Aubrey Maire ~1850 - rare romantic guitar from France
Joseph Aubrey (1801-1867) was a guitar maker in Mirecourt (France). He most likely married a „Miss Maire“ and subsequently made guitars under the hyphenated name Aubrey-Maire (the use of a hyphenated brand name resulting from a marriage or joint venture was a common practice in Mirecourt).
Joseph Aubrey was a contemporary of Rene Lacote.
His instruments enjoyed a high reputation because his work was precise, his materials were of high quality and his inlay work was of great artistic achievement.
This beautiful guitar can be dated to around 1850. It has the typical maker's stamp „Aubrey-Maire“ and an importer's label „Louis Grunewald - New Orleans“.
The body is built similarly to the Panormo guitars. It is lightly built and has a unique construction with a slightly arched top and back. „Built under Tension“ was the descriptive term for this type of construction.
The top of the guitar is made of spruce. The sides are made of rosewood. The back seems to be a kind of laminate construction, as we often see on romantic guitars. The scale length is 626 mm and the nut width is 50 mm.
The guitar sounds beautiful and immediately impresses with a very sweet tone. The basses are deep and the trebles are soft, lively and colorful with great expressiveness.
Due to its age and light weight, the sound is woody, with a great deal of tonal modulation and dynamics. This guitar produces sweet tones that have a lot of charm.
When the guitar came to us, it was in pretty bad condition, with many repairs (more or less professionally done).
Our luthier has restored it with great effort to bring it back to life. The guitar plays beautifully with a low string action and a straight neck.
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