Apr 07, 2022 - Sale 2600

Sale 2600 - Lot 137

Price Realized: $ 2,375
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(ABRAHAM LINCOLN.) Boston Museum playbill starring John Wilkes Booth in The Marble Heart. Broadside, 12 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches to sight; light toning, minimal dampstaining; not examined out of frame. Boston, 4 February 1863
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Booth, at the peak of his fame, is given top billing in "the role of Raphael, the Sculptor! Which has been pronounced in other cities, the most Successful of this Gifted Young Tragedian's Impersonations." The play was "The Marble Heart; or, The Sculptor's Dream," a Charles Selby translation of a French play.

Booth continued a national tour in this role, including a stop at Washington's Ford Theatre nine months later on 9 November. President Lincoln, who saw Booth perform several times over the years, was in attendance. Booth did not shoot anyone that night, but he was just a little creepy. As one friend of Lincoln's recalled, "Twice Booth in uttering disagreeable threats in the play came very near and put his finger close to Mr. Lincoln's face; when he came a third time I was impressed by it, and said, 'Mr. Lincoln, he looks as if he meant that for you.' 'Well,' he said, 'he does look pretty sharp at me, doesn't he?'" (Katherine Helm, "The True Story of Mary, Wife of Lincoln," page 243). The assassination took place a year and half after that performance.