"Salvadore De Durro" / B&J New York

[Steve Robinson]

Hey Ken... the catalog reprint I ordered for you arrived (I wanted a peek before I sent it on). The bad news is that it's only a partial reprint and does not contain any violin family instruments, let alone basses. My pals at Elderly put me in touch with their vendor, who is putting me in touch with the owner of the original catalog. I still hope to find out what B&J was putting in their catalog as available instruments.

I'd love to send you the reprint if you still want it, but it only has mandolins, guitars, and banjos in it. Still want it? It's yours if you do.

This place has some images from a slightly earlier B&J catalog, and one page has the Durro violin line. Man, I want to see what they were telling people about the available basses.

Steve

P.S. You mentioned you lived near the B&J building. It's still there; here's a shot of what it looked like then:

[Ken Smith]

My building was diagonally across coming at you. That is the south east corner. I was on the north west corner. I think it's the same building but never looked up at it. My Apartment building was probably just dirt then.. lol

The Car you see is coming up University Place. The cross street is 13th looking eastward.

It's up to you. As you say, not much to look at. Save the stamps for now but thanks for the effort.

[Steve Robinson]

Found some additional information about the Czech basses imported by B&J; I'm posting it here because I thought you might find it useful or interesting. And special thanks to Ken for your history and help with identification. I hope I get to visit your shop one day and buy something from you.






--Steve