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Guitar

Attributed to Joseph de Frías Spanish
ca. 1780
Not on view
This nearly pristine instrument is a fine example of Spanish guitar making in the late eighteenth century. Rather unusually, the soundboard is of five pieces, similar to a guitar by Frías located in the Museo de la Festa in Alicante. It is decorated with inlaid rosewood, mother-of-pearl, and ebony floral features around the soundhole, at the base of the fingerboard, and between the bridge and the end of the guitar. An important feature of this instrument is the absence of bracing on the underside of the soundboard. Most six-course (twelve-string) guitars of this period were fan braced, whereas here the soundboard has been reinforced with woven cloth adhered in an X pattern to the inside of the soundboard. (Daniel Wheeldon 2016)

Technical description: Twelve-string (six-double course) guitar; five-piece pine top with ebonized hardwood binding and ebonized hardwood/pine/b/p/b/inlaid square pattern purfling; soundhole diameter of 83.13 surrounded by a highly ornate mother-of-pearl, rosewood, and black mastic decoration; ebonized hardwood mustacioed tie bridge with rosewood veneer and bone; ornate mother-of-pearl, rosewood, and black mastic decoration between the bridge and bottom end of the instrument; two-piece rosewood back with ebonized hardwood binding and b/r/b/r/b purfling; rosewood ribs; mahogany neck; mahogany and rosewood head with ebonized hardwood binding; rosewood double chevron veneer to seventh fret on the fingerboard, thereafter pine with matching binding as soundboard; fourteen silver frets (ten on neck, four on soundboard); rosewood friction tuners with mother-of-pearl, ivory, and ebony inlay (Daniel Wheeldon 2016)

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Guitar
  • Maker: Attributed to Joseph de Frías (Spanish, active Seville and Cadiz, ca. 1775–1800)
  • Date: ca. 1780
  • Geography: Seville, Spain
  • Culture: Spanish
  • Medium: Spruce, rosewood, cedar, ebony, mother-of-pearl
  • Dimensions: Total length: 948 mm
  • Classification: Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Clara Mertens Bequest, in memory of André Mertens, 1992
  • Object Number: 1992.279
  • Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments

More Artwork

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Guitar, Manuel Ramírez Spanish, Spruce, rosewood, cedar, ebony, ivory or bone, Spanish
Guitar
Manuel Ramírez
Santos Hernández
1912
Guitar, Hermann Hauser German, Spruce, rosewood, mahogany, bone or ivory, ebony, German
Guitar
Hermann Hauser
1937
Guitar, Jean-Baptiste Voboam French, Spruce, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, ivory, ebony, French
Guitar
Jean-Baptiste Voboam
1697
Guitar, Giacomo (Jacob) Ertel German, Spruce, ebony, fruitwood, bone, ivory, mother-of-pearl, parchment, Italian
Guitar
Giacomo (Jacob) Ertel
late 17th century
"Antonius" Violin, Antonio Stradivari Italian, Maple, spruce, ebony, Italian (Cremona)
"Antonius" Violin
Antonio Stradivari
1711

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