(MUSIC) BETHUNE THOMAS BLIND TOM The Cyclone Gallop

Sale 2271 - Lot 437

Price Realized: $ 510

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(MUSIC.) BETHUNE, THOMAS "BLIND TOM." The Cyclone Gallop. Engraved pictorial cover and 8 pages of music; an exceptional copy with an early ownership signature and note "Jennie Oliver. I saw and heard him play in Catskill" label over-stamping imprint. New York: E.Bethune, [1887]

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Additional Details

a rare piece of music by the well-known "savant," copyrighted in the name of E. Bethune, with a sticker pasted over the original imprint of Wm. E. Ashmall. Tom Wiggin was born into slavery in 1849, and took the name of Bethune when he was bought by James Bethune. James Bethune managed all of "Blind Tom's business and this included the issue of copyrights, which Bethune was astute enough to realize was where the real money was at. Eventually, after the Civil War, management passed to James' son John, whose wife's name "E.[liza] Bethune appears on the front of this sheet music. In a curious footnote to all of this; Eliza or "Elise" sued John for divorce, John was killed in a railroad accident and it turned out that John had specified in his will that not a penny of royalty was to be paid to Tom. Elise continued to profit from Tom's abilities and he continued to perform until 1904. He died in 1909.