Okey... It goes a little something like this:
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine told me he had seen a busetto cornered bass used as a decoration object in a
shop here in Oslo. It was large, old and very nice! This friend of mine, who plays double bass at the Norwegian
National Opera also showed me some old pictures of the opera orchestra from mid 1800. And in one of those pictures, was
Christian Jehnigen (teacher of great violinist Johan Halvorsen) who was playing a huge busetto bass. The strange thing was that this bass is NOT in proffesional use
in Norway today.... hmmm... So where is it? Aha! It has to be that bass used as decoration! My friend also said that
the bass looked very much like a Klotz bass, so this could make sense... He has played different Klotz basses and owns
the J.F. Lott bass on page 175 in Elgars, so he's absolutley compatible to guess the maker. He diden't get the chance to look after a label.
Anyway - I have now used a couple of years trying to find this bass, and today I got a little further (or actually one
step back). Earlier I have found out wich decorator who used the bass and where she got it from. The bass was the
property of an old Theatre in Oslo and she borrowed it. I called the theatre and was told that it was correct that the
theatre had owned a similar instrument, but that they once lent it to a film producer who dident deliver it back. When
I then got the film producers name and number, I thought I might find this instrument after all. But when I called her,
she said that this was about 20ys ago(!) What?. Ok, so this was before the other woman used it as shop decoration. This
was today. But I got some other information as well: She had used the bass in a photograph that she took about 20ys
ago. With a nude woman on top of the instrument!
So the conclusion is - for now - that all the people that borrowed the instrument has delivered it back, but the
theatre doesn't know where it is, AND, next week I will probably see the photo of a fine ex. of a Klotz bass with a
nude woman on top!!!
My detective work has now been going on for a couple of years and the bass was first seen for about 6-7ys ago.
Hopefully it still exists.
I will never give up!
...to be continued...
