Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Time, as many have said, is like a river.
Speaker 1: It is constantly flowing, carrying moments away on a current,
Speaker 1: never to be seen again. And like a river, time
Speaker 1: changes everything it touches. It erodes mountains and topples civilizations. Eventually,
Speaker 1: much of what we know today will be gone and
Speaker 1: replaced with something else, all thanks to the passage of time.
Speaker 1: But every once in a while I misses something like
Speaker 1: an island whose people have been isolated from the rest
Speaker 1: of the world, or a box buried for future individuals
Speaker 1: to on Earth and learn about an era they weren't
Speaker 1: around to see. And once in a while, these overlooked
Speaker 1: pockets of time are brought to the surface, giving us
Speaker 1: a glimpse into a past once thought to be lost forever.
Speaker 1: Francis LaBelle Leepac was a period of great significance between
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one and nineteen fourteen, Europe saw a boom
Speaker 1: in scientific and cultural breakthroughs, and at the center of
Speaker 1: it all was Paris. The City of Lights became the
Speaker 1: birthplace for groundbreaking movements in art and music. Around this
Speaker 1: time lived a woman named mart du Florian. Born in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty four, she'd lived a rough life, dating all
Speaker 1: the way back to her early childhood. Her brother and
Speaker 1: sister had died when they were infants, leaving her and
Speaker 1: only child. Things didn't get much better as she got
Speaker 1: older either. She gave birth to her first son, Henri,
Speaker 1: when she was just eighteen, only to lose him three
Speaker 1: months later. Fortunately, a year after that, she had another son,
Speaker 1: whom she also named Henri. He lived far longer, passing
Speaker 1: away in the mid nineteen sixties. Du Florian was a
Speaker 1: French courtesan, moving within elite social circles and carrying on
Speaker 1: affairs with prominent politicians and artists at the time, and
Speaker 1: one such artist was Giovanni Bordini. Baldini hailed from Italy,
Speaker 1: yet much of his career was spent in Paris. He
Speaker 1: was known for his beautiful portraits of people like artist
Speaker 1: John Singer, Sergeant and poet Robert du Montesquieu. Funny enough,
Speaker 1: do Montesquieu also happened to be a client of du Florian's.
Speaker 1: Baldini's nickname was the Master of Swish, which he had
Speaker 1: earned for his unique flowing style, not his basketball skills.
Speaker 1: His paintings seemed to come alive, as though he had
Speaker 1: captured his models in motion. Among his many subjects was
Speaker 1: du Florian. Though much of Baldini's work eventually found its
Speaker 1: way into galleries and private collections, his portrait of Madame
Speaker 1: du Florian was lost to time. Now do Florian lived
Speaker 1: in a fifte hundred square foot apartment for most of
Speaker 1: her life. It was located near the Red Light District,
Speaker 1: putting her right in the middle of the action during
Speaker 1: the Belle Lipoch. Sadly, do Florian passed away in that
Speaker 1: home in nineteen thirty nine, leaving on Red to handle
Speaker 1: her affairs. He then began living in the same apartments himself,
Speaker 1: along with his own daughter, but she fled Paris in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty two and moved to the south of France.
Speaker 1: In doing so, she left her father and the apartment
Speaker 1: behind her and never looked back. It was believed that
Speaker 1: on relived there until he died in nineteen sixty six,
Speaker 1: but even that wasn't enough to bring her back for
Speaker 1: a visit. Despite not once returning to the property even
Speaker 1: after her father's death, she chose to pay the rent
Speaker 1: each month for the next forty four years. She died
Speaker 1: in two thousand ten at the age of ninety one.
Speaker 1: With no one left to claim ownership of the apartment
Speaker 1: nor its contents, it was opened up by the executors
Speaker 1: of her will to a local auctioneer, and what he found,
Speaker 1: albeit under a thick layer of dust, astounded him. The
Speaker 1: apartment had been untouched for decades. It was filled to
Speaker 1: the brim with elegant furniture one years old or more.
Speaker 1: In the bedroom, they found a four poster bed complete
Speaker 1: with a canopy. A massive vanity had been tucked into
Speaker 1: the corner, on top of which sat empty bottles and canisters,
Speaker 1: as well as an array of hair brushes. In the kitchen,
Speaker 1: glassware pots, pans, and cutlery, all of it still in place,
Speaker 1: as though it had been waiting for its owner to
Speaker 1: come home. There was a giant stuffed ostrich in one room,
Speaker 1: along with some mickey mouse and porky pig dolls, all
Speaker 1: made before the Second World War, and artwork paintings of
Speaker 1: all shapes and sizes hung on the walls. Some had
Speaker 1: been leaned against furniture and were even seated on chairs
Speaker 1: across from each other, like they'd been having a conversation.
Speaker 1: The piece to resistance, however, was one particular painting, the
Speaker 1: portrait of the apartment's original owner, Madame du Florian, painted
Speaker 1: by the master of Swiss himself, Giovanni Boldini. In the end,
Speaker 1: it seems the auctioneer hadn't unlocked an apartment door at all.
Speaker 1: He'd unearthed the time capsule that nobody knew had existed
Speaker 1: for over seventy years. Better late than never. I suppose
Speaker 1: there's something powerful about a name. If it's a name
Speaker 1: we share with others, it has power to connect us
Speaker 1: to them. Maybe your own name comes from an emotional
Speaker 1: experience had by your parents, or perhaps it's a way
Speaker 1: to pay respects to a loved one from our past. Sometimes, though,
Speaker 1: a name transforms over the years to represent more than
Speaker 1: just a family line, but an actual legacy. In Heinrich
Speaker 1: would eventually experience that. But it all started with a
Speaker 1: simple gift. Actually, there was a lot about Heinrich that
Speaker 1: was simple. He was born into a simple life in
Speaker 1: the mountains of Germany back in seventeen nine seven. His
Speaker 1: father was a simple forester, and while he had a
Speaker 1: lot of siblings eleven, in fact, life with all of
Speaker 1: them was fairly simple. And then war changed all that.
Speaker 1: Sometime around eighteen oh five, his father left to fight
Speaker 1: the French elsewhere in Europe, and he took all of
Speaker 1: the oldest boys with him. Heinrich, though, was only eight,
Speaker 1: so he stayed behind with his mother and the rest
Speaker 1: of his siblings. But the French were stronger, and soon
Speaker 1: enough they were pressing into German territory. In Heinrich's mountain town.
Speaker 1: To protect the family, his mother took them deeper into
Speaker 1: the mountains, but while it protected them from the French,
Speaker 1: had put them in other dangers. Before long, only Heinrich
Speaker 1: and one sister survived orphans in a war torn country.
Speaker 1: And then a miracle happened. The father he believed to
Speaker 1: have died, suddenly returned. With the war over, the remnants
Speaker 1: of his family pulled together, and if there was one
Speaker 1: thing they knew better than most, it was would Not
Speaker 1: only was Heinrich's father a forester, but he was a carpenter,
Speaker 1: and those skills came in handy as their town and
Speaker 1: those around it began to rebuild homes, roads, barns, fences,
Speaker 1: and of course, his father also planted more trees. In
Speaker 1: eighteen twelve, though, tragedy visited Heinrich's family once again. A
Speaker 1: powerful storm drove everyone in town to seek shelter, and
Speaker 1: while it was over quickly, there was a bit of lightning,
Speaker 1: and one lightning strike coincidentally struck the house his family
Speaker 1: was hiding in. Everyone except Heinrich was instantly killed. It
Speaker 1: was more war after that. There he was at the
Speaker 1: age of fifteen with no one to care for him
Speaker 1: or to call family, so he joined up with the
Speaker 1: Prussian army, a post that took him all the way
Speaker 1: to a Belgian town called Waterloo. He survived, although tens
Speaker 1: of thousands of his fellow soldiers did not. Again, loss
Speaker 1: had become a part of his world. When peace returned
Speaker 1: and Heinrich was able to settle down, he fell back
Speaker 1: on that family love of wood. Soon enough. He was
Speaker 1: a skilled cabinet maker, but also dabbled in music on
Speaker 1: the side. In fact, that was a passion he shared
Speaker 1: with his wife Julianne, who he married in eight Now
Speaker 1: it might be easy to assume Heinrich's legacy was loss,
Speaker 1: the loss of his mother and siblings, the loss of
Speaker 1: his father, even the loss of his fellow soldiers in
Speaker 1: Belgium at the Bottle of Waterloo. He and his wife
Speaker 1: certainly did their best to replace that missing family by
Speaker 1: having ten children of their own. If you want to
Speaker 1: interpret his story that way, there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: But Heinrich would be remembered for something else, something that
Speaker 1: came not out of loss but out of joy. And
Speaker 1: like I said at the beginning of this story, it
Speaker 1: was all about a gift. You see, when he married
Speaker 1: his wife Julianne, he did something very romantic. He made
Speaker 1: her something with his own hands, something wonderful and beautiful,
Speaker 1: something that would fill their home with joy and happiness
Speaker 1: and song. Heinrich made her a p know and it
Speaker 1: wouldn't be the last one he would make. For the
Speaker 1: rest of his life. Heinrich would grow a business around
Speaker 1: that skill, and his pianos would win countless awards. Before
Speaker 1: long they were coveted instruments, and they still are to
Speaker 1: this day. Maybe his loss was our gain. Maybe he
Speaker 1: wanted his family name to live on without fear of
Speaker 1: war or tragedy taking it away. Whatever his reason for creating,
Speaker 1: the world of music and the piano itself, will never
Speaker 1: be the same, all thanks to Heinrich Heinrich Steinway. I
Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television and show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,