Rafael Salazar y Grijales c.1880 Spanish Guitar

Make: Rafael Salazar y Grajales 
Model: Spanish guitar
Model Year: c. 1880
Top: German spruce
Back & Sides: Cypress
Scale: 650mm
Nut: 52mm
Finish: French polish
Tuners: Pegs
Country: Spain
Condition: Excellent
Location: Greece

A rare nineteenth-century guitar from the workshop of Rafael Salazar y Grajales, one of the makers working in Seville during Antonio de Torres’s years there.

Salazar was born into a family of guitar makers and grew up around his father’s workshop, just around the corner from Torres’s shop. After his father died, Rafael established his own workshop a few blocks away.

Very few guitars by Salazar y Grajales are known to survive. To our knowledge, only two other examples are known: an 1878 guitar in James Greenberg’s collection and one in the Romanillos family collection. This instrument offers a rare opportunity to encounter the work of a Seville maker from Torres’s time.