Vicente Arias in Ciudad Real

Vicente Arias (1833-1914), who became an award winning guitar maker several times, initially in 1887, then in 1888, 1890 and 1907, was an accomplished "Ebanista", which is the highest grade of woodworker in the industry, Cabinet Maker being a journeyman. In 1881 he was listed as living and working on calle Paloma, Ciudad Real. The other five woodworkers in Ciudad Real were listed as journeymen carpenters, as "carpinteros".

Usually we see the Guitar makers listed as "Guitarreros", sometimes as "Carpinteros" (carpenters) such as the Moya Hermanos in Almeria, and as Ebanistas such as in the case of Vicente Arias. Francisco Simplicio was an Ebanista for over 20 years before he went to work for Enrique Garcia in Barcelona - one can see the extraordinary bindings and carved headstocks he produced until his passing in 1932.

Upon further investigation in 1881 the same notice was published, six years before he won his first award as a guitar maker at an Artesan exposition, at the age of 54.

"Anuario del comercio, de la industria, de la magistratura y de la administración:

1881 page 788 of 2,238 pages. To be found in column one half way down.

In 1881 the population of Ciudad Real was 14,000, the railroad had come to this city the year before, in 1900 when Vicente Arias moved to Madrid he rode on the train on this railroad to his new city to live and work, where the population was 500,000. Presently the population of Ciudad Real is 75,000.

When Vicente began to make guitars about 1870 the population was probably about 12,000, having been 10, 366 in 1860 and 13, 277 in 1877, due to the census that was taken at the times.

This information is due to the insight of the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid. It has published online the "Anuario del comercio, de la industria, de la magistratura y de la administración." 1886 n.º 20     Page 2 of 17 pages of information on this city.

Provincias - Ciudad Real.