Fernando Sor, 1778 – 1839. Sor was born in Barcelona but, having espoused liberal politics under the Napoleonic regime, he had to leave Spain permanently in 1813. He was one of the first teachers at the Royal Academy of Music.
 
Spencer Collection
Sor’s writings reveal an ardent patriot who hoped to return to Spain after a change in the political climate. His early guitar music used typically Spanish forms; as a mature musician he took the classicism of Mozart as his model.

In the early years of the 19th century the guitar was seen as an ideal medium for counterpoint. Unlike the piano, the guitar can play a true unison. Neukomm wrote from Paris: Sor ist unzweifelhaft der erste Guitare-Spieler der Welt; es ist unmöglich, sich einen Begriff davon zu machen, zu welchem Grad an Vollkommenheit er dieses ärmliche Instrument erhoben hat...(seine) größte Stärke ist die freye Phantasie: er spielt immer dreyund vierstimmig und nie hört man von ihm das gemeine Arpeggien-Geklimper. (AMZ 1832 Korrespondenzbericht aus Paris von S. Neukomm) [Sor is undoubtedly the finest guitarist in the world. It is impossible to convey the state of perfection to which he has raised this humble instrument … his greatest strength is in the Fantasie: he always plays in three or four real parts and one never hears the usual ripple of arpeggios.]

Sadly, even the more robust models of the instrument were too quiet for all but the most intimate venues.

Robert Spencer (1932 – 1997), for many years the professor of Early English song at the Royal Academy of Music, built up a collection of books, manuscripts, iconography and instruments relating to the history of the lute and guitar. Acquired by the RAM in 1998, the collection achieved Designated status in 2005.

Guitar by Salomon, Paris c1765. Salomon is best-known a violin-maker. He worked in Paris from 1730 until his death in about 1771. He was Dean of the Violin-makers’ Guild in 1760. This guitar has been set up with five double courses of gut strings and with gut frets.
Spencer Collection.

Guitar by Gennaro Fabricatore, Naples 1818. In his Method for the Spanish guitar (English translation, 1832) Sor wrote of guitars like this one: In the goodness of the body or box, the Neapolitan guitars in general long surpassed, in my opinion, those of France and Germany…
Spencer Collection

Guitar by C F Martin & Co, Nazareth Pa c1880. Christian Friedrich Martin learned guitar-making from Johann Stauffer of Vienna. Martin emigrated to New York in 1833 and moved to a German-speaking community in Pennsylvania in 1838. The company made classical guitars until the late 19th century.
Spencer Collection

Sor: Collection complète des œuvres pour la guitare, published by Meissonnier, Paris 1820 - 36 and Pacini 1830 - 36. These separate publications were assembled by Sor himself. The volumes were later owned by the guitarisits Lucien Gelas and Robert Geissenhofer before passing into Robert Spencer’s collection.