Item 21
Price: $60,000
Appraised Value 2016: $60,000
Appraised Value 2021: $85,000
This classical guitar by Hernández illustrates the ideals of function, form and aesthetics of the early twentieth century Madrid guitar makers. The sound, ease of play, proportions, purity of line, coloring and restrained embellishments of this instrument combine to make a guitar masterpiece.
The soundboard is made from matched halves of excellent spruce. The resin grain lines are thin and straight which indicates that this soundboard was quartersawn from a very desirable part of the log. The closeness of the grain, ranging from 30 per inch near the center to 20 per inch near the edges, indicates that the log was of old slow-growth timber. The abundant medullary ray structure likely contributes to the sound quality by imparting lateral stiffness.
The rosette has a central design band of a red and black double helix on a natural background, bordered by circles and chevron bands. The bridge is rosewood and its tie-block is capped with a rectangle of white bone framed in mother-of-pearl. Back and sides are Brazilian rosewood with double purfling on all edges. Neck and head are cedar, and the head is faced with rosewood. The fingerboard is ebony with medium frets.
Hernández has signed and dated the underside of the soundboard on the bass side of the soundhole between the harmonic bars. His Madrid luthier stamp appears on the foot of the heel-block.
The fan-struts on this guitar are parallel rather than splayed, a construction change adopted by Hernández starting around 1928 to unify the soundboard and make the sound more homogeneous in its stronger fundamental sound. The guitar has been restored to perfect functional condition and appearance – – perhaps too much so because an earlier expert replacement of the back’s treble half, is hard to detect, and could result in the guitar being appraised too high. Reputable sellers do not want a mistake to result in a poor appraisal that leads to a remorseful buyer.
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