Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -

Sale 2708 - Lot 142

Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(MUSIC.) Christopher Plagge. The Garden City Polka, Composed and Dedicated to the Ladies of the Chicago Philharmonic Society. 5 pages, 14 x 10½ inches, unbound, with plate number 2722; light vertical folds, minor wear; embossed stamps of B.K. Mould's Music Store on all 3 leaves. Chicago: B.K. Mould, 1853
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Additional Details

"The Garden City Polka" has long been regarded as Chicago's first piece of published music, although it has now been superseded by "Array Thee Love" (see previous lot). It remains the first known Chicago-published piece to be copyrighted.

The 2722 plate number suggests that this piece was produced in New York City by the printers William Hall & Son; the number was late in their series for 1853. The piece was copyrighted in New York by Mould.

Dena Epstein's 1969 monograph "Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871" (page 5) describes "The Garden City Polka" as "the earliest music publication from Chicago which has been found," with a 27 December 1853 copyright registration date. Krohn's "Music Publishing in the Middle Western States Before the Civil War" states that "Brooks K. Mould seems to have been the first publisher of a piece of music with a Chicago imprint. In 1853 he published Garden City Polka" (page 40). Sanjek's "American Popular Music and Its Business" (page 133) states that "Garden City Polka " was Chicago's first piece of copyrighted music. This claim apparently still holds--"Array Thee Love" did not have a copyright statement.

The composer of this piece, Christopher Plagge, was conductor of the Chicago Philharmonic Society. This piece was reviewed in the "Musical World and New York Musical Times" of 20 May 1854 as "deserving commendation for its sprightliness and effectiveness" (page 30).

One example in OCLC (Newberry Library), and none traced at auction.

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