David Pötzl

"Fortunately, we still have material from my grandfather which he collected during his lifetime, and he was actually buying it from the old Germans. When they went to Germany after the war, they would come to grandpa and say, look, we know we're going away and we have some material here. We'll give it to you, and grandpa always gave them some money... and got the material that way, because otherwise it would have been stolen. There were real were treasures that they left behind when they went. And there were such huge supplies of material during the liberation, those were some confused times. See, Luby supplied the whole world! Luby and Mirecourt in France were the two hubs of instrument making. Luby had the added advantage that there were a lot of sawmills there, and the timber was cut and stored there, and then sent out into the world. When they liberated us and the Germans went away, there was all this beautiful material left and a lot of it was just taken. Nothing was left. Some people knew that Grandpa was a fair man, so they just came and said, 'Look, do you want it? We can't take it with us.'"

"I remember the workshop very well. It was on the first floor, overlooking the orchard, the hill, the chestnut alley in front of it, and I remember the floorboards were worn through. It didn't creak but it had had a bit of a run; a small iron stove, and an old radio that glowed green when on but didn't make much sound. We would occasionally tune in to a German station, but it was old. And then there was a lot of stashed wood, a kind of pull-up lamp over his bench, and I remember the smell of the varnish. He had different paints on the bench, and then there was a drill. So yes, I do, I remember that workshop."