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Found tattered stradivari book in NC trashpile, sold it to Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY. No, really.
I was walking down a street in Asheville, NC two years ago when i came across a verdant trashpile. Normally i wouldnt stop, but there was a box of old vinyl, a.k.a. "time to get your hands dirty". So I start digging in this box of 40's-50's jazz, but all the records are leaning to one side, and have apparently been outdoors for a few days or more, because they are all fused together. when i go to lift them out, i see this book in the corner of the box. all by itself. just lying der on de flor der. i toss the record amalgam and gently lift this book out. "antonio stradivari, his life and works" 1909. Heres the thing reddit, and this is something i did not tell the museum. I took this book with me only because i had learned of stradivari literally days before. And the only reason i knew the name at all, was from the soil stradivarius in fallout 3. whatever follows, just keep that in mind... i figured i would make some sort of collage with the book's illustrations or something. Fast forward to me now at home with this book opening it for the first time. i see this autograph (pictured) "Adolfo Betti, To Loudon Charlton, Carnegie Hall, New York". I'm like wut? so google these fools and find out that Betti was the first violinist of the "flonzaley Quartet". a sort of supergroup of italian stringplayers at the turn of the century. Loudon charlton was the concert manager of the New York Philharmonic 1910-1912. his office was in carnegie. "seems legit" thought I, as it was written in fountain pen. then I look above that and see this poem sort of scrawled. it's made out to a woman named Annie (nanna) matthews bryant, from a man named Herman Hoyer. Mrs bryant was a sculptor, painter, writer, violinist in boston. Hoyer was a violinist for the Boston symphony orchestra. they were best friends apparently, as herman had written many poems and things on bits of paper and then pasted them into the book for mrs bryant. there was even a century old flower that could have been from anywhere in the world, as these people frequently crisscrossed the Atlantic. hoyer and bryant had left the most historical evidence of any of the books owners, which were apparently numerous. Mrs bryants mother owned two Stradivarius violins "antonius" and "francesca". these became annies when her mother passed, and Annie bequeathed them to the Met when she died in the thirties. after examining reciepts, writings, postcards, and articles added to the book it became clear that this book had been the companion of these violins. and if you thought that was crazy, just wait. the evidence showed that except for betti, everyone i mentioned had owned the book for some amount of time. charlton, hoyer, bryant. Charlton killed himself in the 30's. Hoyer died in germany in 1912? i think (the german postcard stamp shown is from his brother julius, consoling mrs. bryant, and accompanying the book.) kind of interesting. so when hoyer died he left two violins to mrs bryant. a carletti and a lupot. i googled hoyer lupot and found an old article about how he sued the firm he bought these violins from, on the belief that they were forgeries. he lost the case and was stuck with the violins. pictued is a reciept from a man named max kluge (another BSO musician, and rumored to be among the first electronically recorded BSO musicians) to mrs bryant for one carletti, and one lupot. Mind=blown. So i take this book to a place in asheville called 'the captains bookshelf" or some shit. they took one look at it, literally for like three seconds, and told me it was garbage. or maybe "a nice scrapbooking thing" these people dont know their heads from their asses, thought i, undiscouraged. this book sat on my shelf in a protector for a year before google randomly made the connection between the met and mrs bryant, because of their "guitar heroes" exhibit which mentioned her. i got in touch with a violin expert who used to work for the met, stewart pollens. he pointed me in the direction of J. Kenneth Moore, curator in charge of musical instruments at the met. As you might well imagine, it took some time as "mr. moore, i found something in the garbage i think you need to see" wasnt something he deals with very often. i sent him the book, an he was surprised to say the least. i took these pictures to prove that the book was mine, in case they tried the ol' "what book?" which they did not. long story long, i had to sell the book as opposed to donate it, because i was hella broke and needed new tires. Ken moore and i are facebook friends as a result of this crazy story. ask me anything i might have left out. (all kinds of stuff im sure). pics. http://s1173.photobucket.com/albums/r592/John_McCrane/stradivari%20book/ more