Born in La Caada de San Urbano, Almera, Antonio de Torres was the son of Juan Torr

es, a local tax collector, and Maria Jurado. As was common, when he was 12 he st
arted an apprenticeship as a carpenter. In 1833, a dynastic war broke out, and s
oon after Torres was conscripted into the army. Through his father's machination
s, young Antonio was dismissed as medically unfit for service. As only single me
n and widowers without children were subject to conscription, in 1835 his family
pushed Torres into a hastily arranged marriage to Juana Mara Lpez, the 13-year-ol
d daughter of a shopkeeper. Children soon followed: a daughter in 1836, another
in 1839, and a third in 1842, who died a few months later. His second daughter a
lso died. In 1845 his wife died at the age of 23, of tuberculosis. These were di
fficult years for Torres, who was often in debt and forced to look for more lucr
ative forms of employment.
Although there is some debate as to who taught Torres, one theory is that some t
ime around 1842, Torres may have gone to work for Jos Pernas in Granada, rapidly
learning to build guitars. He soon returned to Seville, and opened a shop on the
Calle de Cerragera No. 7 that he shared with Manuel Soto y Solares. Although he
made some guitars during the 1840s, it was not until the 1850s on the advice of
the renowned guitarist and composer Julin Arcas, that Torres made it his professi
on, and he began building in earnest. Julin Arcas offered Torres advice on buildi
ng, and their collaboration turned Torres into an inveterate investigator of the
guitar construction. Torres reasoned that the soundboard was key. To increase i
ts volume, he made his guitars not only larger, but fitted them with thinner, he
nce lighter soundboards that were arched in both directions, made possible by a
system of fan-bracing for strength.These bracing struts were laid out geometrica
lly, based on two isosceles triangles joined at their base creating a kite shape
, within which the struts were set out symmetrically.
Guitar by Torres (1862)
at Museu de la Msica de Barcelona (MDMB 625).[3]
While Torres was not the first to use this method he was the one who perfected t
he symmetrical design. To prove that it was the top, and not the back and sides
of the guitar that gave the instrument its sound, in 1862 he built a guitar with
back and sides of papier-mch. (This guitar resides in the Museu de la Musica in B
arcelona, and before the year 2000 it was restored to playable condition by the
brothers Yage, Barcelona). [4]
There is an anecdote about how he had made a guitar made like a Chinese puzzle t
hat could be assembled without glue, and disassembled would fit in a shoe box. T
here is no evidence that he ever made such a guitar though.
During his later years, Torres' close friend, a priest named Juan Martnez Sirvent
, lent him a hand in his workshop. Many years later, in 1931 Sirvent wrote a let
ter to Francisco Rodrguez Torres, mentioning the following explanation Torres mad
e when he, at the age of 68 was asked by the famous father Garzn at a dinner abou
t his "secret" of how to make his outstandingly sounding guitars:[5]
"[...] smilingly [Torres] responded: 'Father, I am very sorry that a man like yo
u also falls victim of that idea that runs among ignorant people, Juanito (that
is how he addressed me) has been witness to the secret many times, but it is imp
ossible for me to leave the secret behind for posterity; this will go to the tom
b with me for it is the result of the feel of the tips of the thumb and forefing
er communicating to my intellect whether the soundboard is properly worked out t
o correspond with the guitar maker's concept and the sound required of the instr
ument'. Everyone was left convinced that the artistic genius cannot be passed on
[...]"
In 1868, Torres married again, wedding Josefa Martn Rosada. Shortly after, Torres
met Francisco Trrega for the first time. Trrega, who was then aged seventeen, had

come to Seville from Barcelona to buy a Torres guitar from the maker of Julin Ar
cas' instrument. Torres offered him a modest guitar he had in stock, but on hear
ing him play, offered him a much better guitar that he had made for himself a fe
w years before.
About 1870, Don Antonio, who was then in his 50s, closed his shop in Seville and
moved back to Almera where he and his wife opened up a china and crystal shop on
the calle Real. About five years later, Don Antonio began his "second epoch" as
he refers to it on the labels of his guitars, building part-time when not busy
in the china shop. After the death of his wife, Josefa, in 1883, Torres began to
devote increasing amounts of time to building making some 12 guitars a year unt
il his death in La Caada de San Urbano, Almera at the age of 75.