Classical Guitars: 1900 Moya Hermanos Almeria

Moya Hermanos

$35,000

670 mm Scale, 50 mm Nut. Medium to Wide grain Spruce Soundboard and Multipiece Cypress back and sides. 5 Fan Braces. French Polish.

The quote in the image shown here is by Jose Romanillos.

This was fabricated by Juan Moya Martinez (1859-) and Andres Moya Martinez (1861-). These are the sons and pupils of Melchor Moya Sanchez (1827-1891), who founded his workshop in 1848, according to one of his guitar labels.

The Moya Hermanos won a first prize Gold Medal in 1895 at a provincial exposition. This has been stated on their labels since that time, in the earlier periods of their careers there was an image of the medal on the label.

According to Domingo Prat on page 380 of his "Diccionario de Guitarristas y Guitarreros", published in 1934: Juan and Andres Moya Martinez became friends with Antonio de Torres when he returned from Sevilla and opened his earthenware and glass shop in Almeria and the Moya Hermanos followed his guitar making school, with the philosophy that he shared. These two families lived about 7 Km apart, if you look at the map below, a 1 hour 45 minute walk, or less time by Horse and Carriage.

The Moya Hermanos have been influential and are certainly still an influence in Almeria having taught Miguel Gonzalez Abad (1906-1989) who then taught his son, the well known luthier, Juan Miguel Gonzalez (1947-).

Jose Lopez Beltran may have been a colleague and friend of the Moya Hermanos: Juan and Andres, as they lived 4 Km away from each other, an hour long walk.

There is a photo of Almeria from 1908 at the end of the photos.

In the trade guide from 1879 "Anuario-almanaque del comercio, de la industria, de la magistratura y de la administración 1879" is the listing of Melchor Moya Sanchez living at calle Real, Barrio alto 22, and his brother Miguel Moya Redondo living at calle Real, Barrio alto 51 in Almeria, Spain. They were listed under carpenters, 20 years later in the trade guides would be more common to list them under Guitarreros - Guitar Makers.

These guitars are so rare that in the book "The Spanish Guitar" published in 2019, the authors mentioned "not being able to find any examples to show photographs of" the family of guitar makers was not covered, but had a small biography entered.