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Some people become famous for studying history. Others are known for making it.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

(00:36):
What makes for a stereotypical librarian? Personally? I tend to
picture a cozy sweater, ink stained hands, and tea, so
much tea. Of course, these kinds of stereotypes are left
over from a time when the librarian might be a
woman who was thought to be a bit dowdy. Belde
Coosta Green certainly did not fit that mold. In fact,
Beldacosta Green didn't fit really into any mold in the

(00:58):
early twentieth century. She was born Belle Maran Greener in
eighteen seventy nine in Washington, d c. To parents who
were prominent and well liked in their community. Her mother,
Genevieve Ida Fleet, was a music teacher from a prominent
local black family, and her father, Richard Theodore Greener, was
the first black graduate of Harvard in the class of

(01:19):
eighteen seventy Her father was an activist in every sense
of the word, and wielded his education and intellect with pride,
passing on a keen hunger for knowledge to his children,
especially to Belle. Admittedly, she had a complicated relationship with
her father. He left the family when she was seventeen,
and it's not clear if Belle ever saw him again.

(01:41):
The family was of mixed ancestry, and Belle herself was
very light skinned. To get ahead in a world that
enforced segregation in every way possible, Belle changed her name
to Green and made her middle name DaCosta, creating a
story of Portuguese heritage to explain her darker complexion. It
was Belle Belle's position at the Princeton Library, though, that

(02:02):
set her apart. She began working there in nineteen oh
two and came to the attention of one Junius Spencer
Morgan the Second, the nephew of the infamous JP Morgan.
Junius was a book lover that eventually introduced Bell to
his uncle, who was looking for a personal librarian to
manage and expand his collection. And even though Morgan was
just trying to impress old money in New York City,

(02:25):
that didn't mean that he didn't want the best and
most valuable, and he needed someone with a tenacity to
get it. He hired Bell in nineteen oh five and
charged her with taming the collection and then getting more.
There always had to be more. Although libraries are commonly
thought of as a woman's domain, remember our dowdy librarian stereotype,
Most high level positions are occupied by men. Bell had

(02:48):
her work cut out for her, and she handled it
with her usual flare, often saying, and I quote, just
because I'm a librarian doesn't mean I have to dress
like one. Bell traveled extensively to Europe, out charming and
outbidding the other collectors that came to jockey for positions
in auctions and sales. She learned from the best in
the field, and her word was as good as gold

(03:10):
with European galleries, shops and dealers. She was fashionable, formidable,
a splash of color and a somewhat drab male dominated world.
And Bell was also forthright, maybe even blunt, with her
employees and wasn't afraid to push Morgan when she was right,
as she so often was. She acquired a staggering collection

(03:30):
of rare books, manuscripts, and fine art for the Morgan Library,
but her position became precarious when Morgan died in nineteen thirteen.
It could have all come crashing down in that moment,
but Morgan's son, JP. Morgan Junior, established the Pierpont Morgan
Library as a public institution in nineteen twenty four and
wasn't about to let a gem like Bell get away anyway.

(03:52):
His father's will stipulated that Bell was to be kept
on at the library with a salary of fifty thousand dollars.
Didn't just stay on as a librarian, though, she became
the director. Under Bell's care, the Morgan Library blossomed into
a significant public institution, and Bell herself was a respected
figure who mentored colleagues and was the person to see

(04:13):
about medieval art, particularly illuminated manuscripts. Because of that, institutions
far and wide sought her council, But in nineteen thirty
she was needed a little closer to home. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art wanted to purchase an extremely rare medieval
panel painting by Spanish master Jorge Ingles. It was a
gorgeous piece showing the betrothal of Saint Ursula. At first glance,

(04:37):
it was perfect, a busy scene with the large crowd
centered around Saint Ursula and her would be husband. However,
Belle looked closer and realized that something was off. People
have certain expectations when it comes to the Middle Ages,
and this painting played into all of them. What no
one realized that day in nineteen thirty was that Bell
had just uncovered one of the most successful and massive

(05:00):
forgers in history. As it turns out, the figure Bell
dubbed the Spanish Forger had been busy creating several medieval
works for decades. Bell sought them out with the same
single minded focus she devoted to Morgan's collection. The paintings
were too perfect, they were too decorative and had too
much gold leaf, something that was spare in actual medieval art.

(05:21):
After almost a decade, Bell compiled the list of fourteen
items she confirmed to have been created by the Spanish Forger.
She retired in nineteen forty eight and died two years later,
but her story is only just beginning to be explored
and understood. The hunt for the Spanish Forger continues to
this day. Currently, the list of works attributed to them

(05:42):
stands at over three hundred But there's one last thing.
A funny thing happened. After Bell's discovery, the Spanish Forger's
art became just as valuable and sought after as the
works they once sought to imitate. There are auctions for
people to claim these pieces for their own, and thousands
of dollars are exchanged, all for a pretty lie. We've

(06:04):
never found out who the Spanish forger was. Thanks to
Bella DaCosta Green, we've certainly discovered a colorful mystery. Everyone

(06:27):
has that one item in their house they're proud of.
Maybe it's the eighty inch TV in the living room,
or their extensive collection of humble figurines. It could be
an award, or a vintage piece of furniture, or even
a prop from a famous movie. Whatever it is, it's
something that brings them joy and acts as a conversation
starter for when the guests come over. After all, who

(06:47):
can ignore a TV almost as big as the wall?
But Sadik Mohammad Khan Abbasi the Fourth didn't have a
giant television set or a movie prop. What he had
was a really nice bed. Abbasi was the Navab of Bahawalpur,
a princely state of the British Indian Empire. Bahawalpur wasn't
technically governed by the British. Instead, it was overseen by

(07:10):
the Navab and controlled by the Crown through indirect rule.
Bahawalpur was located on the eastern edge of modern Pakistan.
It was founded in sixteen oh nine a d. But
didn't form a subsidiary alliance with Britain until eighteen thirty three.
As for Abbasi, sources are conflicted. Some say that he
was born in eighteen sixty one, while others claimed that

(07:31):
he was born a year later. His father was Navab
at the time, but he sadly passed away in eighteen
sixty six when Sadiq was only a boy. As the
boy was still a minor at the time of his
father's death, he was unable to assume the role and
duties of Navab. Instead, the British took temporary control until
Abbasi came of age in eighteen seventy nine, at which

(07:52):
point he was granted the title of tenth Navab of Bahawalpur.
In photographs, Abasi appeared to be fairly tall, with a
full beard and long, dark hair that fell past his shoulders.
He had a taste for the finer things in life,
often depicted wearing long ornate jackets stitched with detailed phil agree,
and I will confess that I cannot help but picture

(08:12):
Nandor the relentless from what we do in the shadows.
But you picture what you want to picture. But to
get a true sense of his wealth and power, one
need to look no further than his bedroom. Because the
bed on which he slept was no ordinary resting place.
He had it commissioned in eighteen eighty two to be
built out of rosewood, a strong wood with a deep,
rich red hue. Then he had the bed covered in

(08:34):
a third of a ton of sterling silver from the
Krystofel company in Paris. Christophel was a renowned silverware company
that had supplied kings and emperors with beautiful tableware dating
back to the eighteen forties. When it introduced a new
way of bonding thin layers of metal to their forks, knives,
and spoons, they called it electroplating. The process was a

(08:55):
huge boon to their business too, But the Navab didn't
have his bed electroplated. Instead, he asked the company's designers
to carve and engrave the sterling silver with delicate patterns
and ornamentations to show everyone that this was a bed
fit for a king. A rosewood bed covered in specially
crafted sterling silver might have been enough for most wealthy nobles,

(09:16):
but not a bossy. He wanted more, and so on
each of the four posts at the bed's corners he
had placed four life size automatons cast from bronze. They
were made by French artists on Ribouet and were modeled
as four nude women of European descent, each wearing a
dark wig and holding a feathered fan. Inside the posts

(09:37):
on which they stood were springs that had been wired
to a music box. Stored beneath the bed and under
the mattress was a pressure sensor that was triggered when
a bossi would crawl in at the end of a
long busy day, and when the censor was activated, the
four robotic women would move their eyes and wave their
fans over him as a piece from a popular opera

(09:57):
played for thirty minutes. Unfortunate, the current whereabouts of the
bed are unknown. All that remains today are some photos
taken by the Christoffel Company in eighteen eighty two, as
well as a watercolor painting of it by Carl A. Scoggard.
Looking back, though Nnavab's musical bed was more than just
a display of extravagance and wealth, it was also a

(10:18):
marvel of engineering and craftsmanship. To know it might still
be out there waiting for somebody to lay down and
switch on its half hour music show, well that would
keep anyone up at night. I hope you've enjoyed today's
guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free

(10:39):
on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the World of Lore dot com.

(11:01):
And until next time, stay curious. H