"I am trying to buy this on behalf of an artist, a wonderful artist, who needs this specific instrument to complete a work about lost sounds. Please let me know if there is anything at all we can do... "
She went on to say in another email:
I have been looking for a really nice old horn for a long time, and you don't find them in this condition very often and manage to win the auction. What do you all think I should do? I don't want to be rude and blow her off. I have offered to help her find another suitable horn but she seems dead set in this one. She has offered me $100 more than I paid for it so far."The artist would not be altering this in any way and the playing of the sousaphone would in fact be an integral part of the work. The artist, Paul Etienne Lincoln, makes work that is about preserving memories of another moment. He has in the past made pieces that are tributes to Rosa Ponselle, the opera diva and, most recently, a work which incorporated an early form of player piano which he carefully restored and made the centerpiece of an installation."
"For this project, he needs one that is American made from the 20s or 30s in as close to its original state as possible. Because this project is about sounds from this particular period, he would like to have an instrument that can make as close to its original sound as possible."