Item 57
Price: $18,000
Appraised Value 2016: $30,000
Appraised Value 2021: $35,000
The soundboard is made from matched halves of spruce with grain spacing from 21 per inch at the center to 12 per inch at the edges. The rosette has a central band of small mother-of-pearl parallelograms, bordered with thin circles. The rosewood bridge is carved so that the bottom is curved to match the arching of the soundboard, and the tie-block flows into the wings.
The two-piece back and the sides are cypress with double purfling on the top. Head and neck are cedar with the head faced with rosewood. Tuning pegs are ebony with mother-of-pearl dots set into the small ends. The fingerboard is dyed wood and is fitted with low profile, brass, T-shaped frets.
The guitar has been restored by Marcelíno López Nieto in 1996, who has affixed secondary labels to the heel-block and the inner soundboard. The sound is balanced, controlled and a bit closed. Notes have less volume and edge than top quality flamenco guitars but the tone is adequate for playing in congenial settings. The narrow fingerboard and low frets demand precise left-hand technique.
The circular label of the Rojas guitar, hand dated 1912, has a detailed picture of Rojas, who appears to be in his late thirties to middle forties, as well as drawings of a guitar, lute and mandolin, indicating that Rojas was a versatile luthier.
This guitar has a shallow body and its soundboard and back are arched both across their width and length in the forma ahuevada (egg-shaped) manner.
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