Benito Ferrer · The Granada School Founder
Benito Ferrer (1866–1925) is the founding figure of the Granada school of guitar making. La Sombra was built in 1925 - the final year of Ferrer's life. It is not merely an early Granada instrument: it is among the last instruments from the school's founding master.
Ferrer built at Santa Ana, Huerto del Loro - the address that defines the earliest Granada workshop tradition. He is documented in specialist literature as the maker of Andrés Segovia's first serious guitar, establishing a direct biographical link between the Granada school and the development of the classical guitar as a concert instrument. La Sombra is paired with El Fragua (Eduardo Ferrer Sobrino y Sucesor de Benito Ferrer, 1950) - patriarch and successor held simultaneously, the Granada dynasty locked in one collection. Benito Ferrer died in 1925, so La Sombra comes from the last year of his life.
Granada School · Founding Generation
La Sombra (Benito Ferrer, 1925) · El Fragua (Eduardo Ferrer, 1950) · La Zambra (Jesús Bellido, 2009). La Sombra is the Granada anchor - the founding instrument of a school documented across three generations in this collection. The full lineage context is covered in the ANICETO University curriculum.
Instrument Record
| Instrument Name | La Sombra · The Shadow |
| Maker | Benito Ferrer (1866–1925) · Santa Ana, Huerto del Loro, Granada |
| Year | 1925 · Final year of maker's life |
| School | Granada · Founding generation |
| Type | Flamenca Blanca with original friction pegs |
| Top | Spruce |
| Back & Sides | Cypress |
| Dynasty | Held with El Fragua (Eduardo Ferrer 1950) · Granada Anchor |
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
Granada blancas of this period were built light, with the shallow body and quick response the school became known for. A 1925 instrument was made for the singer and the dancer rather than the concert hall, at a time when the guitar in Granada still worked mostly in rooms rather than theatres. La Sombra was built for that room.
The story of this guitar is in the curriculum.
Benito Ferrer and the founding of the Granada school are taught in the ANICETO University curriculum, Module 2 · The Makers.
Explore the Curriculum