Item 19
Price: $66,000
Appraised Value 2016: $60,000
Appraised Value 2021: $75,000
Manuel Hernández (1895-1975) and Victoriano Aguado (1897-1982) started to build guitars together in 1940. This instrument’s soundboard is made of two pieces of straight-grained spruce with consistent grain spacing of 26 per inch. The rosette has a central band of zigzag pattern in natural wood on a black background bordered on both sides by concentric circles and outer half-herringbone designs. The bridge is made of rosewood with the top of its tie-block framed and capped with mother-of-pearl.
Sides are Indian rosewood and back is made from halves of Brazilian rosewood butt-joined without any fillet decoration in the center joint. A logotype showing a nested “A” over an “H” is stamped on the foot of the heel-block.
Neck and head are cedar with the face of the head veneered with rosewood that is exquisitely carved, relieved and textured. An unusual two-piece nut has a bottom half of black-dyed bone or black plastic cemented to a top half of white bone. The lower half rests in the normal nut slot where it blends with and continues the black color of the ebony fingerboard. The upper half has the slots for the strings and projects above the fingerboard to determine string height, as is normal.
Harmonic bars and crossbars have scalloped ends and the center joint of the back is reinforced with a strip of cross-grained mahogany that has been signed by the maker. This guitar is in excellent condition, probably all original except for new French polish. Sound is mature with a Spanish character combined with exceptional clarity and purity and loud volume.
Listen to this Guitar
Quality headphones or external speakers are highly recommended for auditioning on this high quality audio track.
Guitar Dimension Key
