Book Review: Guitar Making in Nineteenth Century London: Louis Panormo and his Contemporaries

James Westbrook

PhD dissertation, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge

reviewed by R.M. Mottola

Copyright © 2014 by R.M. Mottola

[Originally published in American Lutherie #117, Fall 2014]

Post publication note: This work has now been published as a book with the shortened title Guitar Making In Nineteenth-Century London, ISBN: ???-??????????. It is available from selected book retailers.

I have to admit that for most of my lutherie life I didn't give much thought to the guitars of the 19^th century, and by extension to their makers. These instruments were museum pieces, and to the extent I considered them at all it was only as historical artifacts, tokens of how we got to where guitars are in our own era. The implied conceit in this line of reasoning is that the instruments were improving over time in an absolute sense; that, if we had a time machine and could return to the 19^th century with modern classical and/or steel string guitars in hand, musicians of that era would instantly recognize the superiority of these instruments of the future and line up to trade in those they were currently burdened with. But a I have to admit that for most of my lutherie life I didn't give much thought to the guitars of the 19^th century, and by extension to their makers. These instruments were museum pieces, and to the extent I considered them at all it was only as historical artifacts, tokens of how we got to where guitars are in our own era. The implied conceit in this line of reasoning is that the instruments were improving over time in an absolute sense; that, if we had a time machine and could return to the 19^th century with modern classical and/or steel string guitars in hand, musicians of that era would instantly recognize the superiority of these instruments of the future and line up to trade in those they were currently burdened with. But a transformative event induced a major shift in my thinking where 19^th century guitars were concerned. That event was the concert performance at the 2008 GAL convention in which Jim Buckland played 19^th century music on replicas of period instruments, instruments he built himself, primarily using 19^th century construction techniques. This performance made it immediately obvious that these instruments were fully realized, each with its own beautiful voice, and ideally suited to the musical requirements of the compositions. General prejudices I had held against instruments of this period (i.e. they don't provide enough bass, they are not loud enough) were also dashed. Jim's reproductions had wonderful bass response and were plenty loud enough when played solo and even with piano accompaniment.

Although I had exclusively built from my own designs up until this time, the dramatic appeal of Jim's performance, along with information on building with 19^th century techniques he offered in a subsequent presentation, compelled me to add the construction of a 19^th century reproduction guitar to my must-build list. I'm slow, and it took years before I was even in a position to begin considering which instrument to build. There were certainly practical considerations in the selection decision - it is simpler to begin such a project if reliable drawings already exist, for example. But for the most part the decision was made based on aesthetic considerations, and I chose to build a reproduction of a guitar by Louis Panormo. Early to mid-19^th century guitars all display some of their Baroque heritage to some extent. Externally, fancy decoration and peg heads are common. Just as common on the inside is the use of ladder bracing for the top. In contrast the instruments of Louis Panormo featured much sparser decoration. Even the fully pimped Panormos could be considered to be "tasteful" by modern standards, and the less extensively decorated models are well in line with modern sensibilities. Panormo was an early adapter of geared machine tuners, and these just strike me as one of the true improvements to the instrument. Inside, his "Spanish style" guitars featured fan braced tops, and although I have no strong feelings of preference here, I am more familiar with this construction than with ladder braced tops. Another factor in my decision was Panormo's heritage. The son of Sicilian violin maker Vincenzo Panormo, he was born in Paris and lived in London for his entire professional career. As such he and I share an Italian heritage, and this, and the facts that his father was probably the most famous builder of double basses and that my own musical background is as a bass player, sealed the deal.

Very nice drawings are available for Panormo instruments from a couple of sources, so to begin my pre-construction information gathering process I got both of these. And I also began visiting as many Panormo instruments as I could, to take measurements and photos. Darcy Kuronen, curator of musical instruments at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, provided my first opportunity to take a good look at an original instrument. Internet sources and luthiers that have done repair and restoration work on these instruments provided many more photos. Unfortunately for me, all of this collected data did not suggest a clear construction plan for my project. The data showed a tremendous amount of variation and inconsistency and although it is simple enough to naively assume this to indicate a certain free-wheeling approach to the original production of these instruments (and by extension, license on the part of the producer of a reproduction to simply pick and choose features), it is just as likely that there is some underlying pattern to this variability. Given the length of Panormo's productive career (ca. 1816 - ca. 1854) and the evidence of the size of his operation, the latter case is probably even more likely.

Turning to the literature on the subject was essentially fruitless. Few of the references were based on primary sources and many seemed to simply reiterate information found in other less-than-ideal sources. One exception to this was the book The Century That Shaped the Guitar (ASIN: B002Y5LBJI) by James Westbrook. This work not only provided more detail than most other sources, but it was clear that much of the information therein was derived from primary sources, that is, by direct examination of instruments. James is a regular subject matter expert contributor of answers to the American Lutherie Questions Column which I edit, and I took the occasion of soliciting an answer for the column from him to query him a bit about some of the issues I was having in sorting out some of the extant information on Panormo's instruments. In his reply James mentioned that he was currently working on his PhD dissertation, which would focus on Louis Panormo and his instruments.

Which brings me (finally!) to the subject of this review. James' doctoral dissertation presents an intricately detailed investigation into the entire business of guitar building in London during the 19^th century. As such, it includes heretofore unavailable information on English made Spanish style guitars and guitar builders prior to Louis Panormo, as well as Panormo's contemporaries and successors such as the Roudhloff brothers, builders of early X-braced instruments which may have influenced the introduction of X-braced guitars in the USA. But that time and place was dominated by the work of Louis Panormo and therefore most of the dissertation is dedicated to his work. Reading through this, it is impossible not to note how the historical information presented here compares to other efforts on the same subject. To be blunt, it doesn't. This dissertation is so complete and far ranging in its scope on the subject of Panormo and his instruments that, when combined, all other sources I am aware of pale in comparison. I'll provide an indication of what is contained here in just a bit, but here let me say something about why I believe this to be the case. Simply put, this is a work of fanaticism. It is abundantly clear throughout the work that the goal of the author was not simply to increase available knowledge on the subject, but to find out everything there was to find out, period. Like a top detective, the author makes use of all available sources, including public and trade records, museum collections and those of private collectors, and of course the extant instruments. Analytical methods include dendrochronology (dating of wood by statistical analysis of wood grain patterns) and of course organology, examination of the remaining instruments of the builder. The latter method is of key importance to readers with a primary interest in the instruments themselves - those performing repairs and restoration on original Panormo instruments, as well as those building and maintaining reproductions. Folks that are not familiar with the methods of historical research in this context will probably find the primary research method to be fascinatingly simple. If you want to find out everything possible about the instruments of Louis Panormo you simply need to identify, catalog and examine all of the instruments by that builder that still exist. All of them. What is simple in concept is of course mind-boggling in terms of actual effort. But the author managed to track down the 150 some odd existing instruments and catalog them, in most cases doing so in person, and in others relying on the descriptions and photographs of owners and restorers. The result is a comprehensive picture of the history of these instruments and their features.

Most of the guitars that existed in early 19^th century London were either from other European countries or were built in the style of instruments from those countries. Guitars by the Fabricatores from southern Italy, and those by Stauffer and his contemporaries in Vienna were available to fulfill the growing demand for instruments from the expanding middle classes. French immigrants fleeing the revolution established a sizable population in London as did immigrants from Spain. Both may have helped to increase the popularity of the guitar in London at the time. The visit and residency of Fernando Sor in London from 1815 to 1822 or 1823 may have popularized Spanish guitar music. It was in this environment that Louis Panormo began building guitars, the earliest known instrument of his being from 1816. It is interesting to note that the task of rationalizing Panormo's body of work is made possible by the fact that he dated and, of a fashion, included serial number identification on his labels, a practice not at all common among London based guitar builders of the time.

Louis Panormo's instruments eventually would fall into two distinct lines, which Westbrook identifies as "French style" and "Spanish style." Characteristics of the French style instruments include their label name, "Panormo Fecit", although this was also used on all early instruments. These instruments generally featured ladder braced tops, black painted necks and headstocks, and had bodies made of solid figured maple or (rarely) satinwood. This line was produced until 1833. Labels of the Spanish style instruments included the name "Louis Panormo" and the subscript "Guitars in the Spanish Style." These instruments featured fan braced tops and natural finished Spanish cedar necks with grafted maple headstocks. Backs and sides of the Spanish style instruments were of solid Brazilian rosewood, sometimes of Macassar ebony. Four piece backs were introduced in 1847; these were constructed of Brazilian rosewood veneer over mahogany. Louis Panormo's nephew George Lewis joined the shop at about this time, and would continue producing instruments under his own name in the mid 1850's.

All Panormo guitars include a number of distinct features. The relatively thin-walled headstock with the crescent-shaped top is a classic Panormo feature. It is interesting that this feature is fairly widely copied in the instruments by other contemporary makers. The reasons for this may be partially due to Panormo's success, but there is also the matter of headstock conversions. During this period there were still many instruments built with tuning pegs. Conversion for use with machines was not at all uncommon, and readily available machines were sized to fit Panormo's instruments. The machines used in Panormo guitars were made by Rance until 1831; after that, the guitars feature machines by Baker. Little is known about either of these companies, and Westbrook's dissertation indicates that Baker may have taken over (or just continued) the making of the machines from Rance.

Another distinctive feature is the construction of the neck, which could be considered either a joinery dream or nightmare, depending on which end of the chisel you were on. The headstock is joined to the shaft using a distinctive shoulder-less 'V' joint. The shaft itself features a long scarf joint, characteristic of some double basses but rarely seen on guitars. The ribs are joined to the heel/foot using wedges which are tapered in all three dimensions. It is interesting that some of the instruments with painted necks also feature all this joinery. All Panormo guitars feature a very thin rosewood fretboard with bar frets. Fret material was ivory for early instruments, brass for later ones, and finally nickel silver. The fretboards are generally cambered.

Panormo guitars featured distinctive ebony pin bridges, which contain a rectangular central section, the leading edge of which serves as an integral string saddle. This section is flanked by teardrop-shaped wings which terminate in round "eyes" with MOP (sometimes ivory) inlay. In 1838 a decorative bridge extension was added behind the central section on some instruments. This feature would eventually become standard. Pin bridges are currently associated with steel string guitars of course. Panormo's instruments also include other features currently found on steel strung instruments, such as end grafts and multi-ring rosettes.

I am just touching on a few of the features of Panormo's instruments here to illustrate the kinds of detail present in the dissertation that would be of interest to luthiers in particular. But as mentioned, the work is a broad presentation of guitars and guitar making in 19^th century London. It begins with a detailed presentation on historical context, which includes much information on the evolution of the guitar in Europe in general, with specific focus on guitars and their makers in London prior to Louis Panormo. This is followed by a chapter detailing the rather large Panormo family and their relations and businesses, followed by one dedicated to Louis and his nephew George Lewis. A separate chapter discusses the rare and otherwise exceptional instruments of Louis Panormo, including his "Lacote" model, small "bambino" guitar, General Thompson's enharmonic guitar, and the signature model built for Spanish guitar player Antonio Trinitario Huerta, as well as others. This is followed by a separate chapter on the Roudhloff brothers and their instruments, containing the most substantial body of information about these builders and their instruments that is available.

The formal part of the dissertation finishes up with a chapter on the instruments played by Madame Sidney Pratten, an influential guitar teacher of the era, and a conclusion detailing the demise of the popularity of the guitar as a serious instrument in London during the latter half of the 19^th century, a demise that North Americans will be amazed to find out was substantially due to the rising popularity of the banjo. But the chapters of the dissertation hold only part of the wealth of information here. Following the chapters are approximately 220 pages of appendices which include much of the raw data referenced and compiled in the chapters. There is detailed information here about London guitar makers and dealers and also tables of features of construction of major classes of instruments. A section on tools, jigs and construction fixtures is invaluable. But for luthiers the mother lode of information is included in the detailed tables of features, materials, dates and serial numbers of all of the instruments analyzed during the course of the study, including both pre-Panormo instruments and those built by Louis and/or George Lewis. This is an amazing trove of data for restorers and those building reproductions.

Let me finish up with a note on the availability and accessibility of this work. The work is not published in the conventional sense, in that there is a single copy of the dissertation, available for reading only on the premises of the library of the University of Cambridge. The reason for this restriction is that the contents include many copyrighted images. Use of these images for strictly academic purposes is a matter of fair use. But since permission to use these images for commercial distribution of the work has not been obtained, restricted availability of the dissertation is unfortunately necessary. The work contains an extensive collection of images, mostly portraits of some of the subjects of the research but also iconographic images showing various guitars and features in dated works. Given enough demand it is possible that the author would make a distributable revision of the dissertation generally available at some time in the future. Doing so would require either obtaining commercial permission for the copyrighted works or deleting them from the revision. As far as accessibility goes, folks that are not in the habit of reading PhD dissertations should have no trepidation about this work. Although long, comprehensive, and with high information density, the work is quite easy to read. Academic jargon is minimal. I can confidently assert that anyone interested in the topic presented will have no problem reading and understanding the material.

Readers should also note that much of the historical information about Louis Panormo that is found in the dissertation is available in a paper published by Dr. Westbrook in the journal Early Music. The paper is titled, "Louis Panormo: 'The only Maker of Guitars in the Spanish Style'" and is available for free download at:

http://em.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/cat090?ijkey=esR0TpnuhMOer28&keytype=ref

For folks that find that paper an appetite-whetting introduction, a reading of the full dissertation is probably a must. For serious historians and restorers of Panormo instruments and for those intending to build accurate replicas, a trip to Cambridge to read the dissertation would be well worthwhile. Folks that find themselves nearby for other reasons should certainly take the time to avail themselves of the wealth of information contained in it.