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. No comparable 1925 Benito Ferrer instrument has been identified in monitored specialist trade in a 36-month window.
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 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 Role | · Dynasty pair with El Fragua (Eduardo Ferrer 1950) · Granada Anchor |
| Acquired | 2026 |
Label confirmed. The instrument has been professionally inspected and conserved to museum standard, with all interventions fully reversible. Its structural and provenance record is maintained privately under museum archival standard.
The Granada school that Benito Ferrer founded became the primary source of the modern concert guitar - its methods carried forward by his successors and spreading to define the Spanish guitar as a global instrument. La Sombra is the founding voice of that tradition in this collection.
The story of this guitar is in the curriculum.
Benito Ferrer, the founding of the Granada school, its connection to Andrés Segovia, and the dynasty transmission to Eduardo Ferrer is documented in the ANICETO University curriculum.
Explore the Curriculum