(MUSIC) MILLIE CHRISTINE Carte de visite

Sale 2239 - Lot 416

Price Realized: $ 2,400

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

Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500

(MUSIC.) MILLIE-CHRISTINE. Carte-de-visite. signed in pencil by the twins. With "H. L. Germans Temple of Art" on the reverse. Philadelphia, circa 1865-1870

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In her biography of the twins, "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made," Joanne Martell cites and illustrates another similarly signed photograph of the twins taken at about the same time, at German's studio in Philadelphia. Born into slavery in North Carolina in 1851, Millie and Christine were taken from their parents, sold three or four times, stolen and retrieved; and placed on display at fairs and "freak-shows" from New Orleans to as far away as Canada. At one time, having been sold to J. P. Smith, they were kidnapped and taken to England. Smith retrieved them with the aid of their mother and they were brought back to North Carolina in 1857. Smith taught them to read and write, as well as sing and dance. The twins composed and performed their own music as well as that of others. The twins died in 1912.