Erik Pierre Hofmann Luthier

In 2011, I extended my business to include the activity of music publisher, signified by the registered trademark Les Editions des Robins. The initial purpose of this extension was to self-publish the book “Stauffer & Co. – The Viennese guitar of the 19th century”. Stauffer & Co. was co-written with Pascal Mougin and Stefan Hackl and brought about with the help and support of a great number of guitar enthusiasts and institutions from all over the world. In particular, I want to mention Simon Palmer, an international civil servant, writer and composer, who not only provided most of the translations into English for the book, but also gave precious

advise all along the project; the guitarist and composer Benoît Albert played and recorded repertoire pieces for the bonus-CD that complements the two hundred subscription copies of the book; web-designer Caroline Kergall contributed technical support and illustrations and created the dedicated website www.stauffer-and-co.com. Thanks to Stephan Schmidt’s commitment, the Hochschule für Musik Basel sponsored the project and, last but not least, Brigitte Zaczek supported it inexhaustibly all over the years.
Future projects under the aegis of Les Editions des Robins may include a supplemental volume to Stauffer & Co. – an encyclopedia of guitar makers from Central and Eastern Europe -, as well as a treatise on guitar restoration. It is my firm belief that despite the huge difficulty to create and market printed works of the highest quality, it is precisely the thrive for longevity that is inherent to such publications as Stauffer & Co., that will make them stand against internet publications.