1926 Domingo Esteso SP/CSAR

A 1926 classical guitar by Domingo Esteso, with a spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides, made in Madrid – pristine and original, including its French polish.

In the videos above, Ana Vidovic plays the Allegretto from Federico Moreno Torroba's "Sonatina", Andrew Lee plays "Tonadilla" from Ángel Barrios' "Arroyos de la Alhambra" and Tavi Jinariu plays Isaac Albéniz's "Granada" on this guitar; Tengyue "TY" Zhang also plays it in Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Caprichos de Goya No. 18, recorded on six guitars.

A Classic Madrid Esteso

The sound is very clean, clear and pure, with a strong fundamental, well-controlled overtones and a very natural, "woody" quality – stylish, refined and alluring. Its rich, played-in voice can only come from an instrument of this age, and in the hands it is very expressive and responsive to the most subtle changes in the player's touch.

Condition

Condition is excellent: apart from one well-repaired crack beside the fingerboard, the guitar is pristine and original, including the polish. A very fine example from one of the greatest luthiers of the early 20th century.

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.