Sep 17, 2015 - Sale 2391

Sale 2391 - Lot 165

Price Realized: $ 1,625
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(FILM.) Pair of photographs advertising an early motion pictures exhibition. Pair of silver prints, 6 x 8 inches, on original plain mounts; minor wear, one spot in top image. Not examined outside of frame. California?, circa 1900
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Additional Details

Two horse-drawn carriages bear advertising broadsides for an itinerant film and phonograph demonstration. One reads "Edison's 20th century wonder, showing animated scenes from life in actual motion, from a railroad train running at 60 miles an hour to a cat fight at 60 rounds a minute." The other advertises "Motion Pictures Exhibition, 40 different subjects, 150 different stereopticon views, including many of California, Edison's Concert Phonograph, Largest in the World." It has a blank area for performance time and place, suggesting that the show traveled from town to town. The presence of California palms lining the road suggests a southern California locale. The Edison Concert Phonograph was a high-fidelity device introduced in 1899. Edison's 1894 short "The Boxing Cats" (perhaps the first funny cat video) was apparently on the bill.