1934 Domingo Esteso SP/CY

A 1934 peghead flamenco guitar by Domingo Esteso, with a spruce top and cypress back and sides, made in Madrid – with a faded photograph of Ramón Montoya glued inside by a previous owner.

A Peghead Flamenco from 1934

The volume is plentiful even by today's standards, and the loose, woody, played-in sound is one only age can give. Played gently it sings with a beautiful lyricism; pushed just right, it growls like the old-world flamenco it is.

A Photograph of Ramón Montoya

One curious detail: a previous owner glued a fading photograph of the great Ramón Montoya to the inside of the back, just below the label.

Condition

It has several well-repaired cracks to the body and has been refinished; fortunately, despite the work done, it keeps its authentic sound and plays well. A great piece of flamenco history.

From the Russell Cleveland Collection

This guitar comes from the Russell Cleveland collection. It is featured on pages 86–87 of the book The Classical Guitar – A Complete History.

Domingo Esteso: From the Manuel Ramírez Workshop to Gravina 7

Domingo Esteso (1882–1937) is one of the great names of the early Madrid school of guitar making. Born on May 12, 1882, in San Clemente, in the province of Cuenca, he learned his trade in the Madrid workshop of Manuel Ramírez, where he worked alongside Santos Hernández, Modesto Borreguero and Enrique García – the shop that carried the legacy of Antonio de Torres into the 20th century. After Ramírez died in 1916, Esteso went on building for his widow, already with his own name on the labels, and around 1919 he opened his own workshop at Calle Gravina 7, where his wife, Nicolasa Salamanca, varnished the guitars. His flamencos were played by the great names of the day, among them Ramón Montoya and Niño Ricardo, and his classical guitars are prized today for their elegance, clarity and natural, woody voice.

Guitars for Buenos Aires and the Birth of the Conde Dynasty

Many of Esteso's finest guitars were made for Argentina, then one of the richest countries in the world, under a special label for Romero y Fernández of Buenos Aires, his sole agents there – some of them branded "Guitarras Iberia". In 1926 his nephew Faustino Conde joined the workshop, followed by his brothers Mariano and Julio. After Esteso's death in Madrid in 1937, in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, they carried on at Gravina 7 as "Viuda y Sobrinos de Esteso" and later as Conde Hermanos – the start of a family tradition continued today by Felipe Conde and his son, Felipe Conde Crespo.