The text of the book, which is in coffee table format, is supplemented by lush color photographs of the guitars themselves, many of them close-up shots that highlight design features or the sheen or grain of the wood that Martin used. The effect is similar to that of viewing a Georgia O’Keeffe painting that magnifies the stamen of a flower or part of a cow skull. “We weren’t thinking about her, but we were thinking about parts of the guitar that could be isolated in photographs that were both pleasing to look at and informative,” said Robert Shaw, the book’s other editor. “We wanted to make a point about C. F. Martin’s high level of attention to detail. A lot of what he did was not necessary, but that was his aesthetic and his integrity as a master craftsman.”

Beginning on Jan. 14, several of the guitars shown in the book will be featured, along with others, at the exhibition at the Met, titled “Early American Guitars: The Instruments of C. F. Martin.” Taken together, the book, the show and a booming resale market, in which classic Martins can sell for well into six figures, reflect how these vintage instruments — including the banjos, ukuleles and mandolins that the company has also manufactured at various times in its history — are being elevated to the status of works of art.

“We’re seeing the appreciation of these things as objects, not just as tools, which is why you’re seeing them in an art museum,” said Arian Sheets, curator of stringed instruments at the National Music Museum at the University of South Dakota and the author of one of the essays in the new book. “It’s a bit like why people have designer clothing or luxury cars or collect American furniture — the craftsmanship is stunning, and the detail is quite pleasing to people attuned to that sort of thing.”

Tastes in music and instrument design continue to evolve, and Martin is still trying to accommodate them, as is evident on the floor of the factory here. Recent years, for example, have brought a boomlet in production of the ukulele, driven by the popularity of the Hawaiian virtuosos Jake Shimabukuro and Israel Kamakawiwo’ole and easy access to online lessons via YouTube.

But guitars remain the company’s mainstay. As in C. F. Martin’s day, women are again playing guitar in larger numbers, which has led to greater demand for smaller, more portable models with a brighter sound, in contrast to the bass-heavy Dreadnought favored by the biggest names of the rock era.

In the early 1980s, at the tail end of the disco boom and its reliance on electronic beats, the Martin company was nearly forced out of business: annual output fell from more than 22,000 instruments a decade earlier to barely 3,000. Production only took off again toward the end of that decade, when MTV’s “Unplugged” series encouraged a migration back to acoustic instruments, a trend that has strengthened with the rise of the Americana movement over the last decade. The plant here now produces 48,000 guitars a year, with the price of standard-line instruments ranging from $1,500 to $11,000.