Hello Mechanical Music Friends,  This week I took delivery of
a large collection of piano rolls.  I'm calling it the San Francisco
Mission District Hoard as it is one of the largest collections of
piano rolls to surface in many years.  And when I say large I mean big:
1.5 tons of piano rolls -- over 100 moving boxes on several pallets --
showed up at our place in Seattle after being packed by a shipper in
San Francisco.

The rolls had been hiding for over thirty years in a barn building
behind a nondescript home.  When the owner of the home chose to sell,
due to age and infirmity, the new owners took over much of the house
content.  What they didn't realize was the large number of piano rolls
that had been sitting in the garage.

When I was made aware of the collection I arranged to acquire
everything.  I thought this was the 47 boxes of rolls that the new
owners had indicated were in the garage.  Subsequently they discovered
a loft area about 15 feet long and 4 feet deep filled with loose rolls.
A mover was engaged and this loft turned out to bring out another 37
large cartons of rolls.  The total number of cartons made picking them
up myself out of the question so a shipper was engaged.

Included in this collection are over 1200 Ampico rolls, both originals
and 1960s and '70s recuts; somewhere around 750 Duo-Art rolls; a couple
hundred Welte Deluxe rolls; 50+ Wurlitzer APP and Pianino rolls; a rank
of vintage flute pipes; a mixture of A and G rolls in varying conditions;
and lots and lots of 88-note rolls.  And this just what I've pulled out
so far -- I still have another large pallet of 30+ cartons to go
through!

To give a flavor of the rolls, near the top of the first carton of
88-note rolls I opened was none other than one of the rarest of Fats
Waller's QRS rolls: "I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby."  But alas, the wrong
roll was in the box!  I'm hopeful it is tucked in a different roll box
somewhere in the mix.

Last, I wanted to share that I acquired this collection without ever
having seen any of it in person.  There was an element of drama, a
ticking clock per se, as the new owners had started demolition of the
barn area and wanted everything out within 48 hours or it would all be
destroyed!

My plan is to keep some of the collection, sell some to other
collectors and to donate some of it to a worthy institution like the
Stanford Player Piano Project.

It just goes to show that you never know what may be lurking behind
that old home or in that garage down the street.  Just be ready for
a couple thousand piano rolls to show up -- and make sure you break it
gently to your partner/spouse!

From sunny Seattle,
Marc Sachnoff