There was enough double bass activity by 2016 that we started to list instruments for sale (many on consignment) on our website. Special offerings at that moment included an exquisite bass by George Gemünder, a giant by Neuner & Hornsteiner, and a Florentine instrument from Giuseppe Zamberti.
After three years relocating the contents of Charles Fisher’s varied instrument collection (see 2013), it was time to deal with the final sales so his estate could be closed. The famous 1730 Blanchet harpsichord had gone to the Flint collection in Delaware, and most of the smaller non-keyboard instruments were disbursed. But a few larger important pieces had been hard to place: the Kirckman single, the Schantz fortepiano, and the Hess house organ. By the summer of 2016 they had all found appropriate homes, two with private owners; fortunately the Schantz was acquired by the Smithsonian, where we continue to have a relationship with it. The organ was last to leave, finally disassembled before heading to a collector in Texas, leaving our front hall unoccupied for the first time in years.
A beautiful recording of Schumann lieder on the Smithsonian’s Friends of Music label was a watershed in Barbara’s sideline as a producer: for the first time ever she didn’t have to tune the keyboard instrument involved! Friend and colleague Rod Regier came from Maine to service his own fortepiano (6 ½ octaves) while Barbara just ran the session.
Our primary joint recreational pursuit in the ‘teens was driving the wonderful Sheba, our big black mare. Almost every weekend from April – November we were off to some wonderful location for an excursion in company with the Piedmont Driving Club (when it didn’t interfere with concerts). Some of these occasions were public events covered by professional photographers, as was a parade at the National Sporting Library nearby in Middleburg, VA.
