It has no name or pedigree. Its tuners are
not gold engraved—though the knobs
may be ivory—and its rosette and purfling
are simple and almost understated. This
guitar was made to be played, and play it
does. For John Dowdall, the guitar’s current
owner, it has become his favorite-ever
instrument. He rehearses with it, records
with it, and tours with it, and says it has
never performed less than perfectly since he
acquired it in 2006. Dowdall still marvels
that there is not one single out-of-tune spot
or buzzing fret on this ancient guitar.
The neck and fretboard have a small profile,
much like a modern steel-string guitar,
with a width of around 1.75", giving the
player plenty of room to maneuver. The top
is spruce, and the back and sides appear to be
Brazilian rosewood—they have the unmistakable
chunkiness and caramel-to-dark
chocolate coloring of fine Brazilian. The
polish on the neck is too aged and dark to
be able to see enough grain to even guess
what it might be. The fretboard appears to
be ebony, and has held up remarkably well
over the past two centuries. The guitar has
almost no physical damage, and as far as
Dowdall knows, every piece of the 6-string
is original. The little mustache and smiling
bridge pins are indicative of French-style
guitar making of the period, as are the
rosette and purfling. However, the single
piece of fretwire being used for the saddle
is a German convention. Dowdall uses
varnished gut strings, which he says stay in
tune better than modern nylon strings and
are far less sensitive to weather.
With Red Cedar Chamber, an ensemble
founded by Dowdall and flautist Jan
Boland that specializes in 19th-century
chamber music, this diminutive beauty has
found an ideal home. It blends perfectly
with Boland’s 1830 wooden flute, and
even holds its own in duets with a
pianoforte from the same period.
You can hear this guitar on
two recordings by Red Cedar
Chamber—2011’s
Gaspard Kummer:
Chamber Music for Flute, Guitar and
Strings and 2007’s
Johann Neponuk
Hummel: Chamber Music at Schonbrunn,
both on the Fleur de Son Classics label
(
fleurdeson.com).