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Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of

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Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of

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Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all

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Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting

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Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

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Speaker 1: What makes for a stereotypical librarian? Personally? I tend to

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Speaker 1: picture a cozy sweater, ink stained hands, and tea, so

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Speaker 1: much tea. Of course, these kinds of stereotypes are left

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Speaker 1: over from a time when the librarian might be a

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Speaker 1: woman who was thought to be a bit dowdy. Belde

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Speaker 1: Coosta Green certainly did not fit that mold. In fact,

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Speaker 1: Beldacosta Green didn't fit really into any mold in the

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Speaker 1: early twentieth century. She was born Belle Maran Greener in

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy nine in Washington, d c. To parents who

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Speaker 1: were prominent and well liked in their community. Her mother,

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Speaker 1: Genevieve Ida Fleet, was a music teacher from a prominent

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Speaker 1: local black family, and her father, Richard Theodore Greener, was

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Speaker 1: the first black graduate of Harvard in the class of

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy Her father was an activist in every sense

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Speaker 1: of the word, and wielded his education and intellect with pride,

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Speaker 1: passing on a keen hunger for knowledge to his children,

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Speaker 1: especially to Belle. Admittedly, she had a complicated relationship with

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Speaker 1: her father. He left the family when she was seventeen,

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Speaker 1: and it's not clear if Belle ever saw him again.

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Speaker 1: The family was of mixed ancestry, and Belle herself was

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Speaker 1: very light skinned. To get ahead in a world that

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Speaker 1: enforced segregation in every way possible, Belle changed her name

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Speaker 1: to Green and made her middle name DaCosta, creating a

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Speaker 1: story of Portuguese heritage to explain her darker complexion. It

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Speaker 1: was Belle Belle's position at the Princeton Library, though, that

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Speaker 1: set her apart. She began working there in nineteen oh

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Speaker 1: two and came to the attention of one Junius Spencer

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Speaker 1: Morgan the Second, the nephew of the infamous JP Morgan.

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Speaker 1: Junius was a book lover that eventually introduced Bell to

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Speaker 1: his uncle, who was looking for a personal librarian to

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Speaker 1: manage and expand his collection. And even though Morgan was

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Speaker 1: just trying to impress old money in New York City,

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Speaker 1: that didn't mean that he didn't want the best and

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Speaker 1: most valuable, and he needed someone with a tenacity to

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Speaker 1: get it. He hired Bell in nineteen oh five and

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Speaker 1: charged her with taming the collection and then getting more.

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Speaker 1: There always had to be more. Although libraries are commonly

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Speaker 1: thought of as a woman's domain, remember our dowdy librarian stereotype,

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Speaker 1: Most high level positions are occupied by men. Bell had

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Speaker 1: her work cut out for her, and she handled it

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Speaker 1: with her usual flare, often saying, and I quote, just

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Speaker 1: because I'm a librarian doesn't mean I have to dress

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Speaker 1: like one. Bell traveled extensively to Europe, out charming and

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Speaker 1: outbidding the other collectors that came to jockey for positions

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Speaker 1: in auctions and sales. She learned from the best in

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Speaker 1: the field, and her word was as good as gold

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Speaker 1: with European galleries, shops and dealers. She was fashionable, formidable,

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Speaker 1: a splash of color and a somewhat drab male dominated world.

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Speaker 1: And Bell was also forthright, maybe even blunt, with her

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Speaker 1: employees and wasn't afraid to push Morgan when she was right,

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Speaker 1: as she so often was. She acquired a staggering collection

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Speaker 1: of rare books, manuscripts, and fine art for the Morgan Library,

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Speaker 1: but her position became precarious when Morgan died in nineteen thirteen.

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Speaker 1: It could have all come crashing down in that moment,

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Speaker 1: but Morgan's son, JP. Morgan Junior, established the Pierpont Morgan

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Speaker 1: Library as a public institution in nineteen twenty four and

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Speaker 1: wasn't about to let a gem like Bell get away anyway.

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Speaker 1: His father's will stipulated that Bell was to be kept

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Speaker 1: on at the library with a salary of fifty thousand dollars.

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Speaker 1: Didn't just stay on as a librarian, though, she became

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Speaker 1: the director. Under Bell's care, the Morgan Library blossomed into

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Speaker 1: a significant public institution, and Bell herself was a respected

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Speaker 1: figure who mentored colleagues and was the person to see

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Speaker 1: about medieval art, particularly illuminated manuscripts. Because of that, institutions

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Speaker 1: far and wide sought her council, But in nineteen thirty

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Speaker 1: she was needed a little closer to home. The Metropolitan

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Speaker 1: Museum of Art wanted to purchase an extremely rare medieval

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Speaker 1: panel painting by Spanish master Jorge Ingles. It was a

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Speaker 1: gorgeous piece showing the betrothal of Saint Ursula. At first glance,

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Speaker 1: it was perfect, a busy scene with the large crowd

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Speaker 1: centered around Saint Ursula and her would be husband. However,

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Speaker 1: Belle looked closer and realized that something was off. People

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Speaker 1: have certain expectations when it comes to the Middle Ages,

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Speaker 1: and this painting played into all of them. What no

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Speaker 1: one realized that day in nineteen thirty was that Bell

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Speaker 1: had just uncovered one of the most successful and massive

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Speaker 1: forgers in history. As it turns out, the figure Bell

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Speaker 1: dubbed the Spanish Forger had been busy creating several medieval

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Speaker 1: works for decades. Bell sought them out with the same

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Speaker 1: single minded focus she devoted to Morgan's collection. The paintings

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Speaker 1: were too perfect, they were too decorative and had too

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Speaker 1: much gold leaf, something that was spare in actual medieval art.

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Speaker 1: After almost a decade, Bell compiled the list of fourteen

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Speaker 1: items she confirmed to have been created by the Spanish Forger.

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Speaker 1: She retired in nineteen forty eight and died two years later,

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Speaker 1: but her story is only just beginning to be explored

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Speaker 1: and understood. The hunt for the Spanish Forger continues to

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Speaker 1: this day. Currently, the list of works attributed to them

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Speaker 1: stands at over three hundred But there's one last thing.

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Speaker 1: A funny thing happened. After Bell's discovery, the Spanish Forger's

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Speaker 1: art became just as valuable and sought after as the

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Speaker 1: works they once sought to imitate. There are auctions for

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Speaker 1: people to claim these pieces for their own, and thousands

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Speaker 1: of dollars are exchanged, all for a pretty lie. We've

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Speaker 1: never found out who the Spanish forger was. Thanks to

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Speaker 1: Bella DaCosta Green, we've certainly discovered a colorful mystery. Everyone

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Speaker 1: has that one item in their house they're proud of.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it's the eighty inch TV in the living room,

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Speaker 1: or their extensive collection of humble figurines. It could be

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Speaker 1: an award, or a vintage piece of furniture, or even

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Speaker 1: a prop from a famous movie. Whatever it is, it's

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Speaker 1: something that brings them joy and acts as a conversation

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Speaker 1: starter for when the guests come over. After all, who

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Speaker 1: can ignore a TV almost as big as the wall?

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Speaker 1: But Sadik Mohammad Khan Abbasi the Fourth didn't have a

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Speaker 1: giant television set or a movie prop. What he had

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Speaker 1: was a really nice bed. Abbasi was the Navab of Bahawalpur,

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Speaker 1: a princely state of the British Indian Empire. Bahawalpur wasn't

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Speaker 1: technically governed by the British. Instead, it was overseen by

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Speaker 1: the Navab and controlled by the Crown through indirect rule.

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Speaker 1: Bahawalpur was located on the eastern edge of modern Pakistan.

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Speaker 1: It was founded in sixteen oh nine a d. But

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Speaker 1: didn't form a subsidiary alliance with Britain until eighteen thirty three.

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Speaker 1: As for Abbasi, sources are conflicted. Some say that he

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Speaker 1: was born in eighteen sixty one, while others claimed that

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Speaker 1: he was born a year later. His father was Navab

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Speaker 1: at the time, but he sadly passed away in eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixty six when Sadiq was only a boy. As the

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Speaker 1: boy was still a minor at the time of his

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Speaker 1: father's death, he was unable to assume the role and

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Speaker 1: duties of Navab. Instead, the British took temporary control until

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Speaker 1: Abbasi came of age in eighteen seventy nine, at which

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Speaker 1: point he was granted the title of tenth Navab of Bahawalpur.

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Speaker 1: In photographs, Abasi appeared to be fairly tall, with a

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Speaker 1: full beard and long, dark hair that fell past his shoulders.

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Speaker 1: He had a taste for the finer things in life,

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Speaker 1: often depicted wearing long ornate jackets stitched with detailed phil agree,

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Speaker 1: and I will confess that I cannot help but picture

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Speaker 1: Nandor the relentless from what we do in the shadows.

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Speaker 1: But you picture what you want to picture. But to

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Speaker 1: get a true sense of his wealth and power, one

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Speaker 1: need to look no further than his bedroom. Because the

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Speaker 1: bed on which he slept was no ordinary resting place.

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Speaker 1: He had it commissioned in eighteen eighty two to be

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Speaker 1: built out of rosewood, a strong wood with a deep,

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Speaker 1: rich red hue. Then he had the bed covered in

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Speaker 1: a third of a ton of sterling silver from the

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Speaker 1: Krystofel company in Paris. Christophel was a renowned silverware company

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Speaker 1: that had supplied kings and emperors with beautiful tableware dating

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Speaker 1: back to the eighteen forties. When it introduced a new

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Speaker 1: way of bonding thin layers of metal to their forks, knives,

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Speaker 1: and spoons, they called it electroplating. The process was a

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Speaker 1: huge boon to their business too, But the Navab didn't

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Speaker 1: have his bed electroplated. Instead, he asked the company's designers

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Speaker 1: to carve and engrave the sterling silver with delicate patterns

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Speaker 1: and ornamentations to show everyone that this was a bed

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Speaker 1: fit for a king. A rosewood bed covered in specially

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Speaker 1: crafted sterling silver might have been enough for most wealthy nobles,

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Speaker 1: but not a bossy. He wanted more, and so on

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Speaker 1: each of the four posts at the bed's corners he

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Speaker 1: had placed four life size automatons cast from bronze. They

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Speaker 1: were made by French artists on Ribouet and were modeled

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Speaker 1: as four nude women of European descent, each wearing a

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Speaker 1: dark wig and holding a feathered fan. Inside the posts

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Speaker 1: on which they stood were springs that had been wired

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Speaker 1: to a music box. Stored beneath the bed and under

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Speaker 1: the mattress was a pressure sensor that was triggered when

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Speaker 1: a bossi would crawl in at the end of a

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Speaker 1: long busy day, and when the censor was activated, the

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Speaker 1: four robotic women would move their eyes and wave their

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Speaker 1: fans over him as a piece from a popular opera

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Speaker 1: played for thirty minutes. Unfortunate, the current whereabouts of the

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Speaker 1: bed are unknown. All that remains today are some photos

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Speaker 1: taken by the Christoffel Company in eighteen eighty two, as

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Speaker 1: well as a watercolor painting of it by Carl A. Scoggard.

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Speaker 1: Looking back, though Nnavab's musical bed was more than just

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Speaker 1: a display of extravagance and wealth, it was also a

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Speaker 1: marvel of engineering and craftsmanship. To know it might still

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Speaker 1: be out there waiting for somebody to lay down and

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Speaker 1: switch on its half hour music show, well that would

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Speaker 1: keep anyone up at night. I hope you've enjoyed today's

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Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free

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Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by

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Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by

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Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I

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Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,

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Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all

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Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.

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Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious. H