Tushinsky Music Collection Sold
By Tom Steuer
One of the most important collections of player piano rolls and instruments passed over the auction block on February 16 and 17 at the Butterfield & Butterfield auction house in Hollywood, California.
Approximately 9,500 piano rolls, consisting of 3,600 Ampicos, 3,000 Duo-Arts, and 2,700 Red Label Welte rolls, plus several hundred miscellaneous rolls were sold. The piano rolls were all sold in lots of 100 each.
There were also some rare instruments sold including a Bluthner grand piano with Red Label Welte built in, a 1973 (non-player) Boesendorfer Imperial Concert grand, a 1924 Steinway Duo-Art grand with French case and legs, and a unique 1972 custom-built Vorsetzer (a cabinet push-up piano player) that performs Ampico, Duo-Art, Welte Red Label and Welte Licensee rolls on any piano.
All of these had been owned by the late Joseph Tushinsky, former chairman of Superscope Inc. and its Pianocorder Division. The huge roll collection and the four-system Vorsetzer had been used by Tushinsky for his "Keyboard Immortal" radio shows and LP recordings, and the roll collection was also the basis of the Pianocorder library.
After Tushinsky's death the collection went to a Japanese buyer who purportedly paid a "fabled fortune" for the collection. The Japanese owner recently brought back the collection to the U.S. and ordered it sold through Butterfield & Butterfield.
Most of the rolls were encased and sealed in tin boxes as well as corrugated shipping containers, and only a few buyers were able to check the contents prior to purchase. Upon opening the contents, buyers found that virtually all of the rolls were in excellent operational condition.
Tom Steuer
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(Message sent Wed 26 Feb 1997, 07:43:28 GMT, from time zone GMT.) |
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