[ Ref. "Best" & "Victoria" Piano Rolls Made in Spain

Hello MMD.  On reading Julian Dyer's posting in 140311 MMDigest, I went
through my catalog of classical and salon music rolls and discovered
that I have ten Victoria rolls.  They are all Full Scale Accentuated
rolls and are well arranged.  In fact, No. 4261,"La Traviata"
Potpourri, by Verdi arr. Cramer, is one of my favorite rolls.

I described in MMD last year my visit to "Les Puces" flea market in
Paris, where I found a mixture of French and Spanish piano rolls.  Two
of these were "Diana" rolls made in Madrid.  They are 88-note standard
rolls and have the most ornately decorated box cover paper I have ever
seen.  "DIANA" is printed in very large type along the top of the box,
on either side the ends of the paper depict two gods, or at least
persons of fame in antiquity, with their mouths wide open.

In the middle a young person, of indeterminate sex, at least to me,
is playing a lute.  He or she has an impressively developed set of ...
wings (sorry, chaps!).  On the other side, the two gods appear to be
ejecting long ribbons from their mouths.  On close inspection the
ribbons have perforations in them; perhaps this is how the Diana
company made its rolls?

In the middle of the panel is a young lady (no doubt about this) seated
with some sort of garment wrapped around her waist and legs.  It looks
as if it would fall off the moment that she stood up.  Her wings are
very decorative but impracticably small; she is a solidly built young
lady.  She is holding a lyre but not playing it.  Maybe she is waiting
for the chap on the other side of the box to finish?

The leader of the roll has a really large picture of a young lady,
again scantily but fairly modestly clad, whacking away at a pair of
kettledrums.  I suspect that she is Diana, having a day off from
hunting.

Apart from MADRID printed on the leader and DIANA along the top of the
box, the only other clue is "LIT J & E GOTZENS BARCELONA".  I suspect
that is the name of the company that printed the box covers.

I don't suppose that the above will advance the pursuit of musicology
much, but I enjoyed writing it.

John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania