Description
Fine handmade guitar from Johann August Paulus made around 1860 – this guitar is really special and extremly rare!
With the guitar comes a detailed report by expert Christof Hanusch on the attribution to Johann August Paulus and the guitar’s exceptional construction features, as well as a report on the restoration.
Johann August Paulus 1807 – 1870 was a guitar maker in Markneukirchen.
He received awards for his instruments in 1837. Also at an exhibition in 1927, long after his death, his instruments were reviewed and awarded.
Johann August Paulus worked for a time with Christian Frederick Martin (the founder of C.F. Martin & Co) at Johann Georg Stauffer’s workshop in Vienna. He then returned to Markneukirchen.
Among others, he trained Karl August Jacob, the father of Richard Jacob Weissgerber.
The construction of this guitar is truly unique and demonstrates an exceptionally high quality.
This guitar was built in the style of the famous pre-Torres Cadiz guitars, incorporating elements of what Paulus learned from Stauffer and showing a kinship with the first guitars built by C.F. Martin in the USA. We would like to explain this in more detail:
Cadiz relation
The early 19th century guitars from Cadiz (Spain) were the standard for the time. In Cadiz, important elements for guitar making were invented, such as the fan bracing. These guitars quickly attracted attention all over the world and their construction features were integrated by other guitar makers into their designs: Louis Panormo, Christian Frederick Martin, Johann August Paulus … even Antonio de Torres … and many other guitar builders.
This guitar has the typical body shape of the Cadiz guitars and also the depth of the body as well as the decoration in the middle of the sides are typical for the Cadiz guitars.
Stauffer and Markneukirchen relation
Johann August Paulus was born in Markneukirchen, which has been a stronghold of German guitar making for many generations. He also had the opportunity to work for Johann Georg Stauffer in Vienna for several years.
The skills he learned make this guitar special, as many elements of the precise German and Viennese schools are visible … for example the tuners are precisely set into the wood, the head joint and the neck heel are perfectly worked out. The bracing is fine and in the style of the Stauffer guitars.
C.F. Martin relation
Christian Frederick Martin and Paulus are connected by their birthplace Markneukirchen and their common work at Stauffer’s workshop.
Just like Martin, Paulus was also very experimental. Martin also experimented with the Cadiz construction method and incorporated elements of Stauffer and the traditional Markneukirchen construction method into his design.
A cross-border guitar building style, as with this guitar, was also carried out under the C.F. Martin label on the other side of the ocean in exactly this form and one could think that the 2 friends would have talked about guitars on a regular basis.
The guitar has a spruce top and back and sides made of fine rosewood. The scale length is 622.5 mm and the nut width is 46 mm.
Sound-wise, it impresses with a velvety dark but very powerful tone of unusual substance.
The sound is very touching and this guitar also evokes deep emotions. The basses are round and precise, with a very special and enchanting quality. The singing and crystalline highs offer a fantastic range of timbres.
The sound of the guitar is fine and delicate, but you are still amazed at how loud it can get and the volume it unfolds despite the relatively small body. Definitely a romantic guitar on a very high level with a charming sound and perfectly suited to get closer to the music of the old composers in an authentic way.
This guitar has been very professionally restored and is ready to play.
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