Item 13
Price: $85,000
Appraised Value 2016: $60,000
Appraised Value 2021: $85,000
SOLD
This guitar exhibits Hernández’s best craftsmanship and his capability for producing a highly decorated and artistic effort. The guitar is in an amazing state of physical and sonic preservation. It appears new except for four expertly repaired and nearly invisible cracks on the lower treble bout. It still has the fresh, lively, loud tones of a new instrument. The original invoice and shipping papers have survived and show that the instrument was sold to Señor Felipe Gómez of Buenos Aires, on November 7, 1923 for one thousand pesetas, a considerable sum that could buy the very best work of the most renowned guitar makers. Santos Hernández rose to be foreman of the Manuel Ramírez workshop in Madrid and is legendary in the history of Spanish guitar development. Hernández is also considered a maker who defined the true art of the flamenco guitar. He worked for Manuel Ramírez’s widow for a period in 1920, so this 1923 instrument must have been made shortly after he set up his own shop.
The soundboard is made from close-grained spruce with sharp and even grain lines indicating wood perfectly quartersawn so that the ribbons of grain resin are perpendicular to the surface of the soundboard. This configuration can be important for sonic qualities. Grain spacing is uniform at 30 per inch. The soundboard is also rich in medullary rays which can add desirable lateral stiffness. The finish is the original French polish of shellac. Back and sides are quartersawn Brazilian rosewood with the head faced with rosewood. High quality tuning machines with complex hand engraving and mother-of-pearl grips are fitted. The fingerboard is ebony with medium frets.
Harmonic bars have tapered ends and the crossbars are straight. The enter seam of the back is reinforced with a strip of lengthwise-grained cedar with a half-round cross section. Inside back and sides are shellac finished. The inside of the soundboard has been signed “Construide por S. Hernandez Madrid 1923” below the soundhole between the center and adjacent bass fan-struts. Hernández’s Madrid luthier stamp appears on the foot of the heel-block.
This guitar has a bright concentrated sound marked by great clarity, punchy quick basses, sweet polished midrange and strong singing trebles, all of these qualities contained in an envelope of antique Spanish earthiness. The guitar has excellent projection and volume. It is capable of a great range of tone color and can be coaxed from radiant polished clarity to a sophisticated abrasiveness. How wonderful that all of this is available from a ninety-year-old instrument.
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Guitar Dimension Key
