?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(ENTERTAINMENT--MUSIC.) Charles C. Dawson, artist. O, Sing a New Song: Supreme Spectacle of a Musical Race. Poster, 22¼ x 14 inches; minor dampstaining, light horizontal folds, other minor wear; inked stamp reading "Call at Cigar Store Lobby for Tickets and Reservations." Chicago: Triangle Poster & Printing, [1934]
This event was held at Chicago's Soldier Field, toward the conclusion of the Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair. Performers and contributors included Noble Sissle (of Sissle & Blake fame); dancer Katherine Dunham; opera composer Harry Lawrence Freeman; bluesman W.C. Handy; and tap-dancing star Bojangles Robinson.
The artist Charles Clarence Dawson was a founder of the Arts and Letters Society and the Chicago Art League, and one of the most important early Black graphic designers; you may recognize his style from advertisements for Valmor beauty products. His design traces the history of Black music in graphic form, from early Egypt, to sub-Saharan Africa, to the plantation era, to modern music. No other examples traced in OCLC or at auction.
