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For a number of hours over the next two days, I hid myself away inside the cave and finally managed to finish my inventory. I was indebted to Gabriel and Derek, who fashioned a light tree in each of the chambers. So my eyesight was saved, and in the end, I had a list of several hundred items. I had no idea how many families might’ve entrusted their precious items to Guru Bob’s grandfather, but I hoped they would be happy to get them back.
Altogether I counted twenty-two pairs of silver candlesticks of various sizes and shapes; six more elaborate candelabra sets (I considered them candelabra if they held at least four candles each), two of which featured golden winged cherubs at the base; fourteen marble or bronze busts of various people, including Voltaire, Victor Hugo, two of Cardinal Richelieu, several of other unnamed French dignitaries, and four anonymous beautiful women. There was also a bust of Benjamin Franklin, who apparently was adored by the French, along with an elaborate marble bust of Louis XIV. I knew which Louis it was only because it was engraved on a plaque below the statue.
There were seven pieces of large, expensive furniture, including three dressers with mirrors, the large wardrobe that had blocked the passageway into the deeper cave, an escritoire, and the whimsical rococo-style vanity table with tufted chair and mirror that had belonged to Trudy’s childhood friend Nanette. There were also several smaller tables fancy enough that some families must have worried that they might be taken by the Nazis.
In total, there were twenty-seven pieces of fine artwork, ten smaller works still in frames, including the Botticelli Virgin and Child, and the rest rolled up, most notably, the Renoir-like café scene and the excellent portrait of the Grenier family that Trudy had identified on her first visit to the caves.
There were thirty-two assorted animal sculptures small enough to fit in my hand. These included horses and birds and a puppy. I counted Trudy’s quail in this group. I listed ten more small sculptures of various subjects: three sets of lovers sculpted in marble; five bronze angels; and the discus thrower and weeping woman I’d noticed the first time I stepped inside the cave.
I found forty-one finely bound books, most of them written in French. I hadn’t been able to study the books before, but once I was alone in the cave for those long hours, I took the opportunity to thoroughly check them out. One of the villagers must have been a devotee of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke because there were beautiful first edition copies of Letters to a Young Poet and the Duino Elegies. There was also a remarkable rare copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, or rather, Aventures d’Alice au pays des Merveilles. It had a striking bright blue cloth cover with gilded images of Alice on the front cover and the Cheshire cat on the back. The book had been translated into French in 1869, and it made me smile to think of the poor translator trying to convert all of the wonderfully illogical conversations that were scattered throughout the book.
The other books included French classics by Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, and several by Alexandre Dumas. All of them were in good condition and some were even excellent. I estimated the value of the collection of books at about two hundred thousand dollars, but that was just off the top of my head. And that wasn’t including the fourteen family Bibles, which all had thick leather bindings and elaborate family histories written within their pages.
Among the silver pieces were four complete silver tea sets and eight silver water pitchers. There were three Sèvres urns and six Meissen figurines. Within the eight jewelry boxes I found twenty-four pieces of expensive jewelry, including six diamond rings; three simple necklaces with diamond pendants; one lovely emerald and gold necklace; three red-jeweled necklaces (these were ruby or carnelian or garnet; I couldn’t say for sure), two with silver settings and one with gold; four assorted diamond bracelets; six silver bracelets; and one art-deco-style chinoiserie enamel bracelet with a gold setting.
When I arrived home, I added all of these to the growing list on my computer, then printed out two copies. And then hoped that my items matched those on the French families’ lists, because if there were any discrepancies on my part, I was afraid there might be an open revolt on Frenchman’s Hill.
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