Constructing the Spanish Rosette, Part Two

by Eugene Clark with Jonathon Peterson

Originally published in American Lutherie #73, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013



I’m told that there is an old Chinese proverb that says, “The beginning of wisdom is to put the right names on things.” The right name for this process is “intarsia.” The Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines intarsia as, “a mosaic usually of wood fitted into a support; also: the art or process of making such a mosaic.” When you cut a relief, a space to receive mosaic inlay, you’re doing intarsia. Marquetry, strictly speaking, is veneer work where the design is assembled as a veneer and then applied to a surface.

Everything belongs in its context, and Spain is part of the context here. When I say Spanish guitar to an American group, it takes a while to explain what I mean. Spanish language, Spanish thought, the sounds and smells of Spain gave birth to this instrument. Spanish guitars are generally modular in design, often from tip to tip. There will be a basic building unit for the entire instrument, and everything on the instrument is coherent with that building unit. The great makers of Spain worked in both decimal and fractional inches, and when they could afford it, used expensive machinist’s rules. If you measure their instruments with the same tools that they used you may see the logic of their design, with every component placed along a grid according to a chosen building unit.