GUITAR by ANTON JIROWSKI, Vienna 1936.

Measurements body:
lenght: 54.8 cm.
width at top: 32.8 cm.
width at bottom: 43.5 cm.
stringlength: 65.5 cm.

Anton Jirowski was a viennese violin and guitar-maker who lived from 1877 to 1941. He was a pupil of Karl Zach in the days when luthiers would first spend time with a master before being allowed to open their own workshop. Sometimes this so called guild system was a ground for emigration as we have seen in the case of C.F. Martin in the 19th century.

Anton Jirowski who died in 1941 was succumbed by his son who had the same name.
The guitar that we are looking at this time has very large proportions (see above), and has a for those days, very unusuall 15 fret neck, that is very wide as well. (from 5 at the nut to 6.5 cm at the body end). The instrument was apparently custom made for a viennese singer, who accompanied himself with it. A former owner bought it in Amsterdam in the late 40\'s.

Although it was built originally for gut strings, it none the less sounds better with steel strings, using a lower tuning (f.i. in C ).
The top which has been made out of very close grained spruce (of the kind which one sees on older german violins),has 7 fan-braces, more less in a spanish pattern. The maple neck is fastened to the body by way of a screw, a system which had been used in that area since the 19 th century to facilitate changing the neck angle.
The fingerboard is ebony with mother of pearl inlays. The back is made from book-matched brazilian rosewood (as are the sides) and carries the label. The machine heads have mother of pearl buttons.
All in all a rare instrument that shows that not all 20th century guitar innovations stem from the United States.

© Palm Guitars.