Mar 30, 2023 - Sale 2631

Sale 2631 - Lot 205

Price Realized: $ 7,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(ENTERTAINMENT--MUSIC.) Black Patti's Troubadours, the Sweet Singers of the Sunny South. [16] pages. 4to, 13 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches, original illustrated wrappers, detached and split at fold with minor wear; minimal dampstaining and wear to contents. New York: Hugo V. Schlam, [1897]
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Additional Details

Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones (1868-1933) was a popular Rhode Island-raised soprano. She was often compared favorably to the great Italian singer Adelina Patti, drawing the nickname "the Black Patti" (she preferred Madame Jones). In 1892 she performed at the White House (although she was required to enter in the rear of the building), and became the first Black singer to perform at Carnegie Hall. Although classically trained and successful in operatic roles, she found more opportunities playing vernacular music as the leader of Black Patti's Troubadours, accompanied by vaudeville performers. This songbook includes the words and music to several of the songs performed by the Troubadours, bearing copyright dates from 1893 to 1897. It features a portrait of Jones on the front wrapper, a short "Biography of Madame M. Sissieretta Jones" hailing her as "the greatest singer of her race"; and on the rear wrapper a longer biography and full-page portrait of her co-star, popular singer Ernest Hogan. No other examples are traced in OCLC or at auction.