“Before Leaving New York, I feel compelled to express my satisfaction and admiration of the two Guitars manufactured for me,” wrote guitar virtuosa Dolores Navares de Goni to C.F. Martin and his business partner, John Coupa, in 1843. “I unhesitatingly pronounce them superior to any instruments of the kind I have ever seen in this country or in EUROPE for tone, workmanship and facility of execution.” De Goni went on to make it clear that her praise was not limited to the instruments made specifically for her. “Those [guitars] which I have examined in your room are not less deserving of my praise, and I confidently recommend them to the public.”[1]

          Martin, the leading American guitar maker of his era and the founder of the still-thriving family-owned guitar manufacturing company, had business relationships with many of the top guitarists of his age. Coupa and Charles de Janon, both respected concert performers, served at different times as Martin’s all-important New York representatives. Performers and teachers William Schubert and Edward Pique had distribution arrangements with the master guitar maker. But Martin’s relationship with de Goni appears to have been especially beneficial. Not only did the renowned concert performer endorse Martin guitars, Martin produced a popular “signature model” “de Goni” (or “Degoni”) instrument for a number of years.

          Spanish-born de Goni, who had enjoyed modest success as a performer in England, immigrated to New York in 1840. By 1842 she had become one of the country’s top concert guitarists, touring ceaselessly with her soon-to-be husband, the German cellist Gustav "George" Knoop. De Goni was arguably the finest guitarist in America in the 1840s. One reviewer, who claimed to have heard the great guitarists of the age in the music salons of Paris, favored de Goni over Sor and Huerta:

“This lady has a peculiar art of drawing from her instrument the tones of the human voice. Her playing is a song of continuous sweetness, and executed in a style at once exquisite and dramatic. This lady, indeed, exceeds in what guitarists generally are almost afraid to attempt; and not only does she exceed in the department to which we have referred, but the short pieces which are most natural on the guitar, her performance is, in every respect, charming.”[2]

          Martin may have come into contact with de Goni very soon after she arrived in America, or perhaps he met her during an earlier tour of the country:[3] a surviving Martin & Schatz instrument has a handwritten inscription, “Made for Madam de Gone.”[4] Instruments branded Martin & Schatz are widely believed to pre-date Martin’s move to Pennsylvania in 1839.

          The Spanish-made instrument de Goni brought from Europe apparently was an inspiration to Martin. According to James Ballard, who wrote one of the leading American guitar method books of the antebellum era, de Goni “brought a large patterned Spanish guitar, from which a number have been made, and distributed over the United States, by Martin, of Pennsylvania, and Schmidt and Maul, of New York."

          By the early 1850s Martin was producing a “de Goni” model guitar. This was one of Martin’s less expensive models, and probably had little in common with the instruments played by the virtuosa, but it was one of his best sellers. A “large dei Goni” was equivalent to what later would be known as a 1-26 model.[6] “De Goni” also was a term used by Martin to describe one of his standard ornamentation patterns.

          Dolores de Goni was not the only concert artist with a “signature model” Martin guitar during the antebellum era. Martin also had a Ferranti model, named for Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti, guitarist to the King of Belgium.  Zani de Ferranti toured the United States in 1846, but there is no record of Martin and the guitarist having met, or of Martin making any instruments for the European virtuoso.

          The concert scene began to fade in the 1850s due largely to competition from minstrel shows, and de Goni seemingly decided to retire from performing. Publishing under the name “Mrs. Knoop,” she continued to be an important presence on the guitar scene as one of America’s finest (though now almost completely neglected) composers for the guitar.

Copyright 2009, David K. Bradford