Guitar

This nearly pristine instrument is a fine example of Spanish guitar making in the late eighteenth century. Rather unusually, the soundboard is of five pieces, similar to a guitar by Frías located in the Museo de la Festa in Alicante. It is decorated with inlaid rosewood, mother-of-pearl, and ebony floral features around the soundhole, at the base of the fingerboard, and between the bridge and the end of the guitar. An important feature of this instrument is the absence of bracing on the underside of the soundboard. Most six-course (twelve-string) guitars of this period were fan braced, whereas here the soundboard has been reinforced with woven cloth adhered in an X pattern to the inside of the soundboard. (Daniel Wheeldon 2016)

Technical description: Twelve-string (six-double course) guitar; five-piece pine top with ebonized hardwood binding and ebonized hardwood/pine/b/p/b/inlaid square pattern purfling; soundhole diameter of 83.13 surrounded by a highly ornate mother-of-pearl, rosewood, and black mastic decoration; ebonized hardwood mustacioed tie bridge with rosewood veneer and bone; ornate mother-of-pearl, rosewood, and black mastic decoration between the bridge and bottom end of the instrument; two-piece rosewood back with ebonized hardwood binding and b/r/b/r/b purfling; rosewood ribs; mahogany neck; mahogany and rosewood head with ebonized hardwood binding; rosewood double chevron veneer to seventh fret on the fingerboard, thereafter pine with matching binding as soundboard; fourteen silver frets (ten on neck, four on soundboard); rosewood friction tuners with mother-of-pearl, ivory, and ebony inlay (Daniel Wheeldon 2016)