Alhambra 10FP · Signed Production
La Serena is the collection's most recent instrument, built in 2024 and acquired the same year. Javier Mengual signed it personally at the Alhambra factory in Muro del Alcoi, Valencia, distinguishing it from the unsigned production that surrounds it at the same tier. It establishes the contemporary endpoint of the Valencia school in the collection.
The Alhambra 10FP is the factory's highest production tier. Mengual's signature is not a marketing distinction. It is a statement of individual accountability for the instrument. Signed examples at this tier surface infrequently in near mint condition.
Valencia School · Contemporary Voice
La Serena is paired with La Señora (Alhambra Luthier Series, Jaime Julia, 2002) as the collection's two signed Alhambra instruments - documenting the Alhambra luthier tier across twenty-two years of production. The Valencia school spans from El Abuelo (Sanchis Nácher, c.1945) through La Serena (2024) - nearly eighty years of continuous documentation. The full lineage context is covered in the ANICETO University curriculum.
Instrument Record
| Instrument Name | La Serena · The Serene One |
| Maker | Javier Mengual · Alhambra 10FP · Muro del Alcoi, Valencia |
| Year | 2024 |
| School | Valencia · Alhambra |
| Type | Flamenca Negra |
| Top | Cedar |
| Back & Sides | Rosewood |
| Label | Alhambra 10FP · Signed Javier Mengual |
| Collection Role | Valencia School · Contemporary production endpoint |
Label confirmed. The instrument has been professionally inspected and conserved to museum standard. Interventions are documented and kept to the minimum the instrument requires. Its structural and provenance record is maintained privately under museum archival standard.
Tradition & Use
Alhambra negras are built for volume and sustain, the qualities a player wants when the guitar has to carry a room without amplification. La Serena is a working instrument in a tradition that has not stopped producing them. It is the newest instrument here by fifteen years, and the only one that has not yet been asked to carry a history.
The story of this guitar is in the curriculum.
The Alhambra production tiers, the Valencia school, and the distinction between signed and unsigned production are documented in the ANICETO University curriculum, Module 6 · The Collection.
Explore the Curriculum