Apr 07, 2022 - Sale 2600

Sale 2600 - Lot 123

Price Realized: $ 422
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(JUDAICA.) [Thomas Dibdin.] The Jew Broker: A Favorite Song in the New Entertainment of the Jew and the Doctor. 2 pages of words and music on 2 detached sheets, 12 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches; moderate foxing, 5 x 1 1/2-inch old paper repair in margin of second sheet, pencil sketch of a head on verso of first sheet. Philadelphia: R. Shaw, circa 1800-1803

Additional Details

First American edition. Thomas Dibdin's 1798 English farce "The Jew and the Doctor" was part of a trend toward more sympathetic portrayals of Jewish protagonists at the turn of the 18th century. The heavily accented dialect in this song from the play is broadly drawn, but the caricature of the money lender ends on a positive note: "I loves de Christians dearly would dee to pleasur you / If you but as sencerly vill try to lofe de Jew." Sonneck-Upton, page 217. 3 copies in OCLC, and none traced at auction.