Starting a Research on my 1867 Antonio de Torres Guitar
Description: original top, back, head and label. It was restored and belonged to a Spanish luthier who studied classical guitar with Daniel Fortea, who at the same time studied with Tarrega. The guitar was restored by him but rings, bars and fingerboard are not original. A good restoration. Peculiarity of the guitar: As for the 21 frets: the guitar originally was built with 21 frets, looking for higher notes for virtuosism or to play certain guitar works of the time or piano pieces? My hypothesis is that the guitar top had to be built with 21 frets originally.. I analyzed a Torres guitar owned by an official musical centre in Granada which is built with 18 frets. So, not all the Torres guitars are built with 19 frets.
Torres also had to build by order custom guitars like any other expert guitar-maker.
I am delighted with the guitar. It is a restored guitar, like most Torres guitars, with all the Torres characteristics: wood, shape, construction, rosette, head, label. There are two peculiarities that make this Torres guitar unique:
One of them is the 21 fret: during that period classical virtuosos looked for new sounds more adapted to a solo instrument or reaching the level of violins and pianos. After that and the establishment of 19 frets and 6 strings more adapted to the generality of guitar-players, stopping innovations arranged between virtuosos and luthiers like Torres. This guitar was built with 21 frets without any ulterior change according to the measures and distances of the top and the rosette. Who would make a copy with 21 fret just to pretend it is a Torres without it being a Torres?
Another peculiarity is the metal plate on the head (like La Invencible that belonged to Federico Cano). Looking at the old pictures before the guitar was restored, I realized the metal mark was there originally.
Two Antonio de Torres guitars:
- Antonio de Torres 1867, private collection Daniel Gil de Avalle
- Antonio de Torres 1883, Centro de Documentación Musical de Andalucía
I calculated the prize according to the collector Jim Forderer’s appreciations about Torres guitars in 2008: 70,000-100,000 euro.
Email for further information: info@gildeavalle.com
