Classical Guitars: 1839 René Lacote (1785-1871) SOLD

René Lacote a Paris with Inlaid Tuners SOLD

please inquire for price

632 mm Scale, 47 mm Nut. Fine to Medium grain Spruce Soundboard and Satinwood back and sides. These guitars were sold in Paris, London, Edinburgh and Madrid. This particular one was sold in London by R. Cocks (1797-1887) & Co., Robert Cocks & Co. was a London-based music publisher founded in 1823. Above the store label is another label that bears the signature of Fernando Sor. The Rene Lacote instruments were the most expensive guitars available in Madrid and were available at: Bernabe Carrafa Music Store located at calle del Principe 15, Madrid, and the inlaid tuner models were the highest priced. 800 pesetas = $160. for the René Lacote model with the inlaid tuners, including a case. See the 1857 Bernabe Carrafa Music Store catalog page at the bottom of this listing.

The 1857 Bernabe Carrafa Music Store catalog page, actually may be a reprint from an earlier catalog, with updated prices, included in that year's catalog, from the 1830's in that the Inlaid Tuners came about in 1832, and the catalog mentions it as a new invention, also the listing of Pajes or Pages as we know it in the guitar collector realm, was a listing of a current new guitar available in the 1830's, as the Pages family members were born between the 1740's-1770's, and would be at the end of their career when offering a guitar to be sold at the Bernabe Carrafa Music Store in the 1830's.

This guitar was fabricated at the Rue de Louvois No. 10, Paris location.

These guitars were played by the virtuosos of the day: Fernando Sor, Ferdinando Carulli, Zani de Ferranti, Luigi Sagrini, Dionisio Aguado, Napoleon Coste, Madame Sidney Pratten. The Francisco Tarrega student, in England, Dr. Walter Leckie, also owned one.

Examples of his works can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, including one with the signature of Fernando Sor, this one had belonged to the late Julian Bream. Despite the fact that this text is a copy and paste from the Metropolitan Museum of Art website, the Fernando Sor biographer, Brian Jeffery, says the marketing signature is not real, as he has a letter signed in 1827, that corroborates his viewpoint.

Another guitar with the signature of Fernando Sor is held in the Edinburgh University Collections. According to Sor scholar Brian Jeffery, numerous Lacote instruments “signed” by Sor exist, however the signature does not appear to be authentic.

Fine Fretted String instruments first sold a circa 1835 Rene Lacote in 1987, then in 1998, the guitar collector, the late James Forderer (I encourage everyone to look for his videos on Youtube, where he shows and speaks about 60 guitars from his collection - he purchased 14 of these from our store beginning in 1993.) bought a Rene Lacote with inlaid tuners, which also had a beautiful zig zag rosette. So, this 1839 with inlaid tuners is our 3rd Rene Lacote to offer.