19th Century Guitar

The classical six string guitar of the 19th Century resembles several fretted zithers from the ancient Mediterranean world. The word "guitar" comes from, "qitara", an Arabic name. The baroque guitar of Spain and the Vihuela generally had five string courses. Treble strings were paired. These earlier instruments are closer to the lute in both tuning and construction. The "Spanish" guitar comes to Spain by way of France, Italy and Austrian makers early in the 19th Century.

At present the earliest unaltered classic guitar, datable with certainty, is an Italian instrument in Stockholm, Musikhistoriska Museet annex, with the label "Gio. Battista Fabricatore fecit An 1791 in S.M. del Ajuto, Napoli." (Thomas Heck, 1972) Harvey Turnbull tells us in, The Guitar from the Renaissance to the Present Day (New York, 1974), that the guitar with six single strings is probably of French or Italian origin, [but] definitely not of Spanish origin (p. 64).

Whether it was the French or the Italians who made the first classical six string guitars, 1790-1830 displayed a strong consistency in design. Because of the abundance of fakes using similar labels at the time, it is difficult to attribute surviving guitars to their makers. From what does survive, the first classic guitars were probably made in Naples in the 1770s or 80s. Such instruments can readily be found dating from the 1790s with such labels as Gagliano, Fabricatore, Valenzano, Trotto, and Vinaccia. The original classic guitars, were soon being faithfully copied in Vienna and elsewhere in the early 19th century. Johann Georg Stauffer is one of the more innovative and documented Austrian makers.

19th Century Romantic Style Classical Guitar

The beautiful guitar below was made in Austria near the turn of the 19th Century. Even so, it is done in early 19th Century romantic style. This guitar has a floating finger board. It also has a unique feature in the Stauffer tradition. The neck is adjustable by inserting a key to turn a pin at the joint of the neck with the guitar body. The action is therefore adjustable, but because of a slight warp at the end of the finger board, the action can't be lowered to more than about 4 mm. at the 19th fret. Frets and finger board are in excellent condition.

There are a couple of professionally repaired cracks on the face of the guitar. They are stable and do not affect the tone. There is another crack of about an inch in the side of the guitar that is non-repairable because of a flaw in the wood, but it is stable and does not affect playability. Tuning gears are not original, but function fine. For its age, this guitar is in excellent condition. It is now strung with NylaGut (a synthetic gut string) and sounds terrific. Its volume is impressive for its size. It has that "19th Century sound" and is particularly complimentary to voice accompaniment. The wooden "coffin case" is made by John Salicco.

Examine the photos below and if you are interested in more details, please contact us.

Price of antique guitar with wooden case $1,400.00 plus S&H.