione (immortalized by Schubert), and produced some of the finest guitars of his time. […]
Joseph Mathias Neüner III (1762–1830) of Mittenwald was part of the Neüner dynasty, which traced its roots back to the seventeenth-century luthier, Mathias Neüner I.
Joseph Rieger (1776–1830) was the son of the violin maker Anton Rieger of Mittenwald. During the nineteenth century, Mittenwald was Germany’s second largest violin making center after Markneukirchen. Originally a Bavarian outpost that was quite literally mitten im Wald, “in the middle of the woods,” the town was located along the trading routes from Augsburg […]
Establishing Madrid as an important center of Spanish guitar making in the early nineteenth century is difficult due to the prominence of the Cadiz luthiers, but by the middle of the century, Francisco Gonzalez founded the Madrid School, which later gave rise to the Ramírez dynasty. Another prominent luthier working in the capital, but only […]
The work of Antonio de Torres (1817–1892) is legendary. Often called the Stradivari of guitar making, his innovations in design and construction have left an indelible mark on guitar lutherie for well over a century after his death. His guitars were played and favored by the leading virtuosos of his day, including Francisco Tárrega, Julián […]
Antonio de Lorca García (c. 1798–1870) of Málaga was the patriarch of one of the most influential families of guitar makers in nineteenth-century Spain. He employed at least four journeymen during his career and apprenticed his only son, Antonio de Lorca Pino, who later achieved success as a luthier and distinguished player. His grandson, Antonio […]
Little is known about Manuel Gutiérrez Martínez of Sevilla (c. 1773–1857) and his work. His father was a silversmith, but we have no knowledge of where, or from whom, he learned his craft. The most famous violero (luthier) working in Sevilla in the eighteenth century was Francisco Sanguino, but their incoincident dates meant that Gutiérrez […]
Surprisingly little is known about Agustín Caro of Granada except for what the six surviving guitars built between 1803 and 1829 can tell us about his work. The amount of missing historical evidence regarding his life and family, date of birth and death, his professional associations and training, the location(s) of his workshop(s), etc. is […]
Joséf Pagés (c. 1762–c. 1822) was the son of one of the most famous of all six-course guitar makers, Juan Pagés of Cádiz. Joséf had three younger brothers (Antonio, Francisco, and Joaquín) who after working as journeymen for Juan, also made guitars under their own labels. Yet none were so prolific as Joséf and his […]
The Cádiz School of guitar makers, which included Pagés, Benedid, Pérez, Sanguino, and Martínez—all originating from the region of Andalucia in Southern Spain—was well known for its guitar production in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. To the north, luthiers in Madrid were producing guitars too, but with a uniquely different body shape and […]
Manuel Martínez was born in Málaga in or around 1774 and became a master guitar maker in 1806. Manuel was cited among the luthiers preferred by the Spanish virtuoso and composer Fernando Sor in his Méthode pour la Guitare.
Juan Pagés (1741–1821) was one of the founding members of the Cádiz School of guitar makers and the father of four sons who built guitars under their own label, including the famed Joséf Pagés (c. 1760–c. 1822). Pagés guitars were highly regarded and mentioned favorably by guitar virtuosos Fernando Sor and Dionisio Aguado.
Sixteenth-century Spain was the cultural center for the music making of the vihuelistas, players of the vihuela da mano—a guitar-shaped instrument strung with five to six courses. It is believed that the vihuela was adopted by Christian Spain because the other popular plucked instrument of the day, the lute, was too similar in shape to […]
Jérôme Thibouville-Lamy & Co. was Mirecourt’s largest manufacturer of musical instruments during the nineteenth century. The 1892 J. T. L. guitar in the Austin-Marie Collection is an example of the firm’s most ornate and expensive model. Although the guitar carries no maker’s label, the dealer’s label from Biarritz, France is visible through the soundhole.
The town of Mirecourt is situated in the Vosges area of Northeastern France near the borders of Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Germany. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Mirecourt came into its musical instrument making heyday, consisting mainly of small family-run workshops employing highly skilled craftsmen.
