?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(ENTERTAINMENT--MUSIC.) Scrapbook of Jazz-age trombonist George Brashear's time in Sweden. 264 photographs and a business card laid down on 14 scrapbook leaves. Oblong folio, 10½ x 14 inches, in original decorative embossed calf with view of Stockholm on front and monogrammed GLB on rear, moderate wear; minimal wear to contents. Stockholm, Sweden, circa 1927-1928
George Lorenzo Brashear (1894-1968) was raised in Los Angeles, attended the Tuskegee Institute, toured and recorded as a trombonist with Fletcher Henderson in the early 1920s, and then in 1927 went to Sweden to perform in jazz revues with empresario George Rolf. He also studied "medical gymnastics" and worked as a massage therapist. He performed in France and Spain before returning to the United States in 1931.
This album consists mostly of artistically cropped and arranged snapshots of Brashear and friends, interspersed with a few tourist photos. Many of the photographs were taken at the beach. A few photos are signed by entertainer friends; page [9] is a signed photo of biracial Swedish trombonist Harry Hednoff dated 1927. Also included is the business card of Brashear's massage and gymnastics instructor Ernest Boström. Brashear was the subject of a 2018 biography by Bo Lindström, "Oh, Joe, Play that Trombone: The Life and Music of George L. Brashear."
With--6 larger loose photographs, one showing Brashear with other jazz orchestra musicians, another showing him posed with other passengers on a French steamship, the others inscribed to him by entertainers. Dancer Seymour Royce wrote "From trombone to massage, both of which I enjoyed." Actress Grace Edwards signed a cheesecake photo in Paris in 1930, adding: "To Lorenzo, my personality boy, what a smile. Don't look too close at this. All the luck in the world, one of your pals." A mounted Murray Korman portrait of Black singing duo Johnny & George is inscribed "To my very good friend The Doc, from his very good friend Baby Face," New York, 1937.
