Enrique García (Madrid, 1868 - Barcelona, 1922) Rosewood and spruce Spanish guitar. Comes with a guitar case whose label reads 'Ramón Parramón BARCELONA'. Label inside the soundhole of the body, stating the guitar maker’s details: 'ENRIQUE GARCIA CONSTRUCTOR GUITARRA BANDURRIAS Y LAUDES. Calle Paseo San Juan 110 BARCELONA'. Year 1919. 'Gtrra. 215'.   A private bill of sale is preserved for another guitar from the same collector. It concerns the purchase of a Torres guitar, modified by Ignacio Fleta, acquired for 3,000 pesetas and in turn exchanged for a Sentchordi guitar and its case, valued together at 200 pesetas in full. The receipt is dated in Barcelona on May 10, 1909, and on May 11, 1939 the cancellation of the total amount is signed, since payment was made in installments. On the back of the document, there is what we understand to be an appraisal of the mentioned guitar, dated July 10, 1963.   Likewise, the original receipt is attached, on a card from Casa Parramón of Barcelona, for the purchase of the case for the guitar we are presenting at auction and a set of tuning pegs, for the amounts of 900 and 300 pesetas respectively, dated in Barcelona on July 19, 1960.   Enrique García Castillo was an important guitar maker, born in Madrid and trained in the workshop of Manuel Ramírez, but established in Barcelona in 1895, where he developed his career as a guitar luthier. During his first years in the Catalan capital, he opened a workshop on Aragón Street number 309. In 1899, on the same street but at number 455, he moved his workshop, and finally, in 1902, he relocated it to Paseo de San Juan number 110, where he made our guitar. Before his successful career in the Catalan capital, Enrique García had won first prize at the Chicago World Fair, which allowed him to gain worldwide recognition, a prestige that was especially noted in South America, where there was great demand for his guitars. The first one to reach that continent was brought there by Domingo Prat, a highly renowned guitarist and composer, an Argentine of Catalan origin, who came to own four Enrique García guitars. The sound of his guitars also attracted other masters of the instrument, such as the great Francisco Tárrega.   Miguel Gimeno Martínez, director of the Bulletin of the Peña Guitarrística Tárrega, considers García 'the Stradivarius of the guitar'. He writes in Ritmo illustrated musical magazine that 'Enrique García came to achieve such perfection in his art that it can be stated without exaggeration that the guitars that left his hands far surpassed in quality and in richness of sound the best that have been made. And as for the other qualities required of a first class musical instrument, it can be said that García guitars achieved perfection'.   Provenance: - By descent. Francisco Gómez Carbonell. University professor. General inspector of the Corps of Industrial Engineers in the service of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Engineer for the Barcelona City Council. 19th to 20th centuries.   Bibliographic reference: - Gimeno Martínez, Miguel. (1954). «Artífices de la guitarra: Enrique García Castillo», en 'Ritmo: revista musical ilustrada'. Madrid, año 24, n.º 260, págs. 4-5.