The full title, Inventing the American Guitar—The Pre-Civil War Innovations of C.F. Martin and His Contemporaries shows the editor, Peter Szego’s intentions, and also the book’s origins in the first Early Martin Guitar Conference in 2008.
C.F. Martin was born in 1796 in Markneukirchen, Germany and came from a long line of cabinet makers and woodworkers. His father, Johann Georg Martin, also built guitars. By the age of 15, C.F. Martin was supposedly apprenticed to Johann Georg Stauffer, a well-known guitar maker in Vienna, although this claim has never been corroborated by Viennese primary sources. (The identity of Stauffer’s five apprentices in 1811 is documented and Martin was not among them.)
Martin returned to his hometown after completing training and opened his own guitar-making shop.
At that time European craftsmen operated under the guild system. The guitar (in its modern form) was a relatively new instrument, and most guitar makers were members of the Cabinet Makers’ Guild. The Violin Makers’ Guild claimed exclusive rights to manufacture musical instruments. To prevent cabinet makers from producing guitars, The Violin Makers’ Guild filed appeals on three occasions. Johann Martin is mentioned in a surviving submission dated 1832.
Although the cabinet makers successfully defended their right to build guitars, C.F. Martin decided that the guild system was too restrictive and moved to New York City In 1833 . By 1838 he moved his business to Nazareth, PA.
The rest is history!
I came across an early C.F.Martin guitar in St.Ives in Cornwall – it was in a shop full of tourist knick knacks and curiosities, and it was hanging on the wall. It was old, with a bone or ivory bridge, and imagine my surprise on further inspection that it turned out to be similar to an 1840’s Spanish Style Guitar, with C.F.Martin, New York, on the inside. The price was too high for me (also a bit of a shock at the time!), but I am saving up…